Gt Yorks journal 07.09. 716 words (with pictures from Gavin Haworth).
(A great Great Yorkshire Show)
By Howard Walsh
IT must have been one of, if not the best, Great Yorkshire
Shows for our breed.
It was certainly the best for that invincible duo from north
of the border, Gordon Connor and Scott Dalrymple. They
clinched the breed championship and reserve and went on
to win the reserve best female in the show with their breed
champion, the shearling (or gimmer if you are a fellow
countryman) that had taken the championship at this
year’s Royal Highland.
On Wednesday, this striking young four-horned sheep
topped the short wool/lowland line-up and was then pulled
out to stand under the Great Yorkshire’s champion female
(and ultimate supreme), a Beltex gimmer lamb.
But there was another important accolade to come the
way of the Jacob breed on Thursday. Our breed judge
Anna Milner had had no hesitation on the Tuesday, in
putting forward Clive Richardson’s third prize senior ram
Border Lancer for the third day’s ‘wool on the hoof’
competition. He won the coloured breed section and then
in the championship line-up, seasoned wool grader
Malcolm Hudson of Saltaire, West Yorkshire took his time
and repeatedly inspected the Ryeland, Rough Fell and
Wensleydale – and Clive’s highly successful two-horned
ram - before eventually settling on the Jacob for his overall
champion. And if that was not enough, the Connor and
Dalrymple breed champion and reserve, also caught the
eye of the panel of six ‘housewives’ to take second place
in the Housewives’ Choice competition.
Young Mairi Connor marked the Dun-mor partnership’s
successes with an enjoyable and patriotic stint on the
‘pipes’ while father Gordon made his mark on a bottle of
the native distillation – and ultimately a modest hangover
!!
Scott, with an apparently greater capacity for liquid
celebration (is that a challenge ?) appeared none the
worse for the evening’s festivities.
The Dun-mor show team was quite possibly the best they
have ever put together and Gordon and Scott certainly
had confidence in their entries to the extent they had
decided to concentrate efforts on the Jacobs and had not
entered in any other breed.
So which sheep stole the limelight ?
Their champion was Dun-mor Urika, a daughter of Dunmor True Blue and out of an aged Hallgarth ewe that is
now a 12-cropper and bettered only by another Peter
Rudd-bred ewe they have, that has lambed 13 times.
The winning shearling had taken a blue rosette at the
Highland as a lamb before coming back on top form this
year to win the championship at East Fife, Haddington,
Angus and of course the Royal Highland.
The Connor and Dalrymple reserve breed champion was
their shearling tup, Dun-mor Uppity, a son of the big Dunmor Ronaldo, much acclaimed by those society members
who visited the flock durng the agm weekend.
Uppity was a single lamb out of a Cavers ewe lambing for
the first time having been bought as a gimmer lamb at the
St Boswells sale. He was never shown as lamb but this
year took a second at Ayr, reserve champion at Angus,
and a second at the Royal Highland. Uppity was also a
class winner at Haddington in the hands of Scott who was
showing there on the same day that Gordon paraded the
Don-mor entries at Doune and Dunblaine.
In the shearling class at the Yorkshire, the Dun-mor entry
stood above Howard Walsh’s four-horner that was a
daughter of Stephen Dodsworth’s 2007 champion Cavers
ram. Anna Milner subsequently pulled in the Walsh entry
to take the reserve female title.
And in the ram classes, she also went for the secondplaced shearling to take the reserve male title. Needless
to say, this was another Dun-mor entry, firmly stamping
that flock’s mark on the show. He was Dun-mor Ultimate,
a Hyndshaw Darius son. His mother was out of the same
Hallgarth ewe that bred the breed champion.
“It was definitely the best Great Yorkshire show we have
had,” said Gordon. “We have been reserve in the Jacobs
twice and have won with fat lambs and Beltex before, but I
think our decision to put all our effort into the Jacobs this
year, really paid off.
The ram lamb class was won by Clive Richardson with a
home-bred lamb and the ewe lamb class by Betty Palmer
with a Helen Baillie-bred lamb. Leading the ewes was
Stephen Dodsworth.