Otley Show proves a hit for all involved

The Craven lodge of the Masons, based at Skipton, has been a leader in an effort to lose the old adjectives - like shadowy and secretive - which always went with every mention of the organisation.

Craven Lodge even has a Facebook page. And one of its organisers, former lodge Master Adrian Lilley, was at Otley to help the Royal Wharfedale Lodge follow suit.

Visitors were told the Masons had raised £27,000 for Pakistan earthquake aid and locally were big on teddy bears for children in A&E at Wharfedale General. Leaflets were available to answer all questions about funny handshakes and make clear that you no longer had to wait to be asked - or even to be a Christian - to join up. For more, see www.cravenlodge810.co.uk/

The May scheduling for the the first of Yorkshire’s livestock shows means an annual gamble on the weather. On Saturday, the Wharfedale Agricultural Society won, with a day which was dry if occasionally dark. Farmers and hobby breeders turned up for a first or second trial of their strengths - some had been at the Newark & Notts. the week before. And the usual 15,000 others turned up to look at the animals, eat burgers and ices and browse the trade stands and family attractions. These included, as always, some interesting adventure stories.

Former IT consultant Mark Hatfield, 41, was there, from Kent, in the battledress of a WW2 Squadron Leader, with a fibreglass replica of a Spitfire which he commissioned when he was facing redundancy, a year ago. He happened to know just the man who could build him one, for £30,000, and is now embarked on a new career, taking it to shows and charging £10 a time for cockpit portraits. See spitfiregreen.com/

In the trade marquee, regular exhibitor Bob Duke was presiding over an array of English country wines - none of them made from grapes. He has made a living out of Orchard Fruit Wine, in Wetherby, since he was made redundant from the retail trade - mainly using fruit from the Allerton Park estate, Knaresborough. The government does not help, he says, by taking 72p duty out of £2.25 for 275 mls, but he keeps going, with the help of wife Pat and a mail-order trade in 3-litre boxes.

In the agricultural machinery quarter, owners of B&Q-type jet washers could envy the version farmers buy - a Landy from Lambert & Dyson of Skipton. Founder John Lambert used to be a farmer and milkman, bought a pressure washer 40 years ago and eventually decided he could build a better one. The range starts at £360 plus VAT.

“You cannot buy a decent hosepipe for the price most DIYers want to pay,” he said.

Elsewhere the Burley Bridge Association was continuing its age-old campaign for a replacement for the stepping-stones which are a brave walkers’shortcut across the Wharfe from Burley into North Yorkshire. The society has its latest design and location halfway to getting approval, said secretary Peter Young.

The band of the day, the Yorkshire Volunteers Band, was also a tribute to British enterprise. The TA regiment it belonged to was abolished in 1999 but the band lives on, with a core of ex-forces musicians, still dressed as it was a hundred years ago ... and charging rather less than the MoD does for a turn-out.

Otley show remains important as a traditional early-season trial of strength which draws showmen from west coast to east.

Cattle entries were down a little on last year in numbers but up in variety; sheep were up in both and looking good in all shapes and sizes, thanks to an easy lambing season; horsey entries hit a new high, as they always do everywhere, lately. And so, for some reason of fashion in the bird world, did water fowl.

The Highland Cattle section had grown again and had to go into overspill amongst the rest of the beef - although a slaughterman observed: “I hardly ever see one at my end.”

The public and hobby farmers love the hairy and hardy beasts but they do got get fat quick enough for most commercial farmers. However, thanks to the growing taste for “traditional”, section winner John Morrison sells a few through his local butcher, Thompsons of Helmsley, run by his wife, Hazel, and her father Brian. Mr Morrison’s main business remains sheep, however.

The Dexter mini-cattle have also been more kept than eaten, on the whole, but the breed champion this year was shown by by Graham Hunt, who runs them at Thirsk and at Sicklinghall, near Wetherby and sells them for beef through the Woodhall Hotel at Linton, the Shambles Butchers in York and London restaurants.

