A RETIRED farmer has been honoured for a lifetime of competitive ploughing.

John Metcalfe, 79, of Newby Wiske, near Northallerton, has been given a special award by the society of ploughmen for 50 years of consecutive entries in the National Ploughing Match.

He became interested in ploughing before the Second World War when he went along to a plough day with a farm worker.

He started ploughing in the 1940s and went on to compete regularly, including the first world-wide competition in Canada in the 1950s.