BOYS, even little boys, will be boys. So it was perhaps no surprise that Neil Elliott, attempting to launch himself as high as he could, across a gully, on a rope swing, should come off, smashing his elbow.

''I was a just a kid,'' recalls Elliott. ''My right elbow was badly shattered - snapped right back. I needed two pins and a metal hinge, plus 40 stitches, and was in plaster for three months.''

At 16, on leaving Hermitage Academy in Helensburgh, Elliott was 5ft 9ins tall, and 9st 8lbs, metal-work and all. You should see him now - 6ft 3ins, just over 18 stones, and Scotland's leading discus thrower. ''They took the pins out, but the plate's still in my throwing arm, which is shorter than the other since the accident.''

Now it is protected by layers of muscle which he hopes will help him make it in a new sporting career. He competes in the Britain's Strongest Man contest, starting a week on Monday at Alton Towers, when places in the World's Strongest Man are at stake.

Glasgow's Doug Edmonds, the contest referee and consultant, says: ''Though he is not huge, like some of these guys who have immense brute strength but often lack athleticism, Neil is fast. In some trials he'll have an advantage, even if he lacks experience.''

Dr Edmunds, once Scottish discus champion, invited Elliott, seeing a replica of himself. Also a former world caber-tossing champion, weight-lifter, and boxer, Edmunds watched him at the Scotland's Strongest Man event last month at Gourock. ''Neil reminds me of me - he's got a bit of bottle,'' said Edmunds.

Though Elliott finished only sixth, he had arrived straight from winning the shot and discus at the West district championships. He intended only to spectate, but was persuaded to have a go, despite lacking shoes to grip the wet grass.

''I didn't have the proper strapping for some events either,'' adds Elliott. ''You'd to deadlift the back end of a car, and hold it off the ground as long as you could. I'd some plastic stuff covering my hands and it slipped, ripping all the flesh off. I've a better idea now of what to do, and the strapping to use. I'm looking forward to it. I reckon I've a fair chance.''

The top two in four heats of six heavies will advance to the final, from which the first three go on to the World's Strongest Man. The best two will also go to the inaugural world team event, in China, part of a global explosion in strength contests.

The top seed in Elliott's heat, England's Russ Bradley, will be replaced, after an injury this week, but Dundee's Brian Bell and Sheffield's Graham Mullins will also prove stiff opposition.

Bell, Scotland's Strongest Man, was once a Scottish water polo internationalist and world junior power-lifting champion, while Mullins is involved in the latest Steven Spielberg Gladiator movie. Other Scots in the field will be Jamie Barr (Dunferm-line), who won several events at Gourock; British power-lifting champion Stuart Murray (Dumfries); and Steven Halliday, who won the novice strength event at Blair Atholl last weekend.

Trilas they will face include dead-lifting that car; carrying and dragging sacks weighing a fifth of a ton on a sledge, over cobbles; and overturning a seven hundredweight excavator tyre. Before they start, says Edmunds, a battery of tests, including heart and drug monitoring, will be done by scientists from the Institute of Sport at Sheffield.

Elliot appears to have the pedigree. He was Scottish under-25 power-lifting champion, national junior highland games champion, and multi events champion. During the winter he won the Scottish indoor shot putt title, and has collected several national place medals, in shot and discus.

His mum, Cynthia, was once English schoolgirls' long jump and shot putt champion, and it was she who persuaded him to join the local club, in Helensburgh, where he won virtually every event at a come-and-try day.

Elliott used to do the decathlon, ''But I got too big,'' he says. Once, competing in division five of the Scottish athletics league, he was one of just four athletes to turn out for Helensburgh - but they still won the match. Elliott contested not 10 events, but 12: 100m, 200m, 400m, 400m hurdles, long and triple jumps, pole vault, discus, javelin, shot, plus the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400m relays.

At 28, two weeks ago, he launched the discus to the farthest throw of his career, 49.15m, competing for Scotland at Bedford. ''I'm a late developer,'' he says. ''I was quite small, then shot up when I was 21-22.

Coach Hugh Murray has built up his protege who, during his three weekly weight sessions in winter, lifts the equivalent of nine Land Rovers - some 15 tons.

Elliott, who works as a painter and decorater, would not like you to think he makes a habit of falling, but he has his business partner, Graeme Waddell, to thank for his survival after a ladder slipped on a wet outhouse roof. ''I slid down the wall, and Graeme broke my fall. But for him, I'd have been off the other roof and onto the ground.''

Miraculously he required no more pins or plates, but was covered in red gloss paint, like an extra from Saving Private Ryan.

Elliott was unimpressed by his own brush with the services. ''I joined the army, did the six months' basic training, with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders at Glencorse, but did not fancy it at all. I decided there were other things I wanted to do with my life. I'm an individualist. I don't like people telling me what to do.''

Given his size, that is unlikely to happen very often.