A high call of £5,600, plus a trio of joint £5,100 second top prices, were among the highlights at Skipton Auction Mart’s timed online-only summer sale of working sheep dogs on Tuesday, June 13th, 2023, writes Catherina Cunnane.
Welsh handlers and trialists Kevin Evans and Dewi Jenkins, again to the fore, were joined by Scotswoman Matilda Young, selling for the first time at the leading North Yorkshire venue.
Powys’s Evans, of Llwynfedwen, near Brecon, had four entries in the sale, a brace going to buyers in America and Germany.
Top dog on price
He was top dog on price at £5,600 with a fully broken two-year-old red and white dog, Foxridge Flynn.
This is said to be another well-bred son of his red Spot, a German import increasingly proving his worth as a stud dog.
Out of David Edwards’ Tanhill Lilly, bred by Kirkby Stephen’s Alec Baines, Flynn returned to Wales with Merthyr Tidfil’s Rory Parker, who runs some 500 Welsh Mountain sheep, plus a small flock of Valais Blacknose.
He had earlier seen Flynn at work on the farm, before bagging him online as a work dog only.
£5,100 performers
Another fully broken and fully home-bred Evans dog, this time a black and white bitch, Kemi Nan, was one of the £5,100 performers.
The June, 2021, daughter of European Nursery Champion and dual Welsh and International Brace Champion, Derwen Doug, out of Scalpsie Joy, herself a daughter of fellow Welsh handler Ross Games’ accomplished trials dog Roy, joined an American purchaser, Dr Karen Thompson, of New Kent County, Virginia.
Over the years, Dr Thompson has imported a number of top-class working dogs from the legendary Welsh handler for her Thompson’s Border Collies Farms, also home to Dorper hair wool sheep and percentage Boer goats.
Back in July-2020, and again at a Skipton online sale, she paid £10,200 for another well-bred Evans dog, Kemi Floss.
Meanwhile, Evans claimed a second top price of the day in the unbroken section with a £2,100 sale of another fully home-bred youngster already showing a “great deal of potential”.
The 15-week-old red, tan and white bitch, Kemi Joy, a daughter of the Swedish-bred Midderry Frank and litter sister to Kemi Ruby, who herself made £5,050 in an online auction.
Out of Dunelle Gwen and further demonstrating the global appeal of online Skipton sales, Joy fell to a German buyer, Lara Sander, who runs a small farm with horses, sheep and a few dogs in Bergheim, between Düsseldorf and Cologne.
While it was her first time buying a dog at auction, her other half, Bernd Nöthen, purchased a three-and-a-half-month-old bitch, Kate (since renamed Liz), online at Skipton in September-2020, for £2,700, which was then a new world record price for an unbroken pup.
Northern Ireland
From the same home, a part-broken 11-month-old bitch, Cornbeg Ali, again by red Spot, out of P Murphy’s Cornbeg Mini, was knocked down at £1,200. This entry now heads to Northern Ireland and County Londonderry’s Catherine Bradley.
The second £5,100 performer was first-time Skipton entrant, Scotland’s Matilda Young, from Cairnryan, Stranraer.
She presented her February-2021, black, white and tan dog, Lad, by Jordan McGowan’s Tony, out of JL McMillan’s Page, for sale.
The “solid all-rounder” returned to Scottish soil with a Perthshire buyer who requested anonymity.
Matilda made an immediate impact when a second dog entered also netted £4,700. The May-2020, Ingleborough Stella, fully bred by John Kelsall, by his Seth out of Denwyn Jess, goes to Cumbria with Cockermouth sheep farmer Neil Marston, a well-known breeder and multiple show winner with his North of England Mules.
At the sale, Ceredigion’s Dewi Jenkins, of Talybont, near Aberystwyth, also claimed £5,100 with his July-2021, black and white bitch, Gwyddil Bella, another daughter of Clwyd Bob, himself by the handler’s main stud dog Jock, the 2022 International Supreme Champion. Both stud dogs have had a major influence on the Welsh handler on Skipton selling prices of late.
Out of fellow Welshman T Davies’ own Bella, Gwyddil Bella, a full litter sister to Dewi’s Kim, who established a then new world record price of £27,100 when sold online, returned to her country of breeding when claimed by a Powys handler who requested no publicity.
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