The USA Ford & Fordson Collectors Association’s annual show was held on September 8th-11th, as part of the Missouri River Valley Steam Engine Association Show, at Boonville, in Missouri. In the US it’s customary to hold annual club shows as a guest of an established show. There was an excellent turn-out

of over 175 Ford and Fordson tractors of all sizes and ages; some that readers would easily recognise and others that may look a little more exotic to the UK eye! The FFA had a good club stand selling merchandise, and held daily tutorials on the Ford hydraulic system. On Friday evening there was a member’s banquet

Ford 981 Select-O-Speed fitted with a mounted twin-row maize cob picker.

with a raffle and the usual awards being presented, including one for the person who’d hauled their tractor the farthest. There was also the ‘Misfortune Award’, which is given to the member who broke down on the way to the show.

There was a pulling competition and I was delighted to see many Fords taking part in this. The thing that always amazes me at these shows is the dedication of the members, as well as the distances they travel to get to events like this one. I spoke to several members that had hauled their tractors well over a 1,000 miles each way. Now that’s dedication!

A Ford 600; this model’s ‘red tiger’ engine was LPG-fuelled.

This year’s competition took place on October 8th-9th, with His Grace the Duke of Devonshire kindly supplying land at Glapwell, in Derbyshire, which is part of the Chatsworth Estate. It was excellent land all over the site, and something very rare happened that weekend; I didn’t hear competitors complaining about the conditions! I decided to go to the site on Thursday as the weather was forecast to be bad on Friday; a good decision as it turned out. Friday was windy and very wet, with most people in the trade stand area having to be towed around the site. Some of our members supported the club by bringing tractors for the

stand, and we had 10 members ploughing in the FFA class. The standard of workmanship was excellent, as it should be for a national competition. Our two stewards for the match were concerned by the red chair on Richard Wilson’s plough (see photo), wondering if it was a legal attachment, and thinking his wife – Audrey – would be sitting on it working the ploughs handles! Thanks go to our stewards, Brian Hancock and Matthew Stone, and to everyone else who helped me on what turned out to be a very busy club stand over the weekend; members had travelled from all over the UK and Ireland.

His Grace the Duke of Devonshire and the Duchess with FFA prize-winners Tim Easter and John Lewis.

Harry Williams, known to many of you, unusually seen here on a Fordson N.

Richard Wilson’s red chair.

Congratulations must go to John Lewis who won the FFA Trophy. Second place went to Tim Easter and Roger Ingham finished third. To the rest, keep practising and better luck next year when we’ll be in Somerset for the Nationals!

Phil Gibson, FFA Roving rep

Very little happens in this part of Burgundy, in east-central France, as far as tractors are concerned. Yes, it’s very rural and tractors abound – usually travelling very fast on our narrow roads! – but they are mostly modern and often green, so don’t hold the same interest for me as the blue variety does. So, when an enquiry arrived from Jean-Paul Estivie, secretary of the Club Ferguson-France last January, requesting information about parts he needed for his Ford/Ferguson 9N, this attracted my interest as I know very little about this model.
  My first move was to pass on the query directly to Pat Pawsey who, with his usual efficiency in finding the right people to help, dealt with the issue. However, not only did Jean-Paul send me a copy of the club’s magazine, he also invited me to its AGM which, this year, took place on May 14th in the village of Festigny, not far from my home here in the Yonne.
  I arrived bright and early at the Gîte ‘Ferm du Bois la Dame’ where I found a large number of very smart campervans parked around the house. As I approached, I saw a very large, red tractor of the MF variety, plus four

others parked in a row. The first was a Ferguson type ‘A’ painted black, the next was a Ford/Ferguson 2N, the third was an unrestored TE-A 20 (complete with side mower) and the final one was a fairly well-restored TE-A 20. Elsewhere there were several other MF tractors, including a number of garden ones. There was very large crowd of delegates, each with a badge indicating the department they represented. I was taken into an enormous building that had once been a barn – but is now used for functions such as weddings – and was introduced to Jean-Paul, who was a rather elderly gentleman. We talked for a while and he told me that he was preparing an article on the differences between the 9N and the 2N. Most owners believe they have a 9N when, in fact, the Ford/Fergusons only arrived in France in 1946, so would almost certainly have been 2Ns. This was somewhat fortuitous, as I’d taken the liberty of translating part of the article Is it a 9N or a 2N?, which appeared in issue 108 of this magazine. Although my French isn’t too bad, the meeting was quite long-winded; having started at 9.30, it went on until 11. The only person I recognised – André Villiers,

Député de l’Yonne et agriculteur (local government deputy and grower of cereals) – talked until about 11.45, after which there were questions. At last, at 12.30, the 120 or so guests were offered an apéritif, followed by lunch. At this point I was hoping to slip away, but was taken to the top table where the club’s two presidents (both past and present), M Villiers and others were already seated. I was so grateful to find myself seated next to Jean-Paul and his very pleasant wife, who both put me at my ease and made the rather extended lunch much more pleasant. Although I found the whole experience quite daunting – I’m not gregarious by nature – I do wonder how such a meeting might have gone down in the UK? After all, this was a threeday trip for the delegates, requiring two coaches for trips for wine-tasting, a visit to the mediaeval Castle of Guédelon plus food and drinks at a cost of €160 per person! By the way, my thanks to Jane Broomhall for the fleece I ordered as well as the application forms and club stickers that I duly passed on.

Martin Carley, FFA France rep