The Canadian Plowing Championships will take place in Owen Sound in September.
The three-day event is scheduled for September 1st to 3rd on property across from OSCVI, south of 8th Street East.
It’s a joint venture of two local plowmen’s associations — Keppel Sarawak and North Grey.
Members of the organizing committee made a deputation on Wednesday night to Georgian Bluffs council — informing the township of the event and seeking financial support.
Council deferred any decision on support until budget deliberations.
Brian Davenport — the Chair of the event’s organizing committee — says there is a long and proud tradition of plowing matches in Grey County dating back to when they were started about 90 years ago by Tommy Cooper.
There is an annual award in his name presented by Bayshore Broadcasting and The Sun Times for contribution to agriculture in Grey-Bruce.
Davenport says five annual matches still take place in Grey County — the most of any county in Ontario and more than some entire Canadian provinces.
The joint venture of the Keppel Sarawak and North Grey associations is designed to promote plowing as a sport, celebrate the plowing heritage in Grey County and bring visitors here from other parts of the country.
Other associations have gotten involved, notably the Bruce County Plowmen’s Association which will provide a barbecue lunch on each day of the competition.
The Canadian championships are a different event than the more familiar International Plowing Match, which is noted for its tented city and its many attractions and displays.
Davenport says the Canadian event focuses mainly on plowing, but there is a great deal at stake as two competitors will win the right to represent the country at next year’s world championships in Croatia.
The worlds are, again, different from the IPM.
Davenport says the worlds are the equivalent of plowing’s Olympics and so the competition in September will be tough.
Participants are expected from Alberta, B-C, Manitoba, New Brunswick and Quebec as well as Ontario, and three of the nine Ontario competitors will be local.
They are Carrie Davenport of Owen Sound in the junior conventional division, Barry DeGeer of Thornton, in Simcoe County, in senior conventional, and Tom Evans of Tiverton in reversible.
Brian Davenport says this event won’t attract thousands of people as does an IPM, but hundreds of visitors will be here and they’ll come from a great distance because interest in the championships is just that great.
For more information about the event, visit the website www.canplow2011.ca
