Father and son David and Robin Booth have now been responsible for the title winner at the mart’s first registered sheep breed show and sale of the year for an unprecedented six times in the past seven years.

Victorious at the latest renewal was their Smearsett K27 gimmer hogg, by the Booths’ home-bred G11 ram, known at home as Ted, who has sold ram lambs to 24,000gns. He is himself by the renowned Smearsett D17 Yellow Tag tup, sold as an aged ram for 12,000gns.

The champion, out of a dam sired by a Lunesdale tup bred by Carnforth’s Gordon Rawsthorne, attracted keen interest in the sale ring from several interested parties, before falling for top call of £1,100 when finding a new home in Cumbria with Trevor and Andrew Procter, of Villa Farm, Great Musgrove, Kirkby Stephen.

The Booths also sold a second K32 gimmer hogg by the same sire, out of a gimmer shearling by their well utilised crossing sire Smearsett D15, for £750 to Josh and Richard Ryder, who run a small Blue Faced Leicester pedigree flock at Haverah Park, Harrogate.

Show judge Ian Lancaster, of Wiswell, Clitheroe, tapped out a home-bred in-lamb H49 ewe from the Laund pedigree flock in Chipping as his reserve champion. Run by John Stott, it is one of the oldest flocks in the country, being established by Mr Stott, a founder member, past chairman and president of the Bluefaced Leicester Sheep Breeders’ Association, when he was just 11-years-old. He is now 72.

The overall runner-up, shown by Mr Stott’s grandson, George Hamlet, who works full time on the farm, is a daughter of a Midlock D7 tup acquired from Scottish breeder Allan Wight for 3,500gns. Scanned carrying triplets to a home-bred K24 tup, first prize ram lamb at last year’s Great Yorkshire Show, the ewe sold for £300 to Rodney Bros in Littlethorpe, Ripon.

The Laund flock landed a clean sweep of the prizes in the in-lamb show class, with four in the pen of five selling at £300, the other at £250, producing an overall average of £290 per head.

Back with the gimmer hoggs, former Skipton winter show champions John and Claire Mason, who run the Oddacres flock in Embsay, picked up second and third prize rosettes from their pen of three. Top performer on price, again at £300, was their home-bred K33 hogg, by the couple’s Asby Hall H3 ram, out of a Potts ewe. It sold locally to Joe and Nancy Throup in Draughton, with the other two in the Oddacres pen making £250 and £200.

The small, but select 11-strong entry achieved total clearance, with sharp trade to match.

The BFL fixture formed part of Skipton’s second fortnightly Wednesday sheep sale, which attracted 658 head and saw store lambs trade strongly to an overall average of £52.85 per head, with the best Continentals selling to £91 and stronger sorts in the mid £60s to mid £70s. Several lots of nice Lonk wethers produced a breed average of £55, similar for Mules.

In-lamb sheep also sold well, a tidy dispersal of correct Texel ewes 2-shear and upwards seeing the best trade at £110 to £120, and smaller types £100-£105. In-lamb ewes averaged £105.45.

Looking ahead, Skipton’s opening weekly sale of ewes with lambs at foot takes place on Monday, February 19, followed the same week by the final Wednesday sale for store sheep, gimmer hoggs and in-lamb breeding sheep, with an entry of 1,000 head anticipated.