Beams family to swing the axe at Agfest

All four will compete at the 2017 Timbersports Australia Championship at Agfest from Thursday to Saturday with Dale taking part in the Tasmanian men’s category, the boys in the rookie category and Amanda chopping in demonstration events for the newly-formed women’s competition.

Deloraine axeman Matthew Gurr and Sheffield’s Kody Steers will again compete in the Pro-Tour category, with Gurr’s sons Daniel and Luke taking on the Beams boys in the rookies.

The head of the Beams clan was part of the Australian team that won the World Timbersports Championship in 2014 and is fighting to regain his spot.

“The whole four of us will be competing at Agfest and there is a women’s comp coming in this year but only Amanda down here in Tassie put her hand up for it at the moment but there will be another girl Emma Maxwell, from Queensland, doing a few demos with her for two disciplines each day,” Dale said.

“This will be my third year at Agfest and we will see how we go and I will try to push myself back up into that top eight group which is a bit hard to get into. I will compete here and hopefully make it through to Bathurst where the finals will be.

“Friday is the Tassie qualifying round and there are eight guys in there and Andrew Kelly has come up from the rookies – I cut this round last year and had a really good day and got through pretty easily and I would like to do the same again and tune up on a few things at the same time.”

Zack, 23, and Daniel, 21, will cut in the rookies on Thursday in a team Beams family affair.

“Zack went all right last year even though he hadn’t done any work for it – he hasn’t done much work again for it but he is going to be a nuisance for the others.

“He didn’t do any other rounds last year but he has just come back from the Sydney Royal Easter Show where he was cutting better than he has cut all year so he could be a bit of a smokey.

“It’s Daniel’s second year in the rookies and he made it to Bathurst last year and finished second overall so there is a bit of rivalry between them for bragging rights.”