World class ploughmen win again

Renowned ploughmen Andrew Mitchell, from Forfar, and Dave Carnegie, from Laurencekirk, have proved yet again that their skills are world class with outright wins in their classes at the Scottish Ploughing Championships at Kelso.

Mr Mitchell, who has been the world’s reversible champion on six occasions, set himself a challenge by entering the conventional class this year – and won by a clear margin of 80 points ahead of all the competition.

Meanwhile, Mr Carnegie, who in 1996 became the first Scot to win a world ploughing title, won the reversible butts class by 45 points.

Both men will go on to represent Scotland at next August’s world ploughing competition which will be held in Lake of the Woods County in Minnesota.

More than 2,000 spectators turned out to watch around 100 ploughmen from across the country compete in near-perfect conditions at William Kirk and Sons’ Bettyfield Farm near Kelso.

Other winners included Stewart Shaw (multi-reversible), David Williams (horticultural), John Broomfield (high cut), David Thomlinson (classic), David Middleton (non-HYD classic reversible), Richard Ingram (vintage mounted) and Ray Alderson (vintage trailing).

The highest-placed Scots in the classic, classic reversible and vintage classes will go on to represent Scotland in the European vintage ploughing championships in 2019.

Next year’s Scottish Ploughing Championships will take place at Bowhouse, Anstruther.

Picture: Wullie Marr The 56th Scottish Ploughing Championships took place in near perfect conditions at Bettyfield Farm, Kelso, where almost 100 competitors took part each day.