The Trumpers – mum and dad Lyndon and Jane, daughter Charlotte and twin sons Edward and Oliver – were well rewarded after setting off from home at 2am on the morning of the show for the four-and-a-half hour drive north after seeing the title fall to their classy 2-horn, said to be the best ewe lamb ever offered from their Beiliau flock.
 
Also first prize winner in its show class and female champion, the lamb is one of January-born triplets to Border Windrush, bred by Clive Richardson in Cumbria and used jointly with fellow Welsh Jacob breeder Rhordri Jones, who has the Lower Argoed flock in Builth Wells, Powys.
 
The Trumpers run Flock No 1632 and Lyndon Trumper, who works as an auctioneer at Monmouthshire Livestock Centre, has been involved with Jacobs ever since he was a boy. The family set the breed record of 2,600gns with a home-bred shearling ram sold at Worcester, a price that was equalled at last year’s Skipton Jacob highlight.

Their Skipton victor is by a dam purchased as an ewe lamb three years ago from Deborah Powell’s Pard House flock in Worcestershire. Both her triplet brother and sister have been retained in the flock.
 
The supreme champion went on to make top price in show when knocked down for 1,500gns to South Lakeland buyers Geoff and Sheila Wood, who run the Moorhouse flock in Scales, Ulverston.
 
Derbyshire show judge Richard Chapman, a long-established 2-horn breeder from Belper, said his chosen title winner just had that little more presence than the reserve supreme champion, the first prize ram lamb and male champion, which also came from Wales in the hands of show regular and multiple past supreme champion Jean Price, who runs the Pentrenant pedigree flock in Churchstoke, Powys.
 
Her January-born 4-horn, Pentrenant Brandy Boy, is a son of Hope Flash Lad, bought as a lamb from his Welsh breeders Wyn and Siwan Harries, of Llandeilo in Carmarthenshire, who was used as a yearling and is now into his second breeding season.
 
Out of an older Pentrenant ewe, Brandy Boy had already made his mark in the show arena this year, finishing first in class and overall reserve champion at Stafford, and first in class at the Royal Three Counties. He sold for second top call of 1,200gns to Mrs Victoria Stanley, of Melbourne in Derbyshire.
 
Reserve male champion was the first prize 2-shear or over ram from Cumbrian breeder Sarah Kendall’s Longdales flock in Low Hesket, Carlisle. Her January, 2015, 2-horn, Comberton Elm, acquired from the Britten family, is a son of Millvale Willow. He sold locally for top price in class of 240gns to Malham Moor’s Mary Throup.
 
The reserve female championship was awarded to the first prize shearling ewe from the Dunmor flock of Scottish breeders Gordon Connor and Scott Dalrymple, from Bridgend, Linithglow in West Lothian. Their home-bred January, 2016, 2-horn, one of triplets by Dunmor Ace, returned north of the border when claimed for 270gns by Kenny Dickson, of Fintry in central Scotland.
 
Husband and wife, Sid and Sheila Moore, who run the Willmors flock in Newton-le-Willows, Bedale, were responsible for the first prize shearling ram, the February, 2016, 4-horn Wilmors King Leroy, a home-bred by Overdale Irn Bru, which made top price in class of 810gns when falling to Mrs E Wilson, of Wasdale in Cumbria’s Lake District National Park.
 
The remaining show class for aged ewes fell to Mrs Price’s husband Robert, who runs his own Pentre flock, with a 4-horn, one of February, 2013, twins by Harbell Nelson. She sold for 230gns to David Sizer, of Darlington.
 
It was the second prize aged ewe, another Jean Price-bred February, 2015, 2-horn from the Meadowland flock of the Ridout and Higginson partnership in Somerford Booth, Congleton, Cheshire,that achieved top price in class of 260gns when claimed locally by Sheila Carr, of Threshfield.
 
Shearling ewe prices peaked at 300gns for a January, 2016, 2-horn from the Moorhouse flock of GA&S Wood. The daughter of Whowells Angus, out of a home-bred Greenacres Friendly-sired ewe, found a new home in Ireland with County Tyrone’s P Colhoun,
 
The show attracted a 178-strong entry and produced the following averages: Shearling rams £365, ram lambs £348, shearling ewes £171, ewe lambs £148 and aged ewes £114. Skipton-based JACS Trade & DIY was once again the keynote sponsor.