IT WILL be quite a poignant moment for soon-to-be chairman of the RHASS’s board of directors, Clark Stewart, when he attends his 50th year at Ingliston.

It will be one of the few times in the show’s 50 years at Ingliston that his family will not be vying for prizes.

He was at the first event in 1960 as an ungainly 15-year-old, but he already regarded himself as a ‘veteran’ of some of the roving Highland Shows, as they were before that time. Then and now, his first love was showing sheep from the family’s well-known 1080-acre Kininmonth Farm, at Cupar.

“My first impression was of being quite underwhelmed by the Ingliston site,” he admitted. “I was given the day off school to show sheep and I can remember thinking that the facilities at the new permanent site were not that much different from those at the other roving show sites throughout Scotland.

“There were no tarmac roads, no permanent infrastructure and little in the way of the facilities that we can be so justly proud of today.”

Clark has been a director of the show for 17 years, but he readily admits that, even as recently as three years ago, reaching the lofty heights of ‘chairman’ was not part of his ‘life plan.’ However, he acknowledges that when good friend and like-minded livestock supporter, John Dykes, went on to the conveyor line that eventually pops directors into one of the biggest jobs in Scottish agriculture, it was a turning point for his ambitions within the RH and AS.

It is a quirk of the organisation’s politics that, every two years, once the show is over, then it’s time for the new boy to take over. That’s just what Clark will do from John Dykes just a couple of weeks after this year’s 50th Ingliston show.

But being in charge of ‘just’ the 51st and 52nd Ingliston Highlands – or, for that matter the 171st and 172nd shows – will in no way detract from the honour and responsibility that the post brings for Clark. Well-known as a pragmatic exponent of ‘let’s get things done’, he is from a family steeped in the lore of what it is to be first past the post at the Heilan’.

The Stewarts’ Kininmonth Border Leicester flock has been champion five times, culminating in the supreme sheep championship in 1989 with a home-bred ewe, which was by a home bred ram, Trueman – a fact that made victory all the sweeter for Clark. He has never been one for buying in champions.

Probably just as sweet for him, too, was the fact that her daughter went on to be breed champion in 1991 and reserve in 1992.

“When we won supreme in 1989, I well remember that when I next really had time to thank the judge, old Willie Sanderson, was at the Royal Show a couple of weeks later. I was down there with John Mauchlen and Johnny Morison and he was with Bill Frame, of Whinbush,” said Clark.

“Well, we must have ‘thanked’ him quite a bit that day, for the story goes that when old Willie woke up in his room, he told room-mate Bill to wake up as it was 8.45 and that the judging was about to start. To which Bill replied that it was still 8.45 on the same evening!

“That was the way it was in those days and, I hope, we can still preserve that sense of cameraderie that competing at the very highest level can bring. Livestock is still very much part of the ‘main event’ at Ingliston and while we should never shy away from introducing new features, I represent those who want live animals to remain at its core,” said Clark.

It was the cameraderie ‘thing’ too, that resulted in what was an amusing ‘Royal’ story from the show. During a visit by the Princess Royal, Princess Anne, Clark was introduced to her along with fellow Leicester breeders, John Young, Skerrington; Hugh Gurthrie, Mosside; and Ian Gilmour, Humeston, when she asked Clark what was his flock record price.

The answer was £7000 – and when she asked who had paid that for Kininmonth Tri-Pact, Clark was able to indicate the three gentlemen alongside him. When the Princess opined that £7000 was quite a lot of money for a ram, former RHASS treasurer, Hugh, was able to agree: “Aye, too right ma’m!”

Now with Kininmonth firmly in the capable hands of his two sons, Allan and John, and with wife Sheila as his aide de camp, Clark is looking forward to taking over the chains of office from John Dykes for the next two years.

“I said earlier that at my first show I was a bit underwhelmed by the new showground. Well, in those 50 years it has developed and evolved into a special ‘being’ with its own very singular atmosphere. I really do hope that, if we can, we will still be at Ingliston in another 50 years time – by which time the patina will be all the richer,” he added.