Two Days Ploughing

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32050, 26 July 1969, Page 10

Two Days Ploughing

TT is a distinct possibility 1 i: x that the national plough-1 i ing championships, next year i ii or in the very near future, i j will be held over two days I instead of one, on the lines i ! of the world championships. ’ I This extension of the cham- | pionships would have a two- ; I fold purpose. At the world : | championships competitors I hive to plough stubble on [ one day and grass the next S day. New Zealand champions ships have not yet included I a stubble section and the I comment was heard from one

ploughing administrator at r the national championships t at Masterton last week that v as a consequence he felt that c New Zealand’s represents- f tives had always gone to 1 world matches half armed. 1 However there is a feeling - among some other ploughing t tnen that New Zealand 1 ploughmen have not suffered i too much on this account < and one ploughman said it 1 was much easier to cover up weaknesses in stubble plough- 1 ing than, it was in grass. 1 The new president of the 1 New Zealand Ploughing l Association (Mr H. A. Mag- ' son) who said after the 1 annual meeting of the asso- ’ elation test week that the 1 reaction to the two-day idea 1 had seemed generally fav- ’ ourable, noted that probably 1 quite a number of the 1 ploughs now being used would not handle stubble ploughing 1 in any case, but he did not 1 attach too much importance : to having both stubble and : grass and saw some advantage in having two days in ; grass in that it would enable new competitors to get over

nervousness and give them a better chance. His feeling was that averaging out the contest over two days should facilitate the selection of the best ploughman or ploughmen to represent the country —at the moment the association is also looking into the possibility of raising enough funds to finance the sending of two men to world matches annually. While it is also felt that two-day matches could be held without much additional expense over what is involved in a single day event now, not all are in favour of the new proposal and one man said afterwards he felt the spreading of the championships over two days would result in a dissipation of interest now concentrated on the one day. It is not thought that organising of adjacent stubble and grassland areas should be too much of a problem—near the site of test week-end’s national championships at Masterton a stubble area was used as a 'car park.