Twicey Show (Roman Wall Show) 9th June 2012

A day off! Or ought I say a day off which was pre planned. Everyone I worked for knew that Saturday 9th June was going to be a day off; no one would have dared suggest Shep changed her mind. It was time to head away and catch up with some crack, view some decent sheep and basically enjoy a leisurely day at the Twicey show. Which was exactly what I did.

Once again old Glen and myself disappeared off for the day and headed away for our annual trip to Hadrians Wall and it's annual sheep show.

 

A beautiful setting for a show, even when the weather is somewhat anti social as it was on Saturday.

 

The weather was threatening as these clipped tup hoggs were showing themselves off in the ring, it must feel strange to get the rain on your backs when a good covering of wool had been the norm for the preceding months, but they aren't the only ones bare, Shep has already clipped ewe hoggs on a couple of farms and there are many more to do.

 

By the time the Blackfaced tup lambs were being judged the weather had indeed broken. It didn't just rain, it poured down, like a thunder spate, all that was missing was the rumble of thunder itself. A true cloudburst which seemed to be relentless.

 

There are some wiser than myself, these two retired shepherds took me by surprise when an umbrella surfaced. I had been enjoying their company and crack but there wasn't room for me under there as well, I took shelter behind them instead. Two very sound sheep men from which much can be learnt if you take heed. They did inform me that they thought the umbrella ought to be fitted with down spouts - just shows how wet it was!

 

The mule men seemed to hold off judging their lambs until the downpour subsided, the sun even came out! As did the midges!

 

The rain held off whilst the blackfaced championship was judged, all the first prize winners from the various classes, both male and female were in the ring together before the judge decided which one he deemed the best of the lot, this year it went to a ewe lamb from Wanwood Hill. The mule ewe lamb championship was won by Carry House.

 

There was a good turnout of sheep on the day and of a high standard too, although there may have been slightly fewer entries in the classes than previous years, the weather may have been responsible for this or maybes the change of date for the Cumberland show may have had a slight affect on the show, regardless there was still plenty of sheep for the judges to scrutinize.

 

It would seem this Swaledale tup collected more than one rosette, in actual fact there was more than one sheep in the pen, I just zoomed in!

I had decided upon arrival at the show not to show old Glen, he got out of the car and seemed a bit lame and wobbly, he is 12 year old now and suffering badly from arthritis so it was asking a bit much, however, a friend suggested I really ought to, so I got him out of the car and took him onto the field, he really perked up when poddling around meeting other dogs and children who wanted to stroke him.

 

He seemed quite cheerful when he met this pack of Border terriers, showing his best side and trying to woo the girls amongst them! Anyhow, to cut a long story short, somehow we missed the judging. It must have been meant to be is all I can say! He has won there for the past two years by sheer luck and now, even older and wobblier, it was really asking a bit much, so we were saved the embarrassment of not being chosen by actually not even competing - a fine way to bow out I would say! (I have since met the judge of the day on the road and had a crack with him, the first thing he asked was why I hadn't shown old Glen! Oops!!)

 

The day came to an end. It had been a most enjoyable day off. Fortunately I had been wise enough not to park on the field upon arrival and there is no doubt my car would not have got off it at night without this sort of assistance. The day was rounded off nicely by calling on a long standing and very dear friend whom I hadn't seen for a couple of years, supper was offered and accepted with the result Shep didn't arrive home 'til bed time - that's the way to enjoy a day off!

Bellingham Show

Seems an eternity away now since Bellingham Show, guess it's really only a week or two since. The last Saturday in August is the date, the Saturday of the bank holiday weekend sees Bellingham hosting it's annual show.

The day before was wet, very wet. Shep had actually been working in Cumbria and was very surprised to find out just quite how wet it had been in the North Tyne Valley, we'd had quite canny weather but the burns (streams) in Tarset and its environs were boiling which gave cause for those involved in organising Bellingham Show reason for a sleepless night.

Would the show be able to go ahead? Would there have to be a last minute cancellation as happened in 2008 and if so would the show be able to survive the financial losses?

Folks of the North Tyne are tough and the show went ahead, stock turned up and supporters arrived on the show field. The rain throughout the day previous and the night prior to show day finally ran out of steam and a relatively dry day followed.

 

Tractors were on hand to enable stock boxes to get onto the show field and unload their stock at the sheep pens.

 

Some decided it was easier to carry their sheep up to the sheep pens, has to be said though that these are shetland sheep (a minority breed often kept by smallholders), shetland sheep are small and light in comparison with the normal sheep shown at our local shows, there aren't many that would like to carry their blackfaced/swaledale or leicester sheep to the pens.

 

There was a variety of silverware to be contested for in the sheep lines by a variety of breeds of sheep.

 

Judging got under way with all judges studying the sheep set in front of them looking for the 'perfect' beast, the one which would quite literally catch the judges eye on the day. These are blackfaced ewe lambs being judged with the following being the swaledale championship being judged. The breed championship is every first prize sheep within that breed competing against each other to find out which one is the best of the best - the champion!

 

Once every breed represented on the day has had it's champion chosen the breeds find themselves going head to head to find out which will be crowned Overall Champion.

 

The above photo was taken during the judging of the Overall Championship, the line up in the foreground shows Swaledale, North of England Blackface, Mule lamb and finally Bluefaced Leicester. The Overall Champion of Bellingham Show went to the Bluefaced Leicester tup lamb shown by Martin Archer of Carry House. It beat every breed on the day to take home the ultimate silverware.

 

The pipe band were a pleasure to hear on the day, the photo shows you what they look like, men in kilts and playing bagpipes, unfortunately you'll just have to imagine how they sounded but it was a pleasure to listen to - take my word!

The day flew by, the wet weather held off, unfortunately there seemed to be fewer people around on the day as previous years but this seems to have been the norm this year, gate numbers at our local shows seem to have been down; visitors and tourists maybes aren't visiting, the recession may be biting hard, whatever the reason there have been less people at our shows than usual.

 

Home time. It took one tractor to tow vehicles onto the showfield in the morning, it was seemingly taking two tractors to tow stock vehicles off in the evening but at least the show had gone ahead and competitors had competed.

Roman Wall Show 11th June 2011

 

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.