South Offaly Ploughing match to be held on Sunday next

ON THIS weekend, Sunday February 18^th, South Offaly Ploughing will hold its annual ploughing match at Grange, Clareen on the land of Pat Mahon by kind permission.

The site is located just off the Roscrea Road from Clareen and will be signposted on the day. The South Offaly Ploughing match is one of five matches held in Offaly every year. Competitors compete over the five matches for a place on the team which will represent Offaly at the National Ploughing Championships in September.

The South Offaly Ploughing match always draws a large number of spectators to the field. The skill of the competitors who plough the plots with such a level of precision can be extremely rewarding to watch.

While some spectators come to see some very sophisticated ploughs with many modifications and adjustments many more spectators take the opportunity to see the vintage tractors and ploughs in action. This event is one of the rare opportunities people get to see tvo tractors like the Fordsen ploughing with a two furrow trailed vintage plough. The vintage classes always attract a large number of entries with competitors travelling from as far as Northern Ireland to compete.

The ploughing competitions kick off at 12 noon and all competitors are asked to pre-enter to (087) 7584168.

South Offaly Ploughing would like to extend a huge word of thanks to all its sponsors. Many of these have been supporting the branch since it’s first match back in 1997 and without this generous support it would be impossible to run such a successful ploughing match each year.