Is it really a year since the last twicey show? Blimey! how time flies, they do say though that time flies when you're having fun so I guess I must have been having a lot of fun over the last year!
Once again the Roman Wall Show had a tremendous turnout of sheep present. It never fails to amaze me that the show is so early in the season, not long after lambing time and yet the quality and quantity of sheep present is awesome, a credit to the industry, it has to be one of the best sheep shows in the area, regardless of the time of year.
The two photos above show the first mule ewe lamb class to be judged. These are mule lambs out of the blackfaced ewe and there were 36 (if my counting was correct) in the class to be judged with only 3 prizes to be won. The mule is a cross bred sheep. A bluefaced leicester tup is crossed onto the hill breeds of blackfaced or swaledale sheep to produce the much desired mule, a breed which is the mainstay of the 'in-bye' breeding flocks. Northumberland, due to the number of hill ewes present in the county, produces a lot of mule lambs and a show such as the twicey show is a great shop window to advertise your wares before the autumn sales commence.
The final line up
above, the 36 were whittled down to three, with first prize going to Whiteside.
Classes for mule lambs out of the swaledale ewe were also hotly contested, with the overall champion being one of these lambs bred out of the swaledale from High Town (note the sky - the weather was changing!)
Swaledale sheep were also being judged. It isn't always possible to view all the sheep being judged at once, supporters of a particular breed tend to watch the judging of that breed and miss the other breeds on show due to the sheep having their own 'show rings' to be set out into to be judged, these are not side by side and so I had to take a quick gander around to catch up on some of the other breeds, unfortunately I overlooked the blue faced leicesters!
There are only classes for four breeds of sheep at the Roman Wall Show. These being Blackfaced, Swaledale, Blue Faced Leicester and Mule ewe lambs. There was however a Texel group shown in the committee members class, this being a class open to all breeds of sheep bred by a member of the show committee.
There were many various classes to be judged within the blackfaced breed of sheep and the skies became more and more threatening as the judging commenced.
The weather finally broke, the beer tent filled to over flowing as all those hardy souls ran for shelter. Shep headed for the car and returned donned in wellies and leggins, then hit the beer tent!
I did squeeze under a brolly for a short while whilst group and committee classes were judged. The overall sheep champion of the day was eventually awarded to a blackfaced tup from Sewingshields, the Murray lads looked soaked and bedraggled but cheerful with it. No photo - sorry!
Not only did it turn wet but unbelievably cold with it. The childrens sports were cancelled but all the hound and terrier classes went ahead, even the cumberland wrestlers braved the conditions and fought it out throughout the rain. Leaving the showfield became difficult with some of the stall holders finding themselves pushed off by willing youngsters, my sturdy old car made it off without too much bother, the showfield had turned greasy but there was no depth of mud so I was fortunate, however, I didn't leave it too late, preferring to leave before the ground got too churned up.
A shame to have the weather break, but lucky also that it held out for most of the sheep judging, those who were going to attend the show were in attendance, had paid to get in so hopefully the show itself will not have suffered too much of a financial loss. Regardless of the weather it was a good day, an excellent show of sheep and many a crack (conversation) was had, catching up with folks not seen since before the lambing.
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