Two of England’s top ploughmen, Ashley Boyles and Mick Chappell, are on their way to Germany, ready to compete in the 2018 World Ploughing Contest at the beginning of September.

The World Contest is to be held on Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd September at Hofgut Einsiedel in the Baden-Wurttemberg area of Germany and competitors will be travelling from 28 world-wide countries – from as far afield as Australia, New Zealand, Kenya and USA.

Ashley Boyles from Osgodby, near Market Rasen, Lincolnshire is the current British Conventional Ploughing Champion and Supreme British Champion and Mick Chappell, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, is the current British Reversible Ploughing Champion. Both ploughmen will know exactly what the judges will be looking for, as it will be Ashley’s fourth attempt at the World title - having competed in Austria in 2008; Slovenia in 2009 and Canada in 2013 – and Mick’s second attempt, his first being in Croatia in 2012.

Completing the team and judging for England is farmer Michael Holloway from Montgomery, Shropshire. Michael has previously ploughed in two World Ploughing Contests himself but it is his first time as a judge. He will also act as coach prior to the contest, trying to help both ploughmen in their bid for world honours.

The team are not quite sure what conditions to expect in Germany but if the weather has been the anything like our summer the land is probably very hard and dry. They are travelling by road and ferry so they can take their own tractors and ploughs to use. Mick uses a Kubota tractor and Kverneland plough and Ashley uses a Massey Ferguson tractor and Kverneland.

After their experience of ploughing German soil, Ashley and Mick will be preparing their ploughs on their return, ready to compete in a few local ploughing matches and then the 2018 British National Ploughing Championships which will be held at Austrey, near Atherstone, Warwickshire on October 13th and 14th, where both will be striving to win a place at the 2019 World Ploughing Contest in the USA.