N.Z. PLOUGHING FINAL AGAIN

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31119, 23 July 1966, Page 8

N.Z. PLOUGHING FINAL AGAIN

Canterbury will have seven ploughmen in the 1966 final of the New Zealand ploughin g championships which will be held next Saturday at Knapdale on the site of the former Gore airfield. Another competitor is a former Canterbury man. They will be among 22 ploughmen selected at qualifying events throughout the country who will be required to demonstrate their skill in turning over a half acre of grassland in three hours. Seven former national champions are among the competitors. Four of these are Canterbury men and one is H. A. Magson, of Rokeby near Rakaia, who after winning the national championships at Outram, near Dunedin, in 1961 went on to take second place in the world final in France that year. Magson has been the most, successful New Zealandep yet in world ploughing. Other former champions from the province are R. M. Kingsbury, of Wakanui, who won the New Zealand title near Invercargill in 1958, B. J. McPhedran, of Taiko, Timaru, who was the winner at Washdyke in 1960, and E. J. Croy, also of Wakanui, who became the country’s leading ploughman at Templeton in 1964. Also competing this year will be last year’s champion at Chertsey, H. A. Walker, of Edendale. Among the six judges who will review the work of the competitors in the national final this year will be Mr C. E. Read, who won the national final at Rotorua in 1963.

Two other Canterbury men are in the judging panel. They are Messrs J. T. Wyllie,

of Amberley; and J. S. T. McGiffert, of Sefton. M. Heenan, of Invercargill, who is a competitor this year, is a brother of R. J. Heenan, who won the second New Zealand final at Prebbleton in 1957, and M. Heenan was placed second that year.

G. T. and P. D. Carter, of Greenpark, who are both in the final this year, are the twin sons of Mr T. F. Carter, a former president of the New Zealand Ploughing Association.

Special interest attaches to the contest this year in that both the champion and run-ner-up will go on to plough in the world final which will be decided next May in the Prebbleton-Broadfields area in Canterbury. In the past because of the cost of travel New Zealand has sent only one competitor to a world final, but each country affiliated to the World Ploughing Organisation is entitled to send its two top ploughmen. On Friday, May 12, next year the competitors in the world final will each plough a half-acre of stubble land followed by grassland ploughing on the second day. Many Countries Although entries for the world match do not close in England until the beginning of August, already 17 countries are understood to have intimated their intention to participate. European countries likely to compete are Austria, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Great Britain, West Germany, East Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Norway, Republic of Ireland, Sweden and Jugoslavia. Other countries likely to be represented include Australia, the United States and Rhodesia.

In next Saturday's final are: S. M. Allison (Milton), L B. Blair (Mosgiel), J. R. Brown (Nelson), G. T. Carter (Greenpark), P. D. Carter (Greenpark), E. J. Croy (Wakanui), A. Furniss (Reporoa), M.

Heenan (Invercargill), R. M. Kingsbury (Wakanui), J. C. Kyle (Timaru), P. I. McCallum (Blenheim). B. J. McPhedran (Taiko, Timaru), D. H, McDowell (Hope), H. A. Magson (Rokeby), J. F. Percy (Masterton), S. K. Reilly (Runciman), K, B. Robinson (Upper Hutt), N. Rowe (Palmerston North), W. A. Simpson (Oamaru), G. N. Thomsen (Takapau), H. A. Walker (Edendale), and A. J. Wallace (Cambridge). Next year’s New Zealand championships will be held on May 11, the day before the world match begins, on an adjoining property. The winner of this event will represent New Zealand at the 1968 world contest due to be held in Rhodesia. Qualifying events for the 1967 final will begin again shortly.