Spackman Motors sponsor the car and bike once again.  As usual a big turnout is expected as local entrants support one of the favourite events at the show.

Last year the Best Presented trophy was won by Glen Parker for his entry “Moke”.

Glen purchased his moke from a clearing sale and it took him just six months to restore this beauty.

At the 2016 show the top three entrants were selected eligible for the “Bob Spackman Memorial Trophy”.

They were a ‘64 EH Holden’, a ‘73 Mini Clubman’ and a ‘74 LH Holden Torana’.

The trophy was awarded to the ‘64 EH Holden’ owned by Cliff Staff of Crookwell.

The judges commented saying, “The engine sounds as good as it looks - nice solid EH overall.”

The Mini is owned by Steve Pearse of Goulburn’s Busted Knuckle Car Club and the LH Torana owned by Tim Corcoran of Crookwell.

There were two entrants in the bike category and they couldn’t have been more different.

Andrew Clements’ Harley Davidson and David and Jeremy Nicholson’s Yamaha WR45 gave the judges a real dilemma as they tried to judge them apart.

Organisers are hoping Crookwell Show 2017 will see the return of all of last year’s entrants plus some new eager vehicle and bike enthusiasts this year.

Another exciting event at every Crookwell Show is the Howard Register and this year they will be attending in full force.

Among Australia’s farming communities, Howard is an iconic brand that started in Australia in 1923 when the first rotary hoe was produced. Crookwell was the birthplace of this great Australian pioneering inventor  – Arthur Clifford Howard.

“Cliff”, as he was known, was three years old when his mother passed away and the family moved to Gilgandra. It was here, as a 19yr old, that he noticed the steam plough wasted power when pulling a plough. Instead of wasting energy on pulling an inert plough (which tended to compact the soil), Cliff after several attempts, with his unit, applied power directly in a rotary motion, through his machines, to the soil.  

This was the beginning of the rotary hoe, a standard on every rural property in Australia.

Cliff studied engineering by correspondence and eventually came up with the prototype of the hoe.  He received backing and the company went on to become one of the greatest agricultural machine businesses.  

Today, the Howard Register is a group of collectors of Howard historical agricultural machinery that take pride in their collection of their local inventor.

A memorial and tribute can be seen in front of the Crookwell swimming pool in Coleman Park.

The register was formed in 2005 with the Powerhouse Museum at the Wellington Vintage Fair.

Howard family members and various enthusiasts hail from all over Australia.

The register caters for all Howard machinery from the prototype rotary hoe of 1915, right up to machinery from the early 1980's.

It is hoped to have a display of the very rare, Howard three-wheeled rotary hoe, plus a swag of tractors and rotary hoes to join this exhibition this year.

Thanks to the efforts of Robert and Anne Moore, the Howard Register is based and maintained in Wellington.

This is not the first time members of the Howard register have visited Crookwell and they are all looking forward to meeting visitors at the show as well as other machinery enthusiasts.

http://www.howardregister.com for more information and a list of Howard machines.