Wales', Queen sells for £15,200 at Skipton Auction Mart working sheepdog sale

The Ceredigon breeder and leading trialist, who has sold many top price dogs at Skipton in recent years, notably at live sales run on the trials field, headed the chasing pack on price by a wide margin with his rising two-year-old red and white bitch, Tynygraig Queen, by fellow North Wales dog trainer Sion Jones’ Shep, out of Graylees Dollar, earlier sold by Mr Jenkins to sheep farmer and friend Frank Hickson.

The home-bred Queen is a half sister to Kim, a 12-month-old bitch that earlier this year set a new world record price of more than £27,000 for Mr Jenkins at a Welsh sale. With such illustrious bloodlines, the dog created tremendous online interest, before falling to an undisclosed Scottish buyer.

Kevin Evans, another renowned Welsh handler and trialist who has dominated recent Skipton working dog sales with multiple five-figure sales, had to play second fiddle for a change when standing next best on price at £9,800 with his 15-month-old fully broken black, white and mottled bitch, Kemi Bella.

She is yet another impeccably bred daughter of his European Nursery and Royal Welsh Champion, Tanhill Glen, a top-notch stud dog who has had a major influence on past leading price achievers at the North Yorkshire venue.

Out of Floss, herself sold for £13,500 at Skipton’s autumn sale last year, and mated in July to Mr Evans’ red dog Spot, acquired from Germany, Bella, like several other past Skipton-sold dogs from the Evans camp, found a new home across the pond when claimed by an American buyer Daniel Hayes, of Los Altos in Santa Clara County, California.

Mr Evans, of Llwynfedwen Farm, Brecon, also achieved £3,800 with Kerby Fjor, a younger though fully broken seven-month-old black and white son of Tanhill Glen, out of Roca Emma from Belgium’s Ben De Kerf, who himself sold a dog with Evans breeding for £4,700 at Skipton in January. Fjor fell to James Nicholson, of Yell in the Shetland Isles.

The youngest dog sold by Mr Evans was an unbroken 13-week-old black and white bitch, Dunelle Shell, by his own Spot, out of Northumberland-based Michelle Anderson’s Dunelle Nell, whose own dam Henna, a daughter of Michelle’s much lauded Red, was sold for £20,000 by the Welsh handler at a Skipton online sale last year. Shell scooped a £2,000 selling price when joining Marshay Farms, of Tiverton in Devon.

Keeping it in the family, Kevin’s triallist father David Evans, of Penclyn Farm, Brecon, headed the unbroken prices at £4,400 with a 16-week-old red and white dog, Highhills Jonny, also by his son’s red Spot, out of J Elkin’s Glen, whose own dam is by Gerald Lewis’ Glen, a full brother of red Don sold last year for £14,100.This promising young up-and-coming dog also found a new home in the USA with Samantha Furman, of Frontrunner Border Collies in Virginia.

For a change, part-broken and unbroken dogs were in the ascendancy when making up the bulk of the 66-strong entry, which featured just 16 fully broken dogs, all in ready demand.

A brace of the latter among the first five to be offered for sale online both made £4,000. First up and again from Wales was Cefneithen Tess, an October, 2019, black and white bitch from Mrs T Thompson, of Tawelfan in Carmarthenshire. The daughter of Sion Jones’ highly regarded stud dog, Straid Bob, out of Freebirch Beaut, was purchased by Grace Munroe-Henworth, of M&J Ramsden in Kelso.

The second £4,000 sale fell to Ireland and Cornelius McLaughlin, from Clonmany in County Donegal, with his 13-month-old black and white Roy, whose breeding goes back to three high-class performers on the trials field - Aled Owens’ Roy, Ross Games’ Roy and James McLaughlin’s Ben. Roy is bound for Cumbria and Penrith’s Mark Jones.

Five dogs made £3,000 or more, to a top of £3,400 for a part-broken May, 2020, black and white Scottish bitch, Dot, from Strathaven’s James Campbell, which will go to work on the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides with Alisdair MacDonald.

Making £3,100 was Llwynsarn Celt, a November, 2019, black and white dog from another Welsh trialling legend, Aled Owen, of Penyfed in Denbighshire. By his Welsh National and International Supreme Champion, Llangwm Cap, out of HW Jones’ Llwynsarn Queen, Celt sold to Shropshire buyer Conan Mullard-Davies.

Mr Owen also made £3,000 with a younger, though fully broken seven-month-old Llangwm Cap son, Mainstay Ben, out of SR Morgan’s Middery Kim, which found a new home in Bishop Auckland with the Fenwick family.

Flying the flag for the English were two £3,000 performers. First up was the August, 2017, black and white fully broken bitch, Denwyn Fiz, from David Cole, of Bittaford in Devon. By Sergio Perello’s Jim, out of J Rees-Denman’s Denwyn Seren, Fiz heads north of the border to Robert McClements in Dumfries.

The second £3,000 dog and hailing from the Derbyshire Peak District was a March, 2019, part-broken black and white bitch, Bet, from Muggington’s Matt Tomlinson, who heads to York and new owner, Rachel Page-Murdoch. Mr Tomlinson also achieved £1,550 with a second part-broken June, 2020, tri-coloured bitch, Tess.

With a wide ranging offering of ages and abilities, Skipton’s latest sale again presented a varied cross-section of readily affordable dogs, both solid broken entries for work and up-and-coming youngsters to further bring on and run in trials.

Skipton’s next winter sale on Friday, October 15, will likely see a return to the trials field, once again complemented by a real-time online viewing and bidding facility. WuffitMix, a division of Clitheroe-based Dugdale Nutrition, will again sponsor.