Averages: 210 Shearling rams £926 (+£85 for eight fewer); 12 ram lambs, £262.

With entries slightly down on the year and sharper trades for ewe lambs, gimmers and draft ewes, expectations were 'quietly confident' before the sale of the North of England Branch of Blackface sheep at Hexham on Monday.

Trade matched that optimism and was buoyant throughout the sale, with many new faces round the ring mixing with the usual contingent of regular breeder buyers and high-end commercial producers.

Auctioneer Chris Armstrong commented: “Breeders' sheep were in short supply and those that were fancied saw a smart return, whilst there was a strong commercial trade from £500-£800 throughout.”

The shearlings were judged by George Bernie, from Alnwick, and his top choice was a sheep from Frank Hall, the shepherd for Selby Robson, Yatesfield, who had three shearlings forward. Frank runs 45 ewes of his own and this son of £1300 Larg of Creetown and out of a ewe by a £3500 Holylee sire sold for £7500 to Joe Walton and Stewart Robson, Tofthouse and Neil Robson, Townshields.

Earlier in the sale, Tofthouse sold the top priced sheep of the day at £11,000. He is by the £16,000 Wanwoodhill bought at Lanark in 2017 in partnership with Kirkstead and Mountbenger, and out of a ewe by £1200 Wanwoodhill. He was part of the second prize group of three shearlings and he was bought by Andy and Caroline Hunter, from Carrick and The Steel.

Another in the group from Tofthouse, bred the same way, sold to Andrew Murray, Stell Green, for £8000. Mr Murray also had a tremendous pen of shearlings forward with six out the seven he sold making £1000 or more.

His top lot was chapped down at £7500 to Tofthouse and was by a seven-year-old Horseholm tup and out of a draft ewe bought from Tofthouse.

Another from the pen made £6000. By a home-bred son of £4000 Wanwoodhill, bought at Lanark, out of a £4500 Milnmark ewe, he went to J Pattinson, Hotbank, who also bought the next sheep in the ring at £2500.

Geoff Paxton and his daughter Fiona were delighted with their trade of £4400 for a shearling sired by £2500 Wanwoodhill and out of a ewe by a Stewartshields tup, selling to M Ridley, Shitlington.

Jamie Murray, Sewingshields, sold shearlings to a top of £3500 for a son of a Westhill tup, out of a Hotbank-sired ewe, which was sold to Neil Robson, Townshields, and Peter Turnbull, Shepherds Croft. Another from this pen made £2400 to Mr Gibson, Thorntown Towers – this was sired by £9000 Sewingshields which was the champion at last year's sale.

Anabelle Moreshead, Nilston Rigg, sold her pen leader for £3500. This son of £4000 Tofthouse out of a home-bred ewe went to Messrs Woodman, Great Chesters.

Philip and Dan Walton, Wanwoodhill, received £2600 for a son of Binladen, out of home-bred ewe, from Charlie Halbert, Prospect House. The Waltons sold another at £2000 – by a £2800 Kirkstead sire out of a £8500 Kirkstead-sired ewe, he went to the Lamperts.

Recouping some of the money they had spent earlier in the day was Andy and Caroline Hunter, Carrick, when they sold a son of £4000 Tofthouse at £2300 to G Sordie and Son, Hazelton Rigg. Another from the same pen made £2200, this time a son of £12,000 Tofthouse out of a £4800 Wanwoodhill ewe, selling to Messrs Charlton, Whiteside.

Also making £2200 to John Riddle, Blakelaw, was a £2000 Milnmark-sired shearling out of a £1000 Tofthouse ewe, from Selby Robson, Yatesfield.

The champion ram lamb and overall champion sheep, a son of £4000 Drannandow, from Robert Mackay, sold for £800 to A Ballantyne, The Lamperts.