Although they announced this week that Charlton Athletic's ground at The Valley is to

Although they announced this week that Charlton Athletic's ground at The Valley is to be their home for the remainder of this season and their first in the Super League, it is in two stadiums on the opposite side of London that the more immediate dramas will be played out. Tomorrow they meet Halifax in the third round of the Regal Trophy at The Stoop. It may sound daft, but would you argue with a little old man who can still lift a 56lb weight with his little finger?. This is a critical time in the London Broncos' battle to establish themselves as a successful part of the capital's sporting scene. Illness (he has had bouts of yuppie flu for years) may slow him down, but he foresees himself lifting weights well into his seventies, and says: "I would like to keep improving. My best squat is 4301b and I'm sure I can beat that."He even wants to bring the World's Strongest Man contest to Poole and turn Sandbanks beach into a British version of Muscle Beach. Injury prevented him from defending the title, but in 1993 he returned to Aberdeen to lift the larger Dinnie Stone again several times so TV cameras could get a shot from the right angle. His wife, Christine, says: "What shakes everyone is that he is not a big person.

It gives people a sense of: 'Maybe I could do something like that too.'"Gallacher, who trains three times a week, believes he is getting stronger. To my surprise, I tore up four, three more than anyone else, and bent iron bars, too."Soon he was back in the gym.In 1991, he won the British, European and World Championships in his class, breaking the world record with a 240kg deadlift. "I hadn't done it for years, but I thought I might be able to tear a telephone directory. But a few years ago Geoff Capes took his strongman show to Bournemouth and invited all-corners to have a go Gallacher was 55 and had been seriously ill. "It can take a while but the power to change is within everyone."That might be the end of the story.

When people come to see me, they have often lost hope," he says. Back in the UK, he moved to Poole, Dorset, and set up a hypnotherapy business, giving others the benefit of his lessons for success."I call myself an inspirational psychologist. But Gallacher lined it up to his waist three times, and he still regrets that he did not think of lifting it above his head.Then Gallacher lost interest in feats of strength. He went into business, got married, had a family, toured the world.