Top beef animal was more mainstream - a Limousin bull from the Tomschoice herd run by James and Sarah Cooper near Harrogate. A brother of the bull fetched £10,000 at Carlisle last year and he will be out again for the Great Yorkshire. Runner-up was a Hereford bull from semi-pro breeder Heather Whittaker of Norwood Green, near Halifax. She purchased it as a calf from the mentor who got her into the business, Jack Henry of Brighouse.

In the sheep lines, rarity of the day was a pen of Castlemilk Moorits, descended from a Scottish mix put together for their unusual brown and white colouring - and picked up as an interesting sideline by Charlotte Hawkins, who mainly helps partner Rob Smith run Texels at Steeton.

Poultry section chair Jan Garth, of Addingham, did her job despite being in mourning for the loss of her entire collection of Wyandottes - taken by a dog which got into their pen in April.

Results

DAIRY CATTLE

Supreme champion - Holstein from David Lawson, of Arthington and Guiseley, returning to the show in honour of his late father, Alan. Reserve - last year’s and this year’s Jersey champion at Otley, from David Jones of Mawdesley, near Ormskirk.

Best Dairy Shorthorn - cow seen in TV series The Dales, at the Yorkshire Show last year, with breeder Mrs Alex Wilkes of Leyburn.

BEEF CATTLE

Supreme champion - junior Limousin bull from James & Sarah Cooper, Dacre. Reserve - 3-yr-old Hereford bull from Heather Whittaker, Norwood Green.

Best commercial beef - Limo-x bullock from Stephen Priestley of Clayton, Bradford.

Best Aberdeen Angus - yearling bull from James and victoria Rooks, Great Smeaton, Northallerton.

Best Highland - 3-yr-old heifer from Helmsley Fold of John Morrison.

Best Any Other Pure Breed - Blonde heifer from Carl Fawcett, Sand Hutton, York.

Best Dexter - cow from Northbrook Herd of Graham Hunt of Thirsk and Sicklinghall.

SHEEP

Supreme champion - Bluefaced Leicester tup hogg from Mules breeder Tom Willoughby, Redmire, Leyburn. Reserve interbreed champion - Charollais ewe from Sam Tindall, Wetherby.

Best Suffolk - from Mrs L Lane, Thirsk.

Best Swaledale - home-bred gimmer hogg from Godfrey Haygarth, Skipton.

Best Texel - gimmer shearling from John North, Goole.

Best Butchers Lambs - Beltex-Xs from AM & HV Brown, Newton le Willows, Bedale.

Best Dalesbred - from Kevin Wilson, Blubberhouses.

Best Teeswater - gimmer hogg from Willis Graham, Ripon (also Best Fleece overall).

Best Wensleydale - from Yvonne Mudd, Knaresborough.

Best Mule - from Cecil & Stephen Hutchinson, Kirkby Wiske.

Best Jacob - ewe from Betty Palmer, Brindleton, near Clitheroe.

Best Any Other Pure Breed - Hampshire Down ewe from Alf & Gill Pink, York.

Best Zwartble - from Martin & Harry Preston, Bingley.

Young handler - Olivia North, nine, from Doncaster.

HEAVY HORSES

Champion - 2-yr-old Shire gelding from Anthony Gribben, Thornton, Bradford. Reserve - yearling filly from Paul Bedford, York.

MOUNTED GAMES

Winners - Faye & Emma Holgate of Briestfield, Dewsbury.

POULTRY

Best In Show - female Belgian d’Anvers silver quail from gamekeeper Adrian Knaggs of Malton. Reserve - black German Langshan from Don Storey of Great Ayton.

RABBITS

Best In Show - black Silver Fox doe from Darren Calvert’s OMG Stud, Bradford.

TUG OF WAR

600k final - Upper Wharfedale YFC beat Pennine A. 640k final - York ToW Club beat Wharfedale YFC. 660k mixed teams final - York ToW Club beat Craven YFC. Catchweight final - Upper Wharfedale YFC beat York.