AN overall all-breeds selling average of £163.73 for 1,552 head at the second annual gimmer shearlings show and sale at Skipton Auction Mart was very much on a par with the £164.95 average achieved at the seasonal opener a fortnight earlier. (Tues, Sept 12)

Continental sheep maintained trade seen at the first sale, pure-bred or almost pure Texels selling to highs of £340 and £330 from John Barnes, Sawley, other pens from the same Ribble Valley vendor making £230 and £220.

The Myers family, Winksley, Ripon, also sold pens to £230, with £215 falling to the first prize show pen of ten Beltex-x-Rouge Texel from Angela Lucas and Stan Nairey, and son James, returning from Blackburn to repeat their Continental class-winning success a fortnight earlier.

Exhibitors from the same Halton West family were responsible for the second and third prize pens, the former from Amy Beresford making £200, the latter from father Gordon £215.

First-cross Texel shearlings sold to £218 and £212 from the Ribble Valley’s Thomas and Sheila Binns, Downham, who also did well with 1-crop at £215, £212 and £210, other best first-cross shearlings and young sheep hitting £180-plus, £150-£180 for the next grade, some smaller framed sheep £110-£140. Cheviot-x-Texel sheep have been doing well of late, DJ&S Pinder, Newton-in-Bowland, selling both shearlings and 1-crop ewes to a top of £210.

Mules were generally dearer, the better end notably popular at the ringside, middle runs similar or a shade dearer, with the smallest sheep £10 to £15 up on the fortnight.

Mule shearlings sold to £210 and £205 twice, yet again from Thomas and Sheila Binns, with £195 achieved by the first prize show pen of ten Scotch Mules from Cononley’s Robert and Andrea Wade, who trade as JA&JM Wade & Son and also consigned the third prize pen, which did better at £200. The runners-up from David Pighills, trading as JE Thwaite, Barden, also sold at £200 each, plus another pen at £198.

Mule shearlings averaged £163.59, Texel £183.54, Charollais £160.43 and Beltex £145. Show classes were sponsored by British Wool and Mulberry Farming, with Continentals judged by Silsden Moor’s George Breare and Mules by James Foster, Bolton Abbey.

A dispersal sale on behalf of Broughton’s Jeremy Taylor featured a good run of sheep, with flock aged Mules selling to £142, their Texel counterparts to £195. Also on the same day’s agenda was the annual pedigree Charollais rams sale, featuring entries from Charles and Valerie Marwood’s Foulrice flock in Whenby, York, and daughter, Deborah Whitcher, who runs her Galtres flock in Skewsby. The Marwoods sold ram lambs to a top of 750gns, this falling to C Mitton, Bolton-by-Bowland, plus others at 450gns and 400gns, a price also matched by their daughter.