Show Time - Report Round Up
Lambourn and Royal Bath and West Shows
Uploaded July 2007

Lambourn: A Real Old Fashioned Country Show

The canvas flapped and the guy ropes heaved, but all was calm and sober in the pig tent at Lambourn Vintage machinery Society's country show this May. Berkshires ruled the day, which is just what I would expect in the County of Berkshire. Other breeds forward were, Tamworth, Middle White and Large Black all paraded in their best bib and tucker to be scrutinised by Sarah Brickell, the judge.

Sarah's first time in the ring without a pig of her own, didn't she do well! Those in the know were watching Sarah as much as the entries and in my opinion her decisions were fair. A good prospect for future shows. It is heartening to see young people making a serious commitment to the pig world.

Certainly this year at the AGM for the Large Blacks, the discussion was active with regards to how we can encourage the next generation to carry on the noble work of breeding and showing in the interests of excellence. I have no doubt that this subject ranks highly on the agendas of other breeds.
David Yates won the day with his lovely Berkshire January gilt 'Ditisham Suzanne 2nd' who took the overall breed champion with Brian Merry's Middle White sow close behind. David also came a close 2nd with the best pair of pigs, Berkshires of cause. Other Berkshire wins were Mrs H. Dunlop with her Senior Berkshire sow 'Morebread Louise 33'. Sty name Truffle'

Sarah Brickell gets hands on with David Yates' Gilt - Photo: Sue Merrill

I had never met any of the other entrants before but true to form, as always in the pig world, I found a friendly and helpful crowd, and, though I don't know the names, a big thanks to the two guys who helped me show my other Large Black gilt.

Worth the 100mile journey if only to be part of an old fashioned country show. Maurice Dukes, the long-standing secretary and backbone of the day told me that it was way back sometime short of 1980 that a letter in the Ark prompted him to include classes for rare breeds at Lambourn. It then became the only rare breed show outside the heady days of Soneleigh's show and sale for some years before other's began to realise what jolly good fun it all is.

Sue Merrill

Royal Bath and West Show, 20th May 2007

This was my first time at judging Berkshires since I was put on the Judges list, and I have to admit to being just a little bit nervous before-hand. However, as other breeders who have already judged told me, once you are in the Ring you just get on with the job in hand, and are too busy concentrating to feel anxious or to even notice the breeder of the animal.

I had eight classes to judge, five breed classes and three Championships. The first class was for a Group of Three, one of which was to be a boar. I was very impressed to find that there were four groups forward, but I know from experience that it is not easy keeping three pigs together or separate from the other groups, so I didn't want to take too long over this. First place went to a sow, a January boar and January gilt owned and shown by Chris Impey from Glamorgan, they just looked right together, and were shown very well, and stayed together most of the time too! Second place went to the group of three - two January gilts and a boar, a beautiful little trio, unfortunately one gilt was just a bit smaller than her sister which was why I put them into second place, these belonged to David Yates from Trowbridge. Third place went to Green Meadow Community Farm from Cwmbran with another good sow and January gilt/boar, and fourth prize went to lan and Maggie Todd from Devon, with a sow, July gilt and January gilt.

The second class was for a Berkshire boar born before 1st January 2007, there were just two forward, both very good boars, chomping away well (!), straight backs and proper markings, but I particularly liked the general overall look of Sue Fildes's (from Dartmouth) lovely Dittisham Peter Lad boar and he took the 1st prize, with Sharon Barnfield's (from Ross-on-Wye) Kilcot Peter Lad 4 taking the second.

Third class was for sows, always a difficult class to judge, as was the case here, with six entries forward. I have to say that all the sows were in excellent condition, well in-pig, and up on their feet, a beautiful sight and a great credit to the breed. I eventually put Sharon's 4 year old Kilcot Mermaid 2 in first place, she had already produced several litters, still had a good, straight underline despite being heavily in-pig, and walked well. Second place went to lan and Maggie Todd's two year old sow Smallicombe Stonebow 55, not quite as far in-pig as the others but I felt she was very traditional in appearance, with a good head, which I like, and she walked confidently around the ring. Third place was another sow of lan and Maggie's - 4 year old Smallicombe Stonebow 45, fourth place went to one of Sue Fildes' sows Peverell Suzanne, also two years old, in fifth place was another sow of Sue's Dittisham Excelsa 3 and in sixth place was Fairoaks Farewell 3, also four years old, shown by Green Meadow Community Farm and bred by Chris Impey.

The next class was slightly easier, the July 2006 gilt class, with four entries. In my mind Smallicombe Excelsa 36, shown by lan Todd, definitely stood out, not too big, a nice head, good colouring and walked well, she had been running with a boar, and showed a lot of potential. First place went to her, followed by another good gilt Fairoaks Farewell 12, bred by Chris Impey and owned and shown by Green Meadow Community Farm, in third place I put another very traditional looking gilt bred and owned by Chris Impey - Fairoaks Farewell 13, and fourth went to a September born gilt belong to A & P Rose (Somerset).

At the Bath and West all the judging takes place in the pig building under cover, which is great, especially on a wet and windy day such as we were experiencing that Wednesday. The pigs are shown on shavings, which does make things rather dusty, and unfortunately, suffering from a wheezy chest, I had to stop several times for a drink of water. However, I then faced my biggest test - an eleven strong class of January boars and gilts, all shown together, which took some sorting out, I can tell you! It is generally much easier to judge the sexes separately, and so this class took me quite a long time. There were four boars and seven gilts forward. I knew my winner as soon as he stepped into the ring, a jaunty little boar Dittisham Nama Abel 8, bred by Sue Fildes and owned/shown by David Yates. After looking him over carefully and checking that all was in order, I then turned to finding the next placings. What a business! So many good Januarys, all rushing around and having fun! I eventually decided that second place should go to a beautiful little gilt, bred by Chris Impey and owned/shown by Green Meadow Community Farm. Third went to another extremely nice traditional looking gilt bred/owned by Chris Impey Fairoaks Farewell, fourth was lan and Maggie Todd's young boar Smallicombe Peter Lad, fifth was another Peter Lad (Fairoaks) owned by Chris Impey - a good, well-grown boar, and sixth place went to a compact little gilt owned/bred by Sue Fildes Dittisham Excelsa - I found out afterwards that she was, in fact, a litter-sister to the winning boar. I was sorry that there were not enough rosettes to award all the way down the line, as this was an excellent class, and although hard work to judge, all these pigs again were a real credit to our breed.

The Male Championship was awarded to Sue Fildes's Dittisham Peter Lad 859, a really smashing young boar, already working well, with huge amounts of potential, and the ability to go on and continue to perform well in the show ring. The Female Champion and Overall Champion was Sharon's sow Kilcot Mermaid 2, with several more years of breeding/showing ahead of her, and the Reserve Overall Champion was the July gilt of lan and Maggie Todd -Smallicombe Excelsa 36, I pondered for quite a while over awarding the Reserve, but in the end felt this gilt just had the edge over the young Peter Lad boar.

By the time the judging ended the sun had come out. I thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon, no doubt not everyone agreed with my decisions, but that's the way judging goes, it is important to judge the animal 'as he/she looks on the day', and at another show and under another judge, the placings could be quite different. I would like to say 'thank you' to all exhibitors for the high standard of stock put before me, and I am already looking forward to my next judging appointment.

Jo Wykes-Sneyd