Ellis Davies [ED] of Betlands Farm, Llanddeiw, Gower, interviewed at the 2022 Gower Ploughing Match.
ED discusses ideal ploughing conditions, differences between local soils – comparing Herefordshire with Gower, and ED’s long career in ploughing competitions. He describes the challenge of winning cups three times to keep them, his eventual collection of about 40–48 trophies, and his most treasured prize—the first cup he won in the late 1950s.

Transcript:

Interviewer Sarah Loud: What are good conditions for ploughing then?
ED: Oh grassland and moist, what we call good cutting ground.
Interviewer Sarah Loud: So we had rain last night…
ED: That will help, that will help, see there now it is cutting like butter, that Herefordshire ground, red sandstone and it’s wet so it shines more.
Interviewer Sarah Loud: So what's Gower land like to plough?
ED: Mediocre, a little bit stony in places, small stones, not big stones…when I was young.
Yes when I young you had to win a cup three times before it became your property, and that was difficult to do because there's a few cups I've won twice and lost and a few other cups I have won three times and someone else has won twice, you know it is a job to win them three times straight off. So it took a while to accumulate cups in the early days, because as I say, you won a cup three times and that might take five years. Not in all cases but…then later on in life, cups became more, like when I won in Ireland I had two cups to come home both days.
Interviewer Sarah Loud: How many cups do you think you've got?
ED: Oh about 40, 48 perhaps
Interviewer Sarah Loud: That’s fantastic and which is your most treasured cup?
ED: The first one I ever won. That's my most treasured cup in, 1950…wait a minute…be about 1957. Yeah, I won my first cup and it took me four times to win that three times, I got beaten one year. Yeah
Interviewer Sarah Loud: Was that a local cup?
ED: Yes, it was given by an old champion, William Jones of Lunnon, he gave it. You know I've got a couple out of all my cups. I've only got three solid silver, the rest are EPNS, you know good cups, but only three are solid silver, I treasure those but the first cup I won was an EPNS, but I do treasure that.