Only 1.68 points away

Press, 9 May 1980, Page 9

Only 1.68 points away

The man on the left, Vivian Samuel, from Hereford in England, missed out by 1.68 points from winning the world ploughing championships in West Germany in 1978. As. runner-up that was his margin behind the champion that year, when, however, the won the grassland section of the contest.

The ground was so hard on that occasion that he had to have an extra three to four hundredweight on the plough to keep it in the ground. Vivian is back to try

again at Lincoln next week. This will be his fourth contest.

With him at . practice this week was his coach, Mr Ken Chappell, from Doncaster in Yorkshire, who also won the grassland section of the world contest in Rhodesia in 1968 and finished third over-all. He is with Vivian in the photograph.

The other member of the British team is Raymond Goodwin, who also has the distinction ot being placed first in the grass — that was in the last world contest in New Zealand in 1967. This will be his third contest. Vivian is a mixed farmer, with a flock of about 500 Suffolk cross ewes on his 112 ha property. At lambing he has more than 1000 ewes and lambs. Part time, he works for the British Wool Marketing Board as a shearing instructor.

He says that he does not feel nervous when taking part in a world contest — at least he has not done so yet. But when he is working he gets so engrossed with what he is doing he is oblivious of the crowd watching.

Ken is also a farmer. He is all arable on his 256 ba — there are no livestock — but he admits that with the cost of fertiliser they are thinking about getting some sheep to build up the fertility on some sandy land that they have. He was also a coach and judge on the occasion of the 1975 contest in Canada, when Vivian was also taking part.

■ Ken says that in a world contest there is little between about the top 20 ploughmen and it is then a matter of whether the going suits your plough.

Even in world contests it is possible to strike a bad plot. Vivian did that once — he struck a plot with a hollow in it although ' there was other ground nearby that was perfectly good and which could have been used. It put an end to his chances. Both the Englishmen will be using Fiskers ploughs. They took over brand new implements when they arrived and three days’ work went into them before they were put into the ground.