SOUTHDOWNS peaked at 920gns at the society premier show and sale at Worcester, when the pre-sale champion, a shearling ram from the East Dean flock of Messrs Humphrey, Chichester, West Sussex, was purchased by Jessica Elnaugh, Drinkstone, Suffolk.

Next best at 600gns was another shearling ram, this time from Cambridgeshire-based Patrick Goldsworthy’s Webb Ellis Mas, which sold to SA and P Welton, Carmarthenshire.

Lead female at 500gns was a 2015-born ewe from the East Sussex-based Wakeham-Dawson and Harmer team, that sold to Messrs Sparke, Buckinghamshire.

Leading the Oxford Down sale staged the same day was the pre-sale champion, another shearling ram that made 420gns.

Consigned by JW and MFS Brown, Tenby, Penbrokeshire, it was knocked down to CR Lamb and Sons, Seahouses, Alnwick.

Dumfriesshire producer, AW Rutherford, Gretna, bought the next best at 400gns in a Greenlands-bred shearling ram from JR Williams, Ceredigion.

Averages: Southdowns – Nine senior ewes, £200.08; 24 gimmers, £286.34; four ewe lambs, £262.50; four senior rams, £158.81; 11 shearling rams, £474.40; nine ram lambs, £257.25. Oxford Downs – 27 shearling rams, £165.66; three ewe lambs, £213.50; 14 shearling rams, £202.50.

Auctioneers: McCartneys