Powys pup proves top dog with £9k price tag at online sale

Mr Evans, of Llwynfedwen Farm, near Brecon, achieved another in a long list of top price coups at the leading North Yorkshire venue with his fully broken Scottish-bred rising two-year-old grey, white and tan dog, Midderry Nip.

Nip was bred in the foothills of the Angus Glens in Perthshire by Carl-Magnus – or Mosse – Magnusson and his wife Lotta, a Swedish-born couple both renowned in the sheep dog trialling world, having won multiple championships between them at the highest level.

Mr Evans acquired Nip as a pup, purposely because of his own breeding.

He is by Mr Magnusson’s Don, whose own sire was the prolific Welshman’s Derwen Doug, a European Nursery Champion and dual Welsh and International Brace Champion, out of Mrs Magnusson’s Ruby, herself by another top-notch Evans dog, Tanhill Glen, also a European Nursery and Royal Welsh champion, who as a stud dog continues to have a keynote influence on breeding in the Welshman’s camp, and on Skipton sales in particular.

Fully trained at home by Mr Evans, Nip, already a solid all-rounder and said to be a tremendous nursery prospect or ready for open trials, attracted avid online interest and multiple bids, before falling for £9,000 to an unnamed overseas buyer from Switzerland.

The Welsh legend sold three dogs online, netting a total of £17,800.

Mr Evans third online entry was a part-broken dog, the 10-month-old black and white bitch, Moli, by the breeder’s own Red Spot, acquired from Germany and also making his mark at stud.

Out of a daughter of Tanhill Glen and granddaughter of Hybeck Blake, another eminent trials dog in the hands of Mr Evans – the