A cut above: Lawn mower racing throws up some cheap thrills at show
Spectators at the Charleville Agricultural Show, which celebrated its 30th birthday with a €150,000 programme of events on a 45-acre site, were thrilled at the spectacle of racing lawn mowers.
A retired pensioner, a pub manager, mine and design engineers, a student, an osteopath, a swimming pool technician, a network analyst, a mechanic, a technical consultant, a sales man and a workshop designer, all from England, did the driving.
But the man behind the sport is Jim Gavin, a native of Sunday’s Well in Cork, and president of the British Lawn Mower Racing Association (BLMRA), which he help to set up in 1973. It now has up to 400 members, 70 of them competitors.
Mr Gavin, who went to live in England in 1964, had raced and rallied cars across the world but had become disillusioned with the increasing costs in the sport, mainly due to the rise of sponsorship.
The idea of creating a cheaper form of motorsport that was easily accessible to all arose one evening in 1973 as he and some friends were having a chat at the Cricketers Arms in Wisborough Green, West Sussex.
“We were looking out at the cricket field. There were lawn mowers going up and down. Someone suggested that we run a race for lawn mowers.
“We put a notice up in the pub announcing a British Grand Prix for lawn mowers, with the cutting blades removed or stopped.
“About 40 people turned up with machines of all shapes and sizes. That was how lawn mower racing started,” said Mr Gavin, who helps to plan car rallies worldwide.
No cash prizes, no sponsorship and no commercialism remain the core objectives of the BLMRA, whose members can go as fast as 72km/h (45m/h) with their mowers on large tracks.
It was the group’s second visit in 11 years to the Charleville Show, which was again a huge success with large crowds, big entries, a sprawling trade display and Kerry Agribusiness as the main sponsor.
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