Nevermind the Olympics, the results you’ve all been waiting for are the winners of the 1st Northern Open Scythe Competition held as part of the Hay Time Scythe Event this week.
Christiane and I went over to the North Pennines where we led a Learn to Scythe course in a beautiful wildflower haymeadow owned by the Scott family. During the first day we taught the 8 students to set-up their scythe, how to mow and sharpen safely. With both of us teaching and 1 ½ days available for tuition there was loads of chance to give individual help on improving everyone’s techniques. By the end of the day it was a struggle to drag them away from the field where the group had created a wonderful pattern of flowing windrows.
We were well-fed and catered for by the Scotts who provided a glorious evening meal before we enjoyed a talk and slideshow from Neville Turner, a retired local vet and photographer. Then it was off to the pub for plenty of scythe chat.
The second day dawned far too early for some folk but by 7am we were all out mowing the competition plots and spectator area before a massive North Pennines breakfast. I spent the morning teaching the group how to peen their scythes and then it was time for the competition.
The local press and a surprising number of local photoraphers turned out to watch the races. Some friends from the NW Scythe Group turned up to take part but the majority of the field was composed of the course students who did brilliantly and it was hard to remember that they’d only learned to mow the day before. This was a sprint event over a short distance so the times were quick and the grass was flying.
Richard Brown of Norfolk, a seasoned mower and racer, travelled up specially for the event and was ultimately victorious ahead of Don Gamble and Neil Clowes. Ladies champ was my friend Susan Jones while the Quality Award was presented to Mary Wilkinson.
It wasn’t exactly sunny but we stayed dry for most of the weekend and the students from the Findhorn Foundation and the surrounding community were out tackling some long heavy grass which was lying over from the wind and rain. It cut sweetly though and the sward was clean which made it swift cutting, I was a bit jealous to be busy with teaching and not mowing along with the team.
The second day started with an in-depth discussion and demonstrations of scythe peening. This is a group who will be scything a lot so they wanted to get as much information as possible during the weekend so we covered a lot of ground. For the afternoon Nick wanted to try and tackle the rougher patches of the field that the contractor has left out when he’s been mowing. These had grown up thick with docks, thistles and other weeds tangled into each other and flattened partly by the weather and partly by people walking through. This gave us a chance to look at trimming methods and to demonstrate the toughness of the Austrian scythes.
This year has been difficult for hay-making, to say the least and we had been discussing various racking methods from old agriculture books. Philip, who’d lived on Orkney, demonstrated making a tripod and we filled it with grass to dry. Ideally the grass has at least a day of decent weather to start the drying process before racking so more can be put on each tripod. Nick will have his work cut out for him to harvest his crop but hopefully some of the rest of the group will go back to help him out with it.
Time, once again, for the ‘dawn mowing’ at Brantwood, former home of John Ruskin. Last year, Sally Beamish invited early-rising north west scythers to join her in the beautiful lakeside hay meadow, to mow and prepare for the first outdoor theatre event. A now legendary rustic breakfast followed, and for some, a refreshing dip in the lake.
I was most keen to develop the actual teaching elements of the course. Being able to mow well is important for a teacher but how you put across your information is equally vital for students to benefit. I wanted to show the new teachers the methods I’ve developed through my own teaching for things like setting up the scythe and attaching the blade, sharpening and organising the group in the field. I encouraged them to practise some of these moves so their own demonstrations would become smoother and clearer and we discussed the value of repetition during courses as well as pre-prepared teaching aids.
Also new this year was a section on how to assess beginners and advise them to improve their technique. Christiane and I spent a lot of time beforehand thinking how we could do this and came up with a couple of exercises. For the first, I had some fun preparing a ‘demonstration swath’; thrashing around in the grass to replicate the most common problems of a new student. We then showed how the pattern left in the grass can indicate what is going on and be used as a diagnostic tool. On my own courses this allows me to often understand a students problem even before I see them mowing and makes it easier to give them the best advice to improve. It’s sometimes hard for new teachers to see what is to adjust on someone else’s scythe so to help we gave them a basic set of possibilities that they could work through and then they practised by observing each other.
Simon covered the history of the scythe, blade angles and models and gave an impromptu dancing demonstration with Christiane while the peening was once again covered by Phil. All through the two days of course each of us was able to add things and comment on all the sections and people commented that, beyond being a course for teachers, it was a fantastic opportunity to learn from the four of us.
I’ve got a fully-booked ‘Learn to Mow’ course tomorrow with a group of beginners coming over to Cumbria to learn to use a scythe. So today I’m peening the blades in preparation. When you come on one of my courses I want you to have the best learning experience which means providing good tools and materials. I’m fortunate at Sprint Mill to have some lovely meadow grass to cut and by peening the blades I can ensure the scythes are in tip-top conditions.
Thankfully this year the weather was with us and the sun shone though strong winds in the week leading up to the event had left the long, thick grass lying over and somewhat tangled. That’s not going to stop several hundred enthusiastic mowers though, many of whom wait all year for this wonderful event to talk about their very particular passion and compete in what is generally considered to be the UK Scythe Championships.
Having made the mistake of entering last year, I was once again recruited into the Northern team. Paul and I had the tough job of mowing a 5m wide section between us but put in a very solid finish. How we actually did in the competition is anyone’s guess since nobody thought to time our race against the South but the East of England was generally considered to have won overall.
With all of the adrenalin and excitement of this still inside me, I found myself entering the time trials for the individual event and, worse still, making it through to the finals! The men’s event was once again dominated by Simon Damant of Cambridgeshire who took the cup not only for the 5x5m race but also in the new 10mx10m event.
For the ladies, Andi Rickard retained the cup for the third year with an ecstatic Beth Tilston in well-deserved second place. This year’s Quality Cup was won by Chris Riley, Mark Allery put in a solid effort to win the English scythe event, John Fenn was the veteran’s champ while Michael Hastings was named Young Mower of the Year and will surely be beating many of us in the years to come.
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