AFTER running for more than a century, one of Herefordshire’s top agricultural events could be doomed to close unless eleventh hour support can be found.

In more recent years Leominster Agricultural Improvement Society has struggled to find farmers willing to host its key annual ploughing match. Unless the society receives a positive offer in the next week or two, organisers could be forced to call it a day.

It is a tough call for long-serving chairman Allan Williams, whose family has been involved with the society for generations. He has repeatedly gone “cap in hand” to find farmers and landowners able to provide a site for the autumn ploughing match, a 103-year-old tradition in this area.

“If we don’t get a site, and more people involved, then closure will be on the cards,” he said. At one time the committee was 50-strong and finding sites for the traditional ploughing match was no problem.

Mr Williams, aged 74, who took part in his first ploughing competition at the age of 14, has been resolute about keeping the society going until now. “I say the society is run by Snow White and the Four Dwarfs,” he joked, a reference to the fact that he and his wife, Anne, members of their family and a few others undertake the bulk of the work.

“It would be criminal to shut it down, but it is 90 per cent likely that it will go,” said Mr Williams, a former county ploughing chairman. “It’s difficult to find sites to put the ploughing match on and there is a lack of interest among many farmers. It is sad.”

He continued: “I can organise a match in no time, but I’ve been cap in hand without success to see if farmers will let us site the ploughing match on their land. It’s really very daunting.”

Mr Williams said he and his wife had always believed it was important to “put something back”. He accepted that farmers were too busy to help. “But we found time years ago,” he said. His father, Jack Williams, a “legendary ploughman” chaired several societies and often had to “load up the tack” after dark.

Competitors were eager to take part in Leominster’s ploughing match, he maintained. “We could fill 50 acres easily,” said Mr Williams.

The society has faced difficulties in the past. His father rebuilt its fortunes in 1963, and in 2000 the threat of closure loomed again, saved by the encouragement of farmer Alan Rogers.

n Those who want to help save the society can call Allan Williams on 01568 615365.