NI Ploughmen Scoop 6 Top Places In European Ploughing Championships

Northern Ireland ploughmen have scooped six top three placements in the recent European Ploughing Championships held at Shackleton Barracks in Ballykelly last weekend.

The competition included the European Reversible and Conventional Ploughing Championships, European Vintage Ploughing Championships and Horse Ploughing Competition with over 60 competitors arriving from throughout Europe.

Countries represented at the competition included Belgium, Denmark, England, France, Ireland, Isle of Man, Northern Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland, Switzerland and Wales.

Irish competitor Dan Donnelly took first place in the European Reversible class whilst fellow Irishman Sean Keating secured first place for European Conventional class.

In the European Vintage Ploughing John Crowder was crowned the overall champion having also placed first for England in the Vintage Trail, Emlyn Jones took the top spot in Vintage Mounted for Wales, Alan Simms for Ireland was placed first in Classic Mounted, English ploughman Graham Sutton was awarded first place for Classic Reversible whilst Declan Ferris took Northern Ireland’s only first placed medal in the Horse Ploughing competition.

Other Northern Ireland ploughmen who were placed in the top three include Rodney Crawford (3rd, European Conventional), Dai Kennedy (3rd, Classic Mounted), Mercer Ward (3rd, Vintage Reversible) and Ben McLaughlin (2nd, Horse Ploughing) and Donal McAllister (3rd, Horse Ploughing competition).

The championships were hosted by the Northern Ireland Ploughing Association (NIPA), the governing body of competition ploughing across Northern Ireland uniting 21 affiliated ploughing societies across the country with approximately 500 members.

Adrian Jamison, Chairman of the Northern Ireland Ploughing Association said: “We are delighted to have hosted the European Ploughing Championships in Northern Ireland this year, it was a pleasure to welcome our fellow ploughmen from across Europe to Ballykelly.

“Congratulations to all the ploughmen who were placed and a special congratulations to all the Northern Ireland competitors who did us proud.”

Ronnie Coulter, Chairman of the European Ploughing Association added: “We would like to thank everyone involved in Horse and Vintage classes which were a favourite of the spectators.

“To the winners we give our congratulations and hope for a good turnout when the event is held in Holland in 2023. The qualifier for which will be held at the NI International in October.

“Special thanks to Kenneth Gracey and Victor Scott for their financial assistance to the Horse Championship.”

The Northern Ireland Ploughing Championships will be taking place Friday October 7 and Saturday October 8 at Lany Road in Moira. More information can be found at niploughing.com or at facebook.com/niploughing