Taxmen and chess players are not renowned for their fiery natures.

But in between juggling figures at Shipley's Inland Revenue office and playing for five chess teams - one as far away as Derby - Ihor Lewyk likes nothing better than breathing fire.

And the mild-mannered 35-year-old, from Garden View, Gilstead, also manages to find time to perfect his juggling skills.

He started fire-eating eight years ago at an adventure group called Spice in Halifax run by Bob Worthington, brother of the famous former footballer Frank, after hearing about it from a friend.

Ihor said: "I had seen a Penn and Teller sketch on TV and in a drunken stupor told him I wouldn't mind learning how to do it. He had a brochure and put our names down.

"The next thing I knew he told me to turn up one morning with a pint of milk and a towel for a one-day course and I'm thinking: 'Oh no! What have I let myself in for?'

"The important thing is having the courage to do it though I do tend to be game for anything.

"I've done it about 20 to 30 times now and have even trained a fellow chess player how to fire eat."

He added: "What I like about it is watching the reaction of people around me, their eyes go wide and they find it amazing, especially as I deliberately exaggerate my ineptness as a juggler beforehand. The audience must think if I can't juggle properly, what kind of mess am I going to make of the fire-eating."

His zany act certainly makes a dramatic contrast from his job in the communications department at the Inland Revenue.

As well as performing his routine at charity events such as Children in Need and Comic Relief, he is the star turn at friends' house warming parties and various gigs.

A self-taught juggler, he took it up several years ago when doing a house warming for a friend and felt bored just fire-eating.

But later this month he will put those skills on hold for the rather more cerebral challenge of the chess board.

As president of the Bradford & District Chess League, he is helping organise this year's three-day congress at the Polish Ex-Servicemen's Club on September 15.

The tournament attracts top players from across the region and hundreds of pounds of prize money is on offer.

Although a brilliant player - in rapid play he is in the top 40 in the country - and coach to local schoolchildren, he is doubtful if he will play in the contest himself given the organisational demands.

He began playing when he was eight and developed his interest at St Bedes' Grammar School in Heaton.

He became captain of the school team when he was 17 and went on to write a chess column for the Telegraph & Argus for several years.