Wyn and Siwan Harries, who run the Hope flock at Wenant, near Llandeilo in Carmarthenshire, repeated the championship success achieved on their first-ever appearance last year on their return to the 2019 Jacob Sheep Society Northern Region 44th annual show and sale at Skipton Auction Mart.

The couple retained the title with their first prize aged ewe and female champion, a January, 2015, four-horn bred by the same family’s Gobaith flock run by Mrs Harries and daughters Sara and Lois.

By Hope Rocky, a Royal Welsh champion bred from a renowned line going back some ten years – his sire was a Scottish-bred Cavers ram – the Skipton victor, who is out of a Jean Price Pentrenant ewe, went on to head the selling prices at 1,100gns when rejoining the Price family, specifically the show judge, Jean’s husband Robert Robert Price, for his own Pentre flock in Churchstoke, Powys.

The Harries family also achieved a 700gns sale with a fully home-bred ram lamb, the January four-horn Hope Warrior, by Hope Rocky Boy, which found a new home across the sea with N Fletcher from County Wicklow.

Standing reserve champion was the first prize ram lamb from first-time exhibitors from Northern Ireland, the Colhoun family – mum and dad, Paul and Sharon, and their 15-year-old son, Alex who run the Kingarrow flock in Omagh, County Tyrone.

Their Skipton overall reserve Kingarrow Hulk headed the section prices at 800gns when claimed by Welsh breeders the Trumper family, from Brynderi, Abergavenny.

The sale attracted a 117-strong entry, which were a firm trade, with females particularly good to sell. Shearlings and senior rams saw good clearance rates, while the ram lamb trade, as always, was selective.

Top prices and averages were: Ewes to 1100gns (av £301), shearling ewes to 800gns (av £280, ewe lambs to 550gns (av £197), shearling rams to 200gns (av £144), ram lambs to 800gns (av £271), rams to 400gns.