Thornbury tractor club proud to host NZ champs

Looking forward to the New Zealand Ploughing Championships it is hosting next month is the Thornbury Vintage Tractor and Implement Club ploughing committee (from left) Athole Bennie, John Wild, Alistair Rutherford, Owen Anderson, Graham Miller, Stan Knowler, Allan Brown, Bob Anderson, Colin Hitchcock, Iain Bulling and Fraser Pearse. Absent is Graeme Anderson. Photo: Nicole Sharp

Ploughmen, judges and vintage enthusiasts are in the final stages for preparing for one of the biggest events ever to take place in Thornbury.

The 63rd National Ploughing Championships are being held in the small Western Southland town next month, the first time the Thornbury Vintage Tractor and Implement Club has hosted the competition.

Sixty years after the first national ploughing event was held, in Southland, at Lorneville, in 1958, the championships are returning.

The last time it was held in the region was 11 years ago, hosted by the Edendale Vintage Machinery Club.

The journey for the Thornbury club began five years ago when it became associated with the New Zealand Ploughing Association, and a casual conversation the following year had it allocated the 2018 national event.

Preparations began soon after, with a ploughing committee put together made up of ploughmen and judges from the Thornbury club.

While the event was run by the New Zealand Ploughing Association, the Thornbury club's committee had to find suitable land, fundraise and put together the rest of the week's programme.

Committee convener Athole Bennie said the first job for the committee had been finding suitable land to be used in the competition.

Landowners Andrew and Roseanne Hall and Nathan and Leigh Ronald will host the championships, and work on the paddocks to be used began three years ago.

''We can't run it without the farmers,'' Mr Bennie said.

For the next month it would be full steam ahead, as the organising committee finalised the last of the details.

Competitors from all over New Zealand would be attending the competition, which included six horse teams, two from the North Island, two from Southland-Otago and two from Canterbury.

One event not to be missed will be the celebrity ploughing, which will feature some of Southland's most prominent faces, from mayors to MPs, and will be held on the Sunday morning of the event.

There will be four ploughing sections - silver plough, vintage plough, reversible plough and horse plough.

The winners of the silver plough and reversible plough will go on to represent New Zealand at the World Ploughing Championships next year.

Thornbury Vintage Tractor and Implement Club president Fraser Pearse said it was looking forward to hosting the championships.

''For us, it's about saying to people, we're here, and that we have a really neat rural heritage centre just down the road.''

The New Zealand Ploughing Championships will be held on April 14 and 15 in Waimatuku-Thornbury Rd and will be signposted from the main roads.

There will be food, craft and trade stalls as well, offering something for everyone.

Entry is $10 for adults, under 16 is free.

Southern Rural Life