Games on
FULL report and a picture special from a fantastic Killin Highland Games, which drew a great attendance.
The Bunessan Show drew ‘massive crowds’ on Mull on Friday thanks to a bigger showground.
Blackface judge Donald MacCorquodale faced a hard task this year choosing between the ‘ good numbers’ and ‘ magnificent’ stock. The Texel and Cheviot judge, George Ross, of Heatherlea Croft, Sutherland, also praised their ‘good quality’, as well as the friendly yet competitive show.
The supreme blackface champion, and champion of champions, went to Norman MacPhail of Salen’s tup. ‘It does not get better than today. This is the ultimate,’ he said. Norman’s ‘delighted’ nephew had his first win with his tup lamb in the open, and twins Laura and Emma MacDougall, 15, of Tobermory also made the championship.
Their father Robbie, who was ‘proud to bits’, said he knew Laura’s home-bred Texel ewe was ‘a good lamb straight away. When it was born it had character. She was a right cocky lamb. She has tremendous skin and carcass.’
Emma, whose ‘bright’ ewe won supreme Cheviot champion, was presented with the Theresa Wade Memorial Trophy, dedicated to the popular island vet who tragically died in a car crash in 2015, for most points in sections 1- 8 achieved by those aged 20 or under.
‘Theresa was a local girl done good, and came back to meet such a tragic end,’ said the Bunessan Show’s president, Gordon Rutherford.
This year, Mr Rutherford added, the committee also opened up the football pitch so the showground was not ‘squashed up’, saying: ‘We have got a good crowd. We opened it up to the whole island to swell the numbers, and it has done that. We have a few cattle, but not enough. The dog show is always cut-throat.’
Albi, a luxury- coated German shepherd, was named best dog in show.
Visitors driving along the Ross of Mull may have noticed a Dalek-shaped scarecrow of vivid rags, created for the Mull and Iona scarecrow trail by Sue Murdoch, a mixed media artist, who won three first prizes in the home industry tent.
Katie Lang, 11, visiting her grandmother from Glasgow, was a novice to the Bunessan Show, but was delighted to win first prize for her inventive and brightly- coloured marzipan sweets.
Twins Ellen and Jemma MacRae used Friday’s under-11s race as a warm-up for the Mull half-marathon that weekend, but received a stern pep talk from their younger cousin, who announced the pair ‘could have run faster’.
‘ It is a massive crowd this year,’ said vice-president Stephen MacCallum. ‘Everybody is involved. It is all voluntary. Everybody mucks in.’
‘It is fun,’ summed up farmer Tom Nelson of Glengorm, Tobermory, in the sheep ring. ‘It’s about seeing everybody and supporting the show.’
For the second year, Pete Bowsher performed as Chainsaw Pete, deftly carving two otters out of logs, which he donated to the community.
Crowds cheered as Robert Lafferty back-flipped on his motorcycle. Robert’s 17-year- old sister Hazel came with her boyfriend Rhys Yeadon, 19, to show Rhys’ car – a salvaged Morris Minor, complete with an engine part painted like a Tunnock’s Teacake.
Events took a dramatic turn for pony club member Grace Corbett from Lochbuie. The 10-year- old rider was all set to compete, but on the day she discovered her pony, Fly, had gone lame.
Luckily her Pony Club companion offered up her own pony, Shortie, at the last minute. Though Grace was not used to riding Shortie, she came second in the best novice rider category and won the pony club pony competition.
For full results and more pictures from the show, go to www. obantimes.co.uk