The North Craven-based Garth Partnership clinched supreme championship honours in the annual Christmas prime lamb show at Skipton Auction Mart.

Robert Garth and Kelly Armitage, of Burton-in-Lonsdale, stepped up on their reserve supreme championship performances in both 2012 and 2013 to land the top accolade at the latest renewal with a first-rate trio of 38kg Beltex-cross lambs, all by a home-bred three-shear ram.

The victors went on to prove the standout performers in the sales ring when sold for a show-topping £530 per head to butcher George Cropper, who runs his shop in Accrington Market with his daughter Clare, from Long Preston.

Ian and Mary Lancaster, of Coldcoats Farm, Wiswell, and their 14-year-old son Richard, who attends Ribblesdale High School in Clitheroe, presented the reserve supreme champion Beltex-cross lambs, first prize winners in the 40kg or more Continental-x trimmed class.

Their 41kg charges went under the hammer at £160 when falling to Bowland Foods via the show judge Harry Wood. They were purchased on behalf of regular customer Huntley’s Farm Shop in Samlesbury.

The Brown family, of Beechwood House Farm, Newton-le-Willows, were outgunned this year in their bid to land a Skipton Christmas prime lamb championship hat-trick, though they were again among the leading prizewinners and also had the same day’s champion lamb carcase.

Brown Beltex clinched two Continental-x untrimmed first prizes with a 43kg trio that also fell to Bowland Foods at £148 each, and a 35kg trio sold for £142 each to None-Go-Bye Farm Shop in Horsforth.

They also stepped up with 34kg trimmed Beltex lambs that finished second in class behind the overall supreme champions, before selling for £112 each to Vivers Scotlamb in Annan, who also paid £130 per head for the Browns’ second prize 42kg Beltex trio, and £132 for the second prize 39kg Continental-cross untrimmed lambs from Paul Simpson, of Wigglesworth.

Further Bowland Foods prize-winning acquisitions were two third prize Continental-x trimmed trios from Skipton’s Richard and Patsy Hodgson, with 40kg entries at £102 and 37kg lambs at £96, the third prize 48kg Continental-x trimmed lambs from JJ Beckwith & Son, of Gargrave, at £146, and the second prize 46kg Suffolk-cross pen from Jonathan Shorrock, of Cliviger, Burnley, at £81.

Keelham Farm Shop in Thornton, Bradford, paid £114 per head for the first prize 50kg Suffolk-cross pen, presented for the second successive year by Anthony Thompson, of Foulridge, while Kendalls Farm Butchers, which has shops in Pateley Bridge and Harrogate, acquired the second prize 48kg Continental-x untrimmed lambs from James and Simon Garth, of Keasden, at £112.

The pick of the Texel entries, the 39kg third prize winners in a trimmed Continental-x class, was shown by Richard and Mark Ireland, of Whalley, selling for £104 each to butcher Paul Leadbeater for his shop in Cross Roads, near Keighley.

The champion pen of hill-bred lambs was a home-bred 52kg Scotch Blackface pen shown by North York Moors National Park breeders Ken and Joan Flintoft, of Egton.

They became the inaugural winners of the Anthony Dean Perpetual Challenge Trophy, presented in memory of the late former chairman of Craven Cattle Marts by his son Angus, of Threshfield. The title winners sold to show judge Alan Blades, who runs the Wensleydale Pantry in Hawes with his two brothers.

Reserve champion hill lambs were the first prize 52kg Masham trio from David and Kathryn Wilson, and their son Richard, who trade as JM Wilson and Son at Crimple Head Farm, Beckwithshaw. All by the same home-bred Teeswater ram, the reserves were bought for £90 on behalf of The Millstones Restaurant in Kettlesing, who again made several acquisitions at the annual showcase.

Welsh wholesaler St Merryn Foods in Merthyr Tydfil was a major buyer of hill lambs, with seven prize-winning pens among their haul. These included the first and second prize Mule pens – the 51kg red rosette winners from Silsden Moor’s Ken and Linda Throup at £89 each, and the 48kg runners-up from Stephen Fawcett and family in Barden at £85.

In addition, they snapped up the first and second prize 42kg Dalesbred pens, the red rosette winners shown by Richard Close, of Starbotton, at £72, and the runners-up from Frank Carr, of Kirkby Malham, at £75, also adding a further two third prize trios – 51kg Mashams from Keith Porteous, of Bedale, at £82, and 46kg Swaledales from Joe and Nancy Throup in Draughton at £74.

Skipton-based Swaledale Foods also made a number of acquisitions including the first prize 49kg Swaledale trio from Robert Crisp, of Calton, at £80, and the third prize 56kg Mule pen from Kevin Wilson, of Blubberhouses, at £88.

Mr Crisp was also responsible for the second prize 49kg Swaledale pen, which sold for £76 to Halifax meat wholesalers J&E Medcalf.

Riley Bros Butchers in Crawshawbooth, Rossendale, bought two prize-winning trios, the second prize 52kg Masham pen from Mike Allen, of Borrowby, at £82, and a third prize 40kg hill-bred pen Cheviots from Cliviger’s Jonathan Shorrock for £72.

The second prize 43kg hill-bred pen, also Cheviots, from Carl Fawcett, of Sand Hutton, York, fell to Hartwith’s Nick Dalby for £78.