There was an air of anticipation around the sheep judging rings late on Wednesday afternoon when noted breeder David Matthews of Bridgend stepped into the ring to assess the 44 individual breed champions in front of him.
Having collected the interbreed title for the last two years at the Royal Welsh and with an exceptional tup as their breed champion the Charollais were hotly tipped to make it a hat trick of Builth Wells wins. And Mr Matthews didn't disappoint breed supporters when he tapped out Charles Sercombe's tup Rockvilla Golden Promise as the overall winner.
Golden Promise was bred in David Mawhinney's Northern Irish flock and was purchased for 4000gns from the breed's Worcester sale two years ago as a lamb and has already sired sons to 4000gns at this year's Welshpool sale.
Standing reserve was the Southdown champion from Roland Williams' Greenlands flock. His shearling tup is a May 2007-born ET bred son of a homebred ram which in turn is by an East Dean sire and out of bought in ewe East Dean W3. Mr Williams runs 30 pedigree Southdowns alongside a further 30 pedigree Suffolks at home at Aberystwyth.
In the hill and upland section the North Country Cheviot from young breeder Ifan Huw Hughes that took the overall award ahead of the Black Welsh Mountain from Edward Williams.
Mr Hughes' North Country Cheviot is entirely homebred, as was the Black Welsh Mountain.
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