Great Yorkshire Show

Blue Faced Leicester – Great Yorkshire Show 2021.

What a great day for showing as the country slowly edges to normality after the last 18 months. The sun was out, the crowds, albeit in smaller numbers, were present and the craic was good, with friends seeing each other for the first time in a long while. Oh, and there was the small matter of sorting the sheep out too, a job which fell to Ben Wight, Midlock.

There were some strong classes that took some sorting under the heat of the sun, but Ben was more than up to the task, and the championship was awarded to Hannah Stenton from the Thornton le Dale flock for her 1 crop ewe…or for having the biggest smile on the show field…one or the other….either way, it was more than justified as she went on to take the Interbreed championship the following day, completing a great show for Hannah who has been a stalwart of the show, along with her dad, for many years. Her ewe was bought privately from the Penhill flock run by Tom Willoughby, and by a Riddings tup going back to the Carry House Jackpot. Her gimmer lamb was also placed in the gimmer lamb class too. It is the second time that Hannah, who only runs 8 ewes, has taken the breed championship and her first interbreed at the Great Yorkshire, and is a great credit to her and her family.

Sweeping into the reserve place was the Pye family from the rising Emmets flock, based in Abbeystead, near Lancaster. It was their debut at the show, and certainly a memorable one too. Their winner was a shearling tup, nicknamed Rambo, that they purchased out of Hawes last year from the Steel flock for £12,000 with Gavin White and Alec Brown. He has done well for them too, and there are already more than a few eyes looking already to the pen of tup lambs at Hawes this autumn. This long, tall tup is by Carry House Flash, which is performing well for Martyn Archer. To complete the day they also took the Mule championship with a gimmer lamb by another Steel tup lamb, N3, that they bought last year out of the rearranged Kelso sale at Lanark, and also taking the pairs first prize too.

Reserve champion in the female section was a strong gimmer shearling from Jack Buckle. This smart sheep was by M1 Smearsett, a son of Ted and out of his show ewe which was champion at the Great Yorkshire a couple of years back, by the Domino tup run at Riddings. She is the full sister to his 4 tup lambs that sold at last year at Hawes to average £3700. She will probably up for sale at the in-lamb sales later next year, so best start saving your pennies if interested!

The Reserve male champion came from the Glen flock from Messrs Hunter, who had travelled down all the way from Aberdeenshire, as part of the modern day equivalent of the Border Reivers….coming down and winning all the prizes in many of the different breeds through the cattle and sheep sections. The tup lamb was by N1 Hundith, one of the best that Jack Lawson has bred I seem to recall him saying, that they bought out of Hawes last autumn for £12,000. It was certainly a powerful lamb with plenty of style and length, taking Bens eye in the class.

The gimmer lamb class was won by Jamie Macpherson from Ayrshire who runs the 10 strong Rigside flock. She was by a £10,000 Temain sire and out of a ewe that was 1^st at the Yorkshire show in 2018, going back to an old Midlock ewe which was one of the flocks foundation ewes.

First prize in the aged ram class was local breeders, JK Wilson and son, with a homebred tup, L1 Hewness, which first shot to fame a few years back with a mule gimmer by him winning the mule championship back at the last Yorkshire show in 2019.

Thanks must go to all the exhibiters and Ben for judging the show, but also a massive thank you must go to the staff at the Great Yorkshire Show for putting on the event, when many doubted it could even go ahead, let alone be such a resounding success. For this we salute you….and see you next year!