The British Ploughing Championships will take place on the 14th and 15th of October this year, at Bishops Lydeard, near Taunton, with kind permission of K S Coles and Family.
More than 250 competitors will take part in the competition across 15 ploughing classes – reversible, conventional, vintage trailed, vintage hydraulic, classic, classic reversible, horticultural, high cut, crawlers, club classes and magnificent heavy horses.
Of these, there are quite a few families taking part, some ploughing in different classes but more than a few looking to beat a relative in their category. The most hotly contested is the vintage trailed class, with father and son Bill and David Wood from the Scottish Borders; grandfather and grandson Steve Webster and Jack Gilbert from Derbyshire; and grandfather and grandson John and Ben Milnes from South Yorkshire. John’s other grandson, Fraser Cartwright, will compete in the vintage hydraulic class.
In the crawler class, father and son John and Liam Quick from Berkshire will be taking part, while in the conventional class, Nigel and Stuart Vickers from Shropshire will compete. Nigel’s wife Janet will also be ploughing, taking part in the David Brown Championship. In the conventional class, cousins Morgan Evans and John Jones, both from Swansea will take part.
There are more family rivalries in the horse classes, with Stuart Green going up against his daughter, Charlie, while the Kerswell brothers will be trying to take the top spot. Martin, David and Daniel also competed last year, drawing side-by-side plots and ranking 1st, 2nd and 3rd, with Martin coming out on top.
Elsewhere, some families are separated by categories. Father and son Graham and Thomas Sutton from South Yorkshire will take part in the classic reversible and reversible classes respectively; Andrew and William Marshall from Bedfordshire will be competing in the Ferguson and conventional classes; while Richard and James Cook will take part in the crawler and vintage trailed categories.
20-year-old Hertfordshire ploughman Josh Bullard will be ploughing in the classic class, while his 23-year-old sister Ellie will be competing in the conventional category. Another pair to watch is the current British and European Vintage Champion John Crowder, from Lincolnshire, and his new wife Laura. John will take part in the vintage trailed class, while Laura will compete in the Ford & Fordson class.
Mark Turner, chairman of the Society of Ploughmen, who are organising the Championships, said, “We have a superb team of volunteers who are ready to organise a great event. We have tremendous support in Somerset and we are looking forward to a fantastic event at Bishops Lydeard. It’s good to see so many young competitors this year and a few more ladies too!”
Admission to the event is £15 per person on the day, and just £2 for children. Discounted tickets are available at www.ploughmen.co.uk