Irish victory in champion pluck off in Essex

Two champion turkey pluckers went head-to-head in Essex today to determine which is the most worthy to hold the title – and it was Irishman Vincent Pilkington who came out on top.

He holds the Guinness Book of Records title for the fastest plucker of a single turkey while Paul Kelly has the record for the fastest to pluck three turkeys. Vincent challenged Paul to a champion-of-champions pluck off for the fastest with two turkeys.

The event took place at Paul’s home, Little Claydons Farm, Howe Green, near Chelmsford, where two 17lb white hen turkeys were plucked by each contestant and Vincent won in a time of 11 minutes 08.33 seconds — with Paul finishing 33 seconds behind.

Expressing his delight at winning the challenge, Vincent wasn’t surprised the plucking time was a lot slower than his Guinness record time of only one minute 30 seconds for a single turkey recorded on RTE television back in 1980.

Paul Kelly [right] congratulating Vincent Pilkington on winning

“Remember I’m retired now but I still like to keep my hand in helping local farmers with plucking their turkeys at Christmas around where I live at Cootehill in County Cavan — and it paid off today,” remarked Vincent.

Paul had to admit he came out second best on this occasion — and congratulated his host whom he first met when they competed in the world plucking championships in Sussex in the early 1980s and again when Vincent used to help Kelly Turkeys with plucking during the 1990s.

www.kellyturkeys.com