What a difference a year makes. This year with lamb trade buoyant and Mules in big demand, the Leicester was always going to make its mark at the sale. A cracking day saw a bumper crowd around all the rings, including the Leicester section, and with a renewed enthusiasm around there was a real buzz in the air.

Records were smashed as the champion came into the ring. It was a debut to remember for J Browell & Sons, Quarry House, following on from their Mule success at Hexham the previous week where they had taken the championship and averaged £108 with 160 lambs, as they took the pre show championship, judged by John Park, Dalpeddar, with their Quarry House A10 shearling. He was the talk of the section, big, strong and well skinned, the ideal modern tup, by a privately bought Firth tup, a son of Controversy. Trevor Simpson started the bidding at £2000 and it carried on strongly to £10,000, smashing Kelso records, and was finally knocked down to noted breeder John Kerr, Craigskean. The Quarry House flock sold well selling 10 tups to average out at £2175.

Fittingly the second highest price went to the reserve champion from Messrs Wight Midlock. The shearling which had lambs in the Midlock top pen was by the X9 Dreva and out of a ewe by the N25 Nunscleugh sold for £3400, and saw the Midlock pen average out at £1331.82 for 11 shearlings sold.

Other top prices saw Firth, Dreva and Clennell flocks hit £2800 with their consignments, with buyers looking for tups with good all round conformation and good skins. Demand was high and not many lots left the ring unsold, with the sale as a whole having a 95% clearance. The sale saw a turn over of £462,020 in the Bluefaced Leicester section with an average of £677 for 517 shearlings sold and £517 for 23 lambs sold.

It was also the end of an era when Glen Shapiro sold her tup shearlings, completing her sale, which saw her females dispersed last year. She returned to Kelso after a few years absence and saw her top shearling sell for £1400 to Robert Neill from the Rossibank flock and average out at £486 for 18 tups.

Show Results:
Shearlings: 1st - Quarry House - LOT NO 574, 2nd - Midlock - LOT NO 93, 3rd - Clennell - LOT NO 581

Lambs: 1st - Midlock -  LOT NO 104, 2nd - Parton - LOT NO 299,
3rd - Firth - LOT NO 321