After another wet winter when the grass grows quicker than my hairline recedes, I thought it was time I replaced my Qualcast Concorde E30 (Deluxe!) electric rotary mower for a real mower. Something that wasn't an accident waiting to happen if you ran over the trailing electric cable, same cable still not long enough to reach the bottom of my relatively small garden without an extension lead. Something that could cut in wet weather and with a large collector box that didn't need emptying more than once per use.

A petrol mower now that's what I needed..

Looked on ebay, but the petrol mowers I bid for at £40 seemed to go for at least £80+. After nearly giving up my search and going to Argos I thought I would look on loot.com. This was good as long as you restrict your search to those adverts that are more than a week old - you do not need to pay for privilege, unlike the 'hot off the press' items. This does mean that potentially that you are looking at the scraping the bottom of the barrel items! On the other hand it might just mean that nobody has discovered the gem perhaps because of the way the advert was written etc.

I saw a Mountfield for £40ono, ideal. I was going to buy this from a chap who spoke with the strongest Scottish accent, I could not understand the majority of what said, so I thought I would let the goods speak for themselves. I drove 30 miles there to find that this elderly gentleman's hobby was fettling old mowers, he said that the Mountfield was readvertised after a prospective punter broke the starter string....
However this had been replaced and the mower was old but in good order, it was missing the collector box, vital if, like me, you are averse to raking up all the cuttings.
I was shown several Qualcast Suffolk Punch mowers probably at least as old as the gentleman (or the Ark?), all repainted in that well known Hammerite colour - Army tank Salisbury Plain green. Despite h
is kind offer of a cuppa tea after my journey I made my politely made my excuses and moved on.
The next mower on my list was conveniently almost on the way back home, a Champion 434. The positive reviews I sawe on dooyoo earlier convinced me that it was a good make even though had never heard of it (the fact it was the cheapest petrol mower availabe at Argos had nearly put me off).
Phoned up the seller to learn that he was emigrating and needed to shift the mower soon, this was good news. I was told the mower was 18 months old, but was probably older given a date of 1999 on the mower plate with manufacturers details. Never mind, paid £40 cash after brief haggle and he even helped me load it in the boot of my car (no cuppa tea offered this time though). No instructions but how hard could operating a mower be? Oil in one hole, Unleaded petrol in the other, squeeze teat three times to get her ready (steady on!) and start moving by pulling the throttle bar, stop by letting go and that's it.
The 3.5hp Briggs and Stratton engine fired up first time when I got it home - after realising that the throttle bar needs to be pulled up at the same time as the starter lead is pulled, doh!
The garden hadn't been cut since last autumn and even though it was drizzling the job could not be put off any longer. With the height adhjuster aty its highest setting it cut even damp grass really well and compacted it nicely into the collector box.
The power of the engine took it across lumps and bumps with ease, the smell of petrol added to the attraction, maybe this was a reminder of earlier gokart driving experiences?
It was a little noisy compared to an electrixc mower but if the job's done in 1/3 the time frankly who cares?
All in all this mower made a tedious task fun, the mower appears durable and reliable - as it should be for something that weighs 20kg.
I'm very happy with my purchase but I will advise if it decides to let me down
.