Animals Take Centre Stage at Great Yorkshire Show

The very best animals took centre stage at the Great Yorkshire Show today, with a host of Supreme Championship winners and the crowd-pleasing Ripon Select Foods Cock O’ the North showjumping competition.

Television presenter Matt Baker MBE took to the GYS Stage and visited the Cheese and Dairy Show, while Peter Wright of Channel 5’s The Yorkshire Vet was a special guest at the Garden Show. Both took a tour of the Forestry section, to see everything from horse logging to stick making.

Competition was fierce in the show rings, with cattle, sheep, pigs and horses all challenging for the titles of Supreme Champion in their sections.

As always, the Ripon Select Foods Cock O’ the North kept the grandstands packed and the crowd roaring until the bitter end. There were four treble clears by the end, with County Durham rider Annabel Shields taking the title on Hamilton Horses’ Creevagh Charisma with more than two seconds in hand over the other three treble clears.

Annabel said: “When you grow up in this area, it is the only thing you want to win. I never thought I would ride in it, let alone win it!”

The Blythewood Dairy Pairs title in the Main Ring went to Messrs DN Lindsay’s Ayrshine junior cow Mid Ascog Patricia 3rd, shown by Adam Lindsay and senior cow Harperfield Irene 53rd, shown by Adam’s uncle William Lindsay, both of Lanark.

There was triumph for a second time in the Dairy Supreme Championship earlier for Ian Collins and Partners, whose Dairy Shorthorn Churchroyd Bronte Wildeyes 51 took the title for the second time in three years, following a win in 2021. Ian, who farms near Dewsbury, said: “She is an exceptional dairy cow with strength and power. She is not just a pretty face, she is one of the highest yielding cows we have.”

The Supreme Beef Championship was won by a six-year-old British Simmental, Popes Princess Immie shown with her calf and belonging to the Wood family, Vikki and Jimmy Wood, and their son and daughter Hannah and

Harry who exhibited their winner in the ring. Their victory, awarded by judge Gail Ellis from St Ives, Cornwall, continued a rich vein of form for the Preston-based family. Popes Princess Immie was a calf at foot when her mother Popes Princess Cleo won the Show’s supreme beef title in 2017.

Vikki said: “I’m blown away. It just means everything. It’s the culmination of 12 months of hard work and it makes it all worth it. In Lancashire, we don’t have our own Royal show so this is our favourite. We’ve been coming for more than 20 years.”

The best equine in the show was chosen in the culmination of the horse showing classes with the Supreme In-Hand Championship. The honours went to Welsh Section C Cob Glynwyn Pussy Galore, owned and shown by Scott Gibbons of Ossett near Wakefield. Scott said: “Being local, it is great to win at the Great Yorkshire Show. I have been reserve about seven times in the last 20 years so it is fantastic to go one better!”

In the sheep rings, both MV and non-MV sheep competed for their own Supreme titles, before going head-to-head in the Overall Supreme Championship, won by a Suffolk shown by Tom Bowden of Stockport, top from a record number of 3,312 entries in the sheep classes. Reserve went to Hannah Jackson of Dumfries with a Dutch Spotted.

Judge Nigel Hamill said: “To me we are looking at the best in the UK. The Suffolk has tremendous power and precision. With this sheep everything was in beautiful proportion.”

The Supreme Pig Championship was won by Julian Collings of Cornwall, with British Lop sow Liskeard Lulu 59, his first win for inter-breed.

“This feels great,” he beamed. “I’ve been showing for 53 years and it’s still nice to win. The Great Yorkshire Show has that prestige. It means a lot.” Reserve went to Peter Sykes, of Derbyshire, with rare breed Berkshire Hetty.

Charity, Sheffield Environmental Movement brought a group of youngsters from Fir Vale School, Sheffield, to the show for the first time. Maxwell Ayamba from the charity has regularly organised visits from various groups in the area including Roshni Asian Women’s Resource Centre and Sheffield and District African Caribbean Community Association.

The Great Yorkshire Show has become a four-day event after a raft of changes were implemented at the 2021 show due to Covid 19 regulations.

Tickets for the show have now sold out. Tickets will not be available on the gate. The opening times are 8am to 6pm on all four days. To see what is happening on which day, go to: https://greatyorkshireshow.co.uk/whats-on/

EDITOR’S NOTES