New format for ploughing series in Canterbury

Press, 1 July 1983, Page 16

New format for ploughing series in Canterbury

The competition ploughing scene in Canterbury will this year take on a new impetus with the inauguration of a Prebble Seeds Canterbury Silver Plough Championship. Organisers of the championship, to be sponsored by Prebble Seeds, of Sockburn, expect that it will create extra interest for competitors and spectators in the annual round of club competitions in Canterbury. The organisation of the event is also notable for the fact that it has been done without forming a Canterbury Match Ploughing Association, or something similar. Instead delegates appointed by the last .‘‘Rakaia conference,” where representatives from the seven Canterbury ploughing clubs meet, have approached Mr Merv Prebble for sponsorship and drawn up a format for the championship. This will consist of an aggregate points system for ploughmen competing in all seven club matches, with the best five out of the

seven to count. The over-all winner will be the person with the highest number of points, although he may not have won a club event. In this way the organisers hope to raise more interest in the club events too. Under the prevailing system of ploughmen competing at club events to win a place in the Mobil Silver Plough, as soon as top ploughmen won a club event interest waned for them and spectators in remaining club events. First and second prizes, as well as a novice prize, will be given in the Canterbury championship series. Interest in the seven club events will also be high this year because the winners of the silver plough classes will be going forward to the national competition, the Mobil Silver Plough, to be held at Timaru in May 1984. The competition calendar is: Lincoln, July 7; North Canterbury, July 9; Rakaia, July 12; Methven, July 14; Hinds Young Farmers, July 19; Milford-Clandeboye, July 21 and Timaru, July 23.