Exeter – 19th September 2025

Exeter Show and Sale – 19^th September 2025

Kindly Sponsored by Mole Avon Town and Country

The show and sale for the area moved to its new home this year – Exeter Livestock Market.  It is hoped that the move makes it more accessible to those breeders and buyers from a little further up the country and for this first fixture, it was good to see some new faces both inside and out of the ring.  Overall consensus was that the day was a great success and with close to 100% clearance, there are high hopes for even bigger and better sales going forward.

Before the sale, of course, came the show – this year we are grateful to Mr George Abel from Tavistock for his expert opinion.  There was a good mix of both Traditional and Crossing type sheep forward and for the first class of the day (shearling tups), it was the Crossing type that took the top spot, with Brian Dallyn’s sturdy Killington T005 (this being sired by a Tintoside tup out of a Brindifield ewe).   Helen Havill came a close second with her Traditional type Martin Grange T013 shearling (sired by Ashes R009) with Paul Pearse taking 3^rd and 4^th places with Barramoor T002 and T007 respectively, both of which were sired by a Wildmoor tup.

Then came the tup lambs which was a split between Helen Havill’s Traditionals and Richard Turner’s Crossing types.  Helen’s pen leader, Martin Grange V002, was favoured with Richard’s Brindifield V006 in second spot.  Back to Helen’s pen for third place (Martin Grange V016), with Richard taking fourth with Brindifield V005.  Both breeders had superb strong lambs, full of good breeding.

For the aged ewes, a sharp 6 year old traditional female fought off the rest of the competition to secure first place – this was Richard Turner’s homebred M035 ewe, still looking on good form despite having several years of work under her belt.  Richard also took second spot with Brindifield P029 with Barry Nicholls in third with his homebred Heddon Valley S019.

Helen Havill swept the board in both the gimmer shearling and lamb classes with sweet, sharp females from her Martin Grange flock.  Her shearlings T032 and T038, both by the Ashes R009 took first and second respectively, with lambs V027 and V041 rounding off her success of the day.

For the male and female deciders, Mr Abel gave the male championship to Brian Dallyn’s first placed shearling with reserve going to Helen Havill’s top lamb.   The best female was given to Helen Havill for her shearling with Richard Turner’s aged ewe being placed in reserve.

Finally, to the overall championship – Brian Dallyn’s crossing type shearling, Killington T005, was awarded the coveted rosette, but to decide the reserve place, Helen Havill’s second place shearling tup joined the race.  After much deliberation, the judge gave the blue and white rosette to Helen’s traditional shearling tup, Martin Grange T013.

The after-show sale took place a while later with tups hotly in demand both from ringside and on Mart-eye.  Only 3 out of the 42 males forward didn’t find new homes.  Brian Dallyn’s powerful champion shearling tup achieved the top price of the day, reaching 1,600 gns which went home with the Rowe family of Simonsbath.  This added to a great year for Brian on the show and sale circuit.

Other notable prices were 1,400gns for Richard Turner’s 2^nd place Crossing type tup lamb, Brindifield V006 – this lamb went back to the Medland family of Peter Tavy.  The reserve champion of the day, Helen Havill’s Traditional shearling, Martin Grange T013 achieved 1,100gns and was secured by J Jordan of Gidleigh.  Paul Pearse’s Crossing type shearling tup Barramoor T007 made 1,000gns too.  With plenty more sheep in the high hundreds, it brought the average for the males to just shy of 700gns.

With all females selling, the top placed ewe, Helen Havill’s Martin Grange T032, made 360gns with the aged ewe from Richard Turner which achieved reserve champion female today, reaching a very noteworthy 400gns.

After a successful first event at Exeter, thanks go to Kivells auctioneers, Mole Avon Town and Country for kindly sponsoring the show and of course to George Abel for agreeing to be our judge today.