|
A
FABULOUS WEEKEND
All wishes came true for the 5th
Great Challenge held at Dales Farm in Rempstone near Loughborough,
on the weekend of 9-10 September. This event, celebrating 40 years of
the Steam Plough Club and 100 years of steam ploughing at Beeby’s
brought together a record 13 operating sets in one place. It came to a
climax on Saturday evening with a stupendous line up of 23 steam
ploughers and 3 diesel conversions. “I’ve come to traction engine
heaven!” one onlooker was heard to say in the warm Autumn sunshine.
The Challenge Cup, originally awarded to
Robert Fowler in 1888 and donated by his grandson, Robert Pelly, went to
twice previous winners Michael Davies and his ploughman Mike Goodman.
The cup for the best shallow plough, donated by Mike Beeby, was awarded
to Richard Vernon. The Fowler Gold Medal for best working plough went
also to Richard. The Joe Challis Award for best enginemanship, donated
by John and Sheila Billard, was won by Andrew Middlewood.
Bob Jeffrey, chief ploughing judge, said
that he was extremely impressed with the quality of work that was better
with each succeeding Challenge. The winning plots were of extremely
high quality.
Jim Stevenson of Moonlight Productions
has produced a DVD.
The running time
is 75 minutes
Cost £18 50
including p & p from
Colin Brown,
Steam Plough Club Sales
c/o 90 Devon
Road, Luton, Beds LU2 0RL
Cheques are to be
payable to Steam Plough Club
John Billard SPC Secretary 12 September 2006
Further
Reflections on the Challenge
John Billard writes
Blessed with perfect
weather, all our dreams came true that weekend.
After some three
years of planning it all came together without a hitch. That wasn’t to
say it was all plain sailing. This was the first paying event most of
us had organised and the learning curve was steep. We had great
assistance from many people too numerous to list here. The support from
those who brought engines and tackle was tremendous. Some travelled
long distances, from Cornwall, Mid Wales and Yorkshire being just
examples. All this was without a promise of recompense. Those who saw
the line up of 26 ploughing engines in the warm autumn sunshine will not
forget it for a very long time.
Arranging coal and
water simultaneously to some eleven and a half working steam sets is
probably something that had not been attempted before anywhere but all
went well, some 13 tons of coal being used and at least 20,000 gallons
of water.
The very high
standard of work attained by the winning sets was remarked upon by the
judges who said that the standard was increasing with each Challenge.
This quality was at least comparable with the output by modern
machinery.
We are pleased that
we were able to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the club
and 100 years of steam ploughs at Beeby’s ….in the best way possible
John Billard
|
