SKIPTON Auction Mart’s first registered sheep breed show and sale of 2015, the annual fixture for Blue Faced Leicester females, saw championship honours fall for an unprecedented fourth year in succession to the prolific Smearsett flock of WA and A Booth in North Craven.

Father and son David and Robin Booth, of Old Hall Cottage, Feizor, again saw their first prize gimmer hogg progress to land the overall title.

It sold for £500 to a Scottish buyer, Hugh Montgomery, who braved the weather, travelling down from his Assloss Farm in Kilmarnock.

He also paid the day’s top price of £580 for the second prize hogg from the Oddacres flock of John and Claire Mason in Embsay.

The Booths also presented the third prize winner in the in-lamb show class,which sold for £550 to NEMSA’s Skipton branch chairman Kevin Wilson, of Blubberhouses.

Joe and Nancy Throup, and their son George, who run the Chelker Blue Faced Leicester flock in Draughton, pitched in with the first and second prize in-lamb ewes, with their four-shear red rosette winner also adjudged reserve champion.

Scanned carrying a single lamb, she sold for £300 to Derbyshire breeder Matt Tomlinson, of Muggington, who also paid the same price for the Throups’ second prize ewe, a three-shear, scanned with a single lamb.

Dick, Anne and Alan Burley, of Wath, stepped up with the remaining prizewinner, the third prize gimmer hogg, which fell for £230 to Frank and Jack Kitching in Threshfield.

Twelve of the 15-strong BFL entry found new homes, with in-lamb ewes averaging £337.50 and gimmer hoggs £332.50.

The show formed part of Skipton’s fortnightly sale of 1,411 head of store lambs and breeding sheep.

The 1,367 store lambs - a large entry for the time of year - sold at an overall average of £55.61 per head.

The best of the lowland entries made to the mid-£70s, with the best Mules also above £70. Medium lambs were in the £60s, while smaller lambs sold at £50 to £55. Among the entry were 450 Swaledale and Dalesbred lambs and these sold nicely given the quality on offer.

Individual per head breed averages were: Beltex £64, Texel £61.92, Suffolk £57.91, Mule £64.90, Swaledale £38.95 and Dalesbred £37.95. In the breeding sheep section, in-lamb Texel ewes sold to £149, with an average of £147.50, and in-lamb Swaledale ewes to £102.