Somerset Young Farmers Club's held their annual County Rally last month, at the picturesque Stepstones farm, Langford.

Hosted this year by Severn Group of YFC clubs, which consists of Chew Valley, North Somerset, Wedmore and Weston & Banwell YFC’s.

The committee decided to take members on a trip ‘Down Under’ with an Australian theme, and the ever popular and well supported Stockjudging opened proceedings.

With 16 clubs and over 60 members taking part in this traditional skill of farm stock judging, the judges had a very busy evening.

This culminated with a results ceremony where the trophies were presented by Mr John Alvis MBE and Nick Howe from Cornish Mutual.

Calves and sheep arrived on site early Saturday morning in preparation for the calf and sheep show.

Brandon Wilcox from Wedmore YFC, ably assisted by Wedmore YFC advisory, arranged the 21 stock classes with Henry Groves looking after the sheep pens and judges.

Lottie Hill from Wedmore YFC excelled with her homebred limousine heifer taking the beef championship and Jake Sayer from Bridgwater YFC lifting the champion dairy heifer trophy at the tenth attempt with his homebred Ayrshire. Junior member Hannah Payne of Wedmore YFC took the young handler class.

Another junior member this time from Polden Hills YFC, Archie Stamp, excelled with his sheep, taking the Vetilite Perpetual Trophy for the pen of champion lambs.

The handicraft classes were organised by Katie Nicholls from Wedmore YFC and included an aboriginal mask, a model of the Sydney Opera House, a kangaroo made from vegetables and an iced cake decorated as the Great Barrier Reef.

Members embraced the challenge with over 1,500 quality handicrafts on display.

Winning the Somerset Girls Committee Trophy for the senior classes was Fay Nicholls from Wedmore YFC.

The RC Bandy Intermediate Trophy was awarded to Sarah Champion from Polden Hills YFC and the Coggan’s Perpetual Junior Handicraft Trophy was won by Ben Miller, from Wincanton YFC.

With 30 events to organise for the competitions throughout the rally day Kayleigh Stowell, from North Somerset YFC, certainly had her work cut out.

With everything from sheep shearing, quad bike skills, lawn mower racing to poultry trussing the best Peter Andre and Kylie Minogue impressions, a mock auction with an Australian accent, fence erecting, welding and clay pigeon shooting to name a few, members were certainly occupied and enjoyed not only taking part, but watching others have a go.

Most clubs took part and all these results are available from the county office.

ladies from Wedmore YFC Fay Nicholls and her team with Louise Seymour and Chris Nicholls served just over 200 judges with VIP lunches.

Falling under the main events category include the tug of war competitions and the ‘It’s a Knock-Out’ type obstacle races.

Sam Tincknell, from Wedmore YFC, had enjoyed building a temporary pond and obstacles to ensure the afternoon’s events were the entertaining crowd pleasers as usual.

All the teams pulling tug of war had trained heavily in the lead up to the rally with a lot of pride at stake.

Victorious in the men’s and ladies tug of war classes were Bridgwater YFC and in the junior event, this honour went to Polden Hills YFC.

Both clubs will be representing the county at the next area rounds in June.

After these displays of strength, it was speed that was required for the Kangaroo space hooper race and the ‘I’m a Celebrity, get me of out of here’ challenge, which as the name implies replicated the TV show.

After the day’s trophy results giving, there was just enough time for members to clean up and be ready for the rally dance.

The organising of the social aspect of the rally fittingly fell to Lindsey Carnell, also known as DJ Linz of Aloud Sounds Rural Rockers and a member of North Somerset YFC.

She was assisted by Alice Smith from Wedmore YFC and rally treasurer Christina Ford.

One of the best bands in the South West ‘The Chip Shop Boy’s’ provided a lively set and thanks must go to the members past and present who helped serve behind the bar.

With over 800 members enjoying the dance and hog roast it was a very busy and successful evening.

With an option to camp overnight, the rally catering team, lead by Sally Letts and North Somerset YFC ladies, was constantly serving hot food, drinks and homemade cakes for the hungry members.

There is so much work that goes into organising a Somerset YFC Rally that without the careful and diligent planning of the site committee the day would not run so smoothly.

With Weston & Banwell YFC members Jamie Cox, Ben Goulding and Ed Redman taking the lead to prepare the site, Catherine Look’s valuable assistance with the risk assessments and the overall guidance and organisation by Jamie Wall, the rally chairman, Laura Jenkins the rally secretary and the group field officer Bay Bardwell all working tirelessly to achieve an excellent rally that was enjoyed by all.

Retaining the RJ Keen trophy for the most points at the rally for the tenth consecutive year was Polden Hills YFC, congratulations this is some achievement.