MRS DOWN'S DIARY

My brother-in-law Geoff has been off ill for a number of weeks and, although back at the farm, could not be relied on to be well enough to give us reliable cover for the week as he still has hospital appointments to attend.

So to make it up to me, John offered a visit instead to the national ploughing championships.

A trip down memory lane for him with the vintage machines and a short break for me.

I was amazed how many people we met who we knew.

At one stage, John despaired of ever getting round the vast area devoted to match ploughing as we appeared to be drifting from one set of friends and acquaintances to the next.

Fortunately, I got stood next to a very knowledgeable lady when I was watching the working horses.

She possessed a wealth of information on the tack that the horses were wearing and kept pointing out all the points that the judges would be looking for when judging the final piece of ploughed land.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette October 24