STEPATHER and daughter Craig MacDonald and Olivia Robinson flew away with the top awards at Bentham Show on Saturday.

Mr MacDonald's bird, an Old English Game Partridge hen was awarded the Society Cup for the best bird in the show. He also took the top award for the best hard feather bird.

And Olivia kept up the family success by taking the best child's exhibit with the same breed of bird.

It was a double victory for the 11-year-old Settle College pupil who in the summer took the same award at the Great Yorkshire Show.

"We're really chuffed. You can't do much better than that," said Mr MacDonald.

This year saw the introduction of four new awards - the Frank Brennand Shield for judging skills, won by Emily Waring, the Joanne Ervine trophy for the champion Herdwick sheep, taken by Frank Brennand, the Agri-Lloyd Shield for champion Texel awarded to A Harker and the Nelson Fawcett Trophy for champion Masham won by M Fawcett.

It was a family affair in the pedigree goats section where Anne Jolley and her daughters, Sarah and Nicole, took the top awards.

Their Billy goat, Calder Bank Bobby, took the best male and was also awarded the best in show and they also took the prize for the best female in show with Old Oak Blossom.

The cattle section saw Sheila Mason, of Keasden Head Farm, Clapham, take the overall beef prize with a home bred British Blue heifer.

And Robert Butterfield, of Linghaw Farm, Bentham, was awarded the top dairy price with his animal Ingleview Goldson Lizebeth, a two -year-old heifer. It also took the prize heifer in milk prize.

The day dawned grey and wet but by mid-morning the clouds began to break and people were able to lower their hoods.

For John Dawson, the show chairman, it proved the sense of holding the show under cover in Bentham Auction Mart.

"Typical of Bentham, we're having some rain, but we're under cover and in the centre of town so people can get here much easier than when we were in a field and they can keep dry. We're thankful to the auction mart for letting us use the building."

Entries were very good and he was especially pleased with the response in the handicraft section which had shown a gradual increase year-on-year.

The outdoor exhibits included a display of vintage tractors, the winner a 1965 David Brown, a show of agricultural machinery, the judges being impressed by a 1952 Nuffield petrol driven mower, a flee of classic cars and motorcycles, top prize awarded to a 1923 Rover Clegg tourer and a display of stationary engines, the winner a 1953 Lister.

For results and trophy winners, see the Dales Life section of our website.