TWO NORTH-EAST ploughmen are on their way to Germany this week to represent Scotland in the World Ploughing Championships at the weekend.

Former winner, Dave Carnegie from Fettercairn, and Ian Williams from Maud, set off by lorry with their tractors and ploughs and have been spending the week familiarising themselves with the championship site near Stuttgart before the competition, which takes place on Saturday and Sunday, September 1 and 2.

Mr Carnegie, senior partner in the family farming and contracting business of D M Carnegie at Steelstrath, Fettercairn, qualified for the championships for the seventh time as winner of the reversible section at the Scottish Ploughing Championships at Crimond last year.

“It’s a great honour to represent Scotland again but competition will be tough with ploughers from 29 countries taking part,” said Mr Carnegie. “We have received information that the ground is very dry so I hope we get some rain before the competition to make the soil less crumbly.”

Mr Williams, who works for Sinclair Contractors at Kinknockie and Fiddesbeg, Udny, was runner-up to Ian McDonald from Keith in the Scottish conventional ploughing championships, but Mr McDonald is unable to travel to Germany for family reasons.

“I’m obviously delighted to be competing in the world championships for the first time but disappointed for Ian,” said Mr Williams. “I’ve been competing in ploughing competitions for about 30 years but have never won the Scottish championship, although I was only half a point behind Ian last year.”

Forfar’s Andrew Mitchell, Sen, a multiple winner of the world championship, will be acting as coach to the Scottish pair in Germany.