All Wales Centenary Match Old Radnor Sept. 2008

What can I say!!!! We arrived in the dark in the middle of nowhere, it was a really super field for the horses and Dafydd and Damion helped put a fence up alongside our wagon for them. They were so calm and after watering them we proceded to get ourselves settled in the wagon!

The church, where we were having the Blessing of the Plough the next night, was floodlit on a hill in the distance.

The Friday morning was so beautiful and John had kept himself spotless overnight. I was plaiting their tails when Brian's wagon arrived and Wynn did their manes and then went to peg out. It was general purpose the first day so Wynn was quite confidant and we actually came sixth, but the second day it was high cut which he had not ever done before so we were seventh. There were only seven teams this year, John Fletcher from Cardigan, Peter Brassett from the Beamish Museum, County Durham. Someone from near Abergavenny, and the team from Gloustershire had a big old Ardennes and a shire. Then there were the three of us from the north!! This lovely photo was taken by Roger from the Evangelical Church in Aberystwyth,

he thought it wonderful holding Jewel while we finished with John. The second day I took Jewel back to the box and when I was half way up the ploughing Wynn said John recognised me and gave a little nicker.AHHHHHHHHH!!

The very old church was packed and the Builth Male Voice choir sang. It was a lovely service and we met the man whose plough was blessed, the next day.

Billy and Dave helped me harness up on the Sat. as they had come with Roger who was judging that day. On the Friday the Rev. Ifan Davies came over to see us ploughing as he was helping on the book stall. He and his wife, Anne have offered to sponsor us to go down to a vintage machinery working day on a farm the other side of Rhayader towards Builth next Bank Holiday Saturday in August, so we will go down the day before to get the horses used to the place, and then on the way back we will stay at the steam rally again at Onslow Park.

We got home at midnight, tired but very happy.

Denbigh Ploughing match at Henllan August30th 2008

It was a lovely sunny day for the Denbigh match, there were only three teams, Dafydd came first in both ploughing and best working pair, we came second in ploughing and first in best turned out.
Tim was third and he had a prize for his coloured cob.
We had an especially nice day because Gareth and Alex were with us. Alex had a game with Sam in their wagon with his cars and diggers, and Dafydd kept him amused with pieces of straw while we were waiting for the prize giving.
I drove Jewel and John after the initial furrows and found they worked much better with out me by their heads. Roll on the all Wales match!

The Inaugral Match of the N. Wales Horse Ploughing Soc.

On August 9th 2008 at Trefnant, the North Wales Horse Ploughing Society, held their first ploughing match. There were the five teams that belong to the society and Mr. Roy Prescott came from Ormskirk. Brian won, Roy was second, Dafydd third and Wynn fourth. Tim had a bit of a job settling his cobs and Steve and Kathy had Zak and Seamus ploughing for the first time with Peter on the plough, but they did not quite finish. Better luck next time we have all said we would help them, and the plough is now Steves', so good luck next year.
We had a particularly lovely day as Anna, Andrew and Daisy were on the field, and as usual Anna took some good photos of everyone.
It had rained a lot the days before the match but after a drizzly start and feeling as though we were carrying the field around on our boots, it cleared up nicely. There were quite a number of spectators and there were some super vintage tools and implements. Many thanks to Mary Low our secretary for the wonderful goodie bags she put together and for all her work in making it such a good first match, and to Selwyn and his brother for their kindness in letting us use the field. Last but not least Mr. Bob Edwards who was the instigator of this society. We would love to have more members now we are "off the ground."

Centenary match April 2008 Flintshire Farmers

Wynn just putting the plough in, Jewel being told off!!!!

This was held on the main A541 Mold -Denbigh Road at Afonwen by kind permission of Harry the Forest's son, on April the 12th.

The N. Wales Shire Horse Society kindly lent their marquee and we had great fun putting it up with members of the farming community!!!

Wynn ploughed very well considering he'd had a break for 12 mths. Gareth, Anna and Andrew came to support him with the grandchildren, Alex

and Daisy May. There were over a hundred tractors and all competitors were given a commemorative mug with Ian Wilson, master tractor ploughman, having represented Wales abroad many times and the late Wally Williams (Greenfield) in a horse ploughing comp. many years ago. We sent an article to the heavy horse magazine which was published in the summer edition 2008.

Ploughing matches 2008

In April it was the centenary match of the Flintshire Farmers ploughing society and it was the first time Wynn had ploughed for a year, as in Sept.2007 he had a little cardiac event!!
He came 4th. Jewel and John worked well, and following the match we had a picture painted of them by a local artist. We sent an article to the heavy horse magazine with a picture Anna had taken of all five entrants ploughing.