All Britain All Breeds Calf Show 2009
Champion Ayrshire Handler - Becky Vine being presented by Society President Chris Weaver with her trophies
L to R: Hannah Slack - Reserve Ayrshire Handler, Becky Vine - Champion Ayrshire Handler and Aileen Rennie - Honourable Mention Ayrshire Handler
Judge Maggie Howie judging a class of calves
The All Britain All Breeds Calf Show held on the 10th & 11th October, was again an outstanding success with total numbers again increasing.
The first day is for showmanship with the coloured breeds all competing against each other. The coloured breeds judge this year was Paul Harrison who had his work cut out with some large and competitive classes.
The first class of the day was for junior handlers with 24 competing with first blood going to the Ayrshires when Becky Vine representing Cornwall did a fantastic job to get her to the top.
Intermediate saw 15 compete and again our young handlers acquitted themselves well with five placed in the first ten led by Aileen Rennie in fourth closely followed by her brother Shaun, in fifth and Katie Vine in sixth.
Senior's saw 26 compete and for ease of judging the class was split by age. The junior section saw Hannah Slack doing a great job to finish second closely followed by Louise Fleming in fourth and Kyla Davidson in fifth.
Only one Ayrshire competitor contested the senior section in the shape of Robert McConnell from Northern Ireland who did very well to finish fourth with a borrowed calf.
Only six contested in the mature class with our only entry being Kevin Rickard who finished fourth against strong opposition.
Champion Ayrshire handler was Becky Vince with Hannah Slack in reserve and Aileen Rennie in Honourable Mention but all of our young members competed fantastically for our breed.
The second day was for calves and this time our judge was our Junior Vice President Maggie Howie who had the unenviable task of sorting out some difficult classes, resulting in a great spectacle for the audience.
The first two classes were dominated by the Berresford family and their Heydale herd with a win in both, a Potter daughter winning the first and Brooklyn daughter the second.
The third class went to the Creeper family with a Baltimore daughter bred at Gargus while the fourth and fifith class went to Scotland with the Rennies of Brocklehill winning the fourth with a daughter of Stadel Classic and the Adamson's of the Swaites winning the fifth with a Rhapsody daughter.
To loud applause Maggie Howie tapped out the Brocklehill Classic Ena for champion closely followed by the calf that had been second to it in its class, Pam Coryn and John Pollard's Pam Ayrs Redhot Rosie, a classy daughter of Haresfoot Blaze with the Honourable Mention going to Swaites with Swaites Bunce 4.
All in all, it was a very successful show in spite of all the obstacles that the Royal Show put in our way.
Congratulations to all our young competitors for a fantastic display for our breed.