Individual breed averages peaked at a rock solid £118.94, or 295p/kg, for the 561 head of Beltex among the mix. Others were equally impressive, with 1,781 Texel averaging £106.58, or 250.29p/kg, 263 Suffolk and Down-cross £111, or 249.15p/kg, 42 Charollais £113.86, or 257.65p/kg, and 734 Mule and Masham £98.91, or 233.73p/kg,

Heavy lambs were £120-£135 all sale long, with hill lambs, notably the top end, equally good to sell, the best Mules and Mashams making £110-£115. There was also a solid entry of 628 Swaledale, Dalesbred, Lonk, Gritstone and Scottish Blackface.

The best horned lambs, 44kg Lonks from Jim Greenwood, of Addingham, sold for £109 to Jim Holden, of Woodhead Bros in Colne, who also judged the same day’s monthly prime lambs show.

He awarded the title to the first prize Continental pen, five home-bred 39kg Beltex-cross lambs from Hayley Baines, of Horton Grange Farm, Horton-in-Craven, which sold for £143 per head and were once more claimed by Tim Hamlet, of Hamlets Butchers in Garstang. The Church Street shop has now bought the champion pen at all three monthly shows to date this year.

Hayley Baines was also responsible for the third prize 38kg Beltex-cross pen, sold for £129 each to Hellifield regular Paul Watson.

However, it was the second prize and reserve champion Continental pen, 45lkg Beltex-cross from Andrew Phillips, of Burton Leonard, that topped at £144 per head when claimed by Vivers Scotlamb in Annan.

Newark’s Steve Dorey was a multiple prize winner, finishing first and second in two show classes, one with a brace of 52kg Mule pens sold at £115 and £110 each to, respectively, Swaledale Foods in Skipton and Mr Watson again.

Mr Dorey also had the first and second prize 46kg and 55kg Down-cross pens, these selling at £111 and £117 per head to, respectively, Woodhead’s Mr Holden, and Andrew Atkinson, of Felliscliffe.

Outside the show classes, the day’s top call of £145 per head fell to another lamb sold on behalf of Sue Ryder Manorlands Hospice in Oxenhope. The single Suffolk-cross was originally purchased by Kevin Marshall, of Dacre, at last December’s Addingham & District Sheep Breeders’ Association’s annual charity show and sale at Skipton, and after being over-wintered by Mr Marshall it returned for sale, when it was again well bid for, before eventually falling to RM Helliwell Livestock in Rochdale.

Cast sheep, 230 in total, saw cull ewes achieve a solid overall selling average of £93.29 per head, peaking at £138 each for a Texel pen from Thomas Walmsley, of Haverah Park, Harrogate. Cast rams averaged £77.83.

Also penned for sale were 157 store and breeding sheep, comprising 46 ewes with 81 lambs, and 30 store hoggs. These met the best trade of the season to date, with Richard Umpleby, of Killinghall, topping at £248 for Suffolk ewes with twins, followed at £238 for Texel twins from the same vendor, these averaging £235. Broken mouthed Mule ewes with lambs sold for the equivalent of £50-£60 per life.

While the weekly rearing calf sale attracted a reduced turnout of 43 head, there was a cracking trade for black and whites, with a lot of young calves selling to an overall average of £64 per head. A run of 15 12-to-21-day-old black and white bull calves from the Rawson family in Dewsbury averaged £65.

Continental entries averaged £358 per head, trading to a sale high of £450 for a Charollais-cross bull calf from the Herd family in Hebden. Native calves averaged £225 each.

Nine loads of produce sold to £39 per bale for round haylage, £33 per bale for round silage, £35 per bale for barley straw mini hestons, £28 per bale for wheat straw mini hestons and £3.30 per bale for small bale hay.