Torrential rain and national fuel shortages failed to make any significant impact on the list of competitors at the British National Ploughing Championships. Lack of fuel only prevented six competitors from reaching the Lincolnshire Showground in time for the Championships, which were ploughed on September 14th and 15th. Thanks to World Ploughing 2000’s fuel sponsors, Total Butler, there was ample fuel for all the competitors in both Championships.

In spite of the teaming rain that fell throughout both days of the Championships the quality of ploughing was as high as ever. Adrian Brewer from St Issey in Cornwall easily won the British National Conventional Ploughing Championship, beating Nigel Vickers from Whitchurch in North Wales by 388 points to 365. Third was Devon ploughman William Tonkin with 361 points. All three ploughmen used Kverneland ploughs.

The Reversible Championship saw an equally convincing win for Yorkshireman James Witty over last year’s champion John Hill, by 484 points to 476. Third was Michael Holloway from Powys with 447 points. James Witty and Michael Holloway both used Kverneland ploughs. John Hill ploughed with a Lemken.

James Witty’s win was made all the more remarkable by the fact that he ploughed throughout the Championships with a badly cut hand, which later required hospital treatment.

Michael Holloway’s third place was a superb result in this, his first British National Reversible Ploughing Championship. In the past he has always ploughed in the conventional class and ploughed for England in the World Ploughing Contest in 1989 and 1996. He now plans to emulate the success of his brother-in-law Mr Hill, who also had a successful conventional ploughing career before changing to reversible ploughing in 1991.

James Witty and Adrian Brewer will now represent England at the 2001 World Ploughing Contest in Denmark.

Horses pull the crowds…

The horse ploughing proved as popular an attraction as ever. There were horse ploughing matches on all four days of World Ploughing 2000, with the British National Horse Ploughing titles being decided on the first two days.

John Goodwin from the Isle of Sheppey in Kent narrowly beat Wiltshire ploughman Charles Coffen by just two points to win the General Purpose title, with a score of 201 points. Third was last year’s winner, Jim Elliott from Church Stretton in Shropshire, with 195 points.

In the Oat Seed Furrow class, the title went to Lancastrian Roy Prescott whose score of 179 points was just good enough to beat the runner up and last year’s champion, Jim Elliott, by two points. Third was Jim Reynolds from Llandysul in Wales with 171 points.

For the first time there was a contest between teams from the 12 Working Horse Societies of England. Each Society fielded a team of two ploughmen and the match was won by the Southern Counties Heavy Horse Association team of Jack House and Charles Coffen.

In the International Horse Ploughing Match, England’s Jim Elliott was a comfortable winner, beating Scotland’s John Fairbairn into second place by 211 points to 196. Philip Gawne from the Isle of Man finished third with 182 points.

… so do the Vintage men

Rotherham ploughman Michael Watkins showed once again why he is one of the leading Vintage Trailing Ploughmen in the country, by becoming National Vintage Trailing Ploughing Champion with a score of 394 points. Comfortably beating John Hodges from Tetbury into second place by the wide margin of 42 points. Third place went to Ray Alderson from Darlington, who scored 349 points.

In the National Vintage Hydraulic Ploughing Championship, Robert Douglas from Jedburgh in Scotland took the title with a score of 393 points, with Yorkshireman Stuart Burden coming second with 320 points. In third place was Ulsterman John McKee with 300 points

Plough manufacturers put on the spot

For those who have ever wondered who would win if all the plough makers competed against one another, World Ploughing 2000 provided the answer. For the first time ever the seven leading plough makers in the world took part in their own contest. Dubbed the Plough Manufacturers’ Challenge and organised by the Society of Ploughmen’s Chairman Mervyn Hutton, the contestants competed for a trophy donated by the Agricultural Engineers Association.

British National Championship rules were applied and the tractor had to be driven either by an employee of the plough maker of the tractor make involved. An additional rule stipulated that the overall quality of the ploughing must be of a commercial standard that would meet a farmer’s expectation. The judges included the Patron of the Society of Ploughmen, Lord Plumb.

The participants were: Vogel & Noot UK Ltd, Dowdeswell Engineering, Gregoire-Besson UK Ltd, Lemken, Kverneland, Kongskilde UK and Kuhn Farm Machinery UK Ltd.

The contest fully lived up expectations with Gregoire-Besson just scraping home as the winners by four points, having been judged to have ploughed a more commercially acceptable plot than the others, who all tied for second place.

Visitors defy fuel shortages and the weather

The national fuel crisis took its expected toll of visitors to World Ploughing 2000, aided and abetted by torrential rain on the first two days. Even so, more than 20,000 people had come through the gates of the Lincolnshire Showground by the time the event ended.

Commenting afterwards, the Society of Ploughmen’s Executive Director Ken Chappell said: "The quality of the ploughing in the World Contest was some of the best I’ve ever seen and I’m delighted that in spite of the weather and fuel problems, so many people made the effort to come and see it. Considering all the difficulties people faced getting here and the rain we’ve had, the attendance was far better than we dared hope."

World Ploughing 2000 was jointly organised by the Society of Ploughmen and the Lincolnshire Agricultural Society, in association with Farmers Weekly. The principal sponsors were National Grid, Total Butler, Goodyear, NatWest and Bridgestone/Firestone.

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