THE Bradworthy and District Ploughing Association Match, incorporating the ‘Farm Produce and Vegetable Show’, was well attended recently, and even saw the largest ever gathering of Renault tractors in the UK.

The match featured a Renault and Claas themed event and was held at Down Farm, Newton St Petrock by kind permission of S Bond Contractors and M Bridgman.

Those winning trophies on the day were: Mitchell Bright, Edward Brown, Robert Heaman, Steve Wooldridge, Rachel Poole, Di Heard, Shannon Ley and Colin Heard.

A presentation was also made at the event to Mrs Kay Gillard, who has been treasurer for 25 years. She was given a picture and a bouquet of flowers by the president Mr Colin Heard.

Committee member James Poole said it had been a ‘fantastic day’, and spoke of the particular success of the themed event. The themed event was brought in last year as something extra for visitors to see while waiting for the match results.

Last year was Massey Ferguson, and this year was the turn of Renault.

Mr Poole said: “This year we thought we’d go with Renault, and being a small player in the agricultural market, thought it’d be different.

“What we hadn’t bargained on was because it’s small, no one has attempted to do a Renault meet-up — we had people flying over from Ireland, Cumbria, Wales, all over the place to see our collection of Renaults. We were ever so grateful.”

The guest speaker was Alastair McCallum, who started his career in the Renault Agriculture HQ, and who is now Claas tractors and telehandlers product manager.

There were tractors there representing 90 years of production from the French Le Mans factory, which to this day is owned by Claas. There were 70 Renault tractors on field, making their gathering the ‘largest ever displayed in the UK’ according to Mr Poole, along with a selection of Renault cars and commercial vehicles.

Hamblys Ltd of Whitstone brought the line up right up to date by demonstrating three new tractors and Lemken implements.

Eugene Martin, from Milton Damerel won the plate given to the best overall Renault/Claas for his stunning Renault Ares 620RZ, and Will Folland from Roborough, near Winkleigh won the plate for the best ploughing by a Renault/Claas with his reversible ploughing completed by a Renault 80-12SP.