For ten days in August, ploughmen from all over the world will converge on a corner of a foreign field for the World Ploughing Match.


Unlike the football, not only our country, but our county will be represented, as Ashley Boyles of Osgodby, will be looking to win the World Ploughing Championship.


As reported in the Mail last October, Mr Boyles won his way through as the British representative to compete over stubble and grass against 30 other global contenders, by winning the national Conventional Final Plough-Off at only his fourth attempt.


Ashley, 25, is also chairman of Lincolnshire Young Farmers, having overseen the growth of the Market Rasen club from 15 to 70 members whilst chairman. He works as a waste management contractor.


“I used to follow my dad Dave around as he competed in local ploughing matches, and started having a go myself about 10 years ago,” says Ashley, who is fairly modest about his expectations.


“I’ll be going to try my hardest, but it’s difficult to say whether I’ll be expected to win or not”. He has though, always been competitive and always hankered to be a world champion.


In order to score top marks he has to plough in a dead straight line, all the furrow slices have to be the same size and shape, with all the stuff left over from the previous year completely buried, leaving a good seed bed for the next crop.


“It‘s all about confidence and form. To win the national last year I ploughed a tidy plot whilst others didn’t do so well. The land suited my plough.”


The championships span 10 days in total with the main event on August 16 and 17.


He has already seen the ground at Krems, west of Vienna, and reckons it is a good level site with good ground and he has already lined up a bit of extra land nearby for practice - using his own 2003 Massey Ferguson and 2000 Kevernleland match plough that will be driven over with reversibe ploughing contender Peter Alderslade and coach John Hill, a former world champion himself.


He will have to plough a half acre plot in three hours, first on stubble and the next day grass.


As with so many things which don’t have quite the same ‘glamour factor’ as football, half the battle is in raising the money needed to get to the competition in the first place.


He needed to raise over £3,000 to cover his travelling expenses and the cost of getting his tractor and plough there and back.


“We had quite a good campaign at the Lincolnshire Show, thanks to Harold Woolgar Insurance, but any further offers of sponsorship would be more than welcome”.


When it comes to ploughing his furrow he says, ‘you have to concentrate fully on your own plot and hope it’s good enough.