Limavady ploughing championships: Competitors pursue perfect plot

Some of the winners will represent Northern Ireland in the World Ploughing Championships

Northern Ireland's top ploughmen have descended on Limavady in pursuit of the perfect plot - and places at upcoming world and European championships.

The two-day International Ploughing Championships got under way on Friday.

Competitors are taking part in various classes - including conventional, vintage, horse and reversible ploughing - over the weekend at Myroe.

Some of the winners will represent Northern Ireland in next year's World Ploughing Championships.

This weekend's competition is organised by the Northern Ireland Ploughing Association.

Competitors, its chairman Adrian Jamison said, had earned the right to take part by winning local competitions over the winter months.

Competition over the weekend will be hard fought, he added, with more established ploughmen coming up against a new generation.

Competitors will battle it out in classes including conventional, vintage, horse and reversible ploughing

"Traditionally ploughing was always needed in Northern Ireland," he told BBC Radio Foyle.

"The father and the son ploughed at home, the same thing is probably happening here in the competition ploughing - the son has seen the father winning medals and wants to continue on doing that.

"On Saturday we'll have 14 and 15-year-olds competing against horse ploughmen of 70," he said.

David Wright from Magherafelt is a former world champion ploughman.

Ploughing has been in "my family for generations, I don't know any different," he said.

Competitors and their machines arrived on site on Friday morning

But even at elite level, he added, ploughing is a sport where competitors "never stop learning".

"The perfect plot has never been ploughed yet. It's a great sport to be in, it is a skill you try and perfect".

With places at the world championships in Estonia up for grabs, he expects a high level of competition.

Last year the European Ploughing Championships took place in Ballykelly.

It should have been held in the Czech Republic in 2019 but when the Covid-19 pandemic hit it was postponed and then eventually rescheduled in Northern Ireland.