It was a hat-trick of wins for Robert Garth and Sarah Priestley as they claimed their third consecutive supreme championship amongst the sheep classes with a pair of pure-bred Beltex lambs at the English Winter Fair.
Following on from their victory at both the Borderway AgriExpo and AgriFest South West, the pair of 45kg lambs were by Todhall Freddie which was purchased at Kelso last year, while the dams were home-bred that make up part of the Keasden pedigree flock from Peaks View, Bentham.
“The Champion pair had everything I was looking for – conformation, fat cover and length,” commented the day's judge, Chris Wright who runs a meat wholesaler from Boston and also owns the Brothertoft Flock of pedigree Beltex.
With a total of seven pairs here, Robert and Sarah also secured the reserve championship ticket with their winning duo from the trimmed wether class which were again pures but this time by a Paul Slater tup.
Success didn't stop there for Robert as he also stood victorious in the trimmed ewe lamb class as well as the single butchers’ lamb class.
A pair of 45kg April-born lambs from the Hall family of Inglewood Edge, Dalston took home the reserve pedigree lamb honours behind the winning pure-bred Beltex lambs. The pair are sired by a Dutch Texel bred by Robin Slade, from Herefordshire and out of home-bred Beltex cross ewes that run in a 2000-ewe commercial flock at home.
The large entry of untrimmed lambs saw Anthony and Emma Thompson’s 80-90kg pair take the untrimmed championship, whilst a pair of 90-100kg Beltex lambs from Inglewood Edge land the reserve.
Champion native breed was won by H and E Williams, Wales with a pair of Brecknak Hill lambs that were bred by Davies Bros, with Worcestershire-based breeders, J and S Long stood reserve overall with home-bred Southdown lambs.
Dominating the Jacob sheep section and standing both champion and reserve was Abbie Higginson's Cheshire-based Meadowland flock, with home-bred lambs taking home the goods.
In the carcase section, David Wadland took home the red, white and blue sash with a pure Beltex by a home-bred sire that graded E4L – weighing 57kg live and 37.3kg dead – and gave a 65.4% kill out percentage. Reserve honours were awarded to an E3L entry from the Blandford family with the top Saddle of Lamb ticket going to C and M Morris.
“The champion had great length, conformation and fat class – just the sort we’d look to produce with the length needed for Barnsley Chops,” stated the judge, David Morland, of Tebay Services.
Toby Lawton headed up the trio of live and dead lambs with a group by a Boothlow tup bought last year, whilst The Perpetual Lamb Saddle Trophy was awarded to Joseph Morris Butchers with their Beltex ewe lamb, with the reserve title going to Greenfields. The winning entries made £320 and £200 respectively for charity in Bagshaws’ post-show auction.
Earlier on the Sunday, the Royal Smithfield RABI Single Butchers Lamb trophy went to Nick Page of The Goodwood Estate, West Sussex with a Beltex cross Texel with reserve a Texel-cross from G Bellfield, Cheshire.
