A tidy entry of 122 ‘springers,’ the largest of the year to date, were judged by York retail butcher  Luke Swales, who picked out the first prize Continental single lamb, a 40kg Beltex-cross from local breeder Robert Lambert, of Moss Farm, Wigglesworth, as the overall champion.

The home-bred title-winner was by a Beltex ram, Signature Walter, purchased as a shearling for a price-topping 2,500gns by Mr Lambert at Skipton’s main breed highlight in 2015 from Red Rose showman George Cropper, of Baxenden. Mr Lambert reports that the Signature tup has since made its mark on his pure-bred Beltex and Beltex-cross breeding flock, which currently stands at over 500-strong.

The twenty-one-year-old adjudicator then backed his judgment by purchasing his chosen victor for the day’s top per head and by-weight price of £165, or 412.5p/kg, also snapping up his reserve champion, the second prize single Beltex-cross ram lamb, a 36kg all-black from Neil Tattersall, of Town Farm, Ellerton, York, for £135, or 375p/kg.

Mr Swales also claimed his first prize pair of Continental-cross lambs, 39kg pure-bred Charollais from Charles and Valerie Marwood, who run the Foulrice pedigree flock in Whenby, near York, for £132 each, or 338.5p/kg. The judge took home five Spring lambs in total for his family-run Knavesmire Butchers in Albermarle Road, York. All will be ready in time for the imminent Easter trade.

The Marwoods were also responsible for the second prize Continental-cross pair, 41kg Charollais - like the red rosette winners December-born - sold for £106 per head to Felliscliffe’s Andrew Atkinson, buying on behalf of Rowland Agar Wholesale Butchers in Ilkley.

Also going to Agars were the first prize 42kg Suffolk-cross pairs from Tom Walmsley, of D&A Livestock in Haverah Park, Harrogate, for £111 each, and, from the same vendor, the third prize 37kg Continental-cross single lamb at £105, along with the third prize 36kg Continental-cross pairs from Tim Robinson, of Longridge, Preston, at £99 each.

Agars’ prize-winning lambs will all be going to two regular local customers, Lishman’s Butchers in Ilkley and David Isherwood Butchers in Silsden.

D&A Livestock completed a good day with another first prize winner in the singles show class for Suffolk-cross with a 43kg lamb sold for £122, or 283.7p/kg, to Hamlets Butchers in Garstang.

Mr Atkinson was back in action when buying the two second prize Suffolk-cross pens for family-run North Yorkshire abattoir and meat wholesalers, A Traves & Son in Escrick. Both were shown by John Key, of Stocksbridge, the second prize 49kg pair making £117 each, the 45kg single £113.

Steeton Suffolk stalwart Mark Evans, of Tower Gate Farm, finished third in both show classes with a 58kg single and 55kg pairs, which fell at £130 and £120 per head respectively to the same buyer, Countrystyle Meats Farm Shop in Lancaster.

Kendalls Farm Butchers, which has shops in Harrogate and Pateley Bridge, secured lambs for £130 per head from 2016 Easter Spring lamb champion Robert Towers, of Farleton, Lancaster, while Keelham Farm Shop purchased lambs at 257.8p/kg from the same vendor for its Skipton and Thornton outlets. Woodends Butchers in Adel also purchased Easter lambs from D&A Livestock.

The annual Easter showcase attracted both vendors and buyers from a very wide area. Spring lambs sold to an overall average of £106.02 per head, or 244.52p/kg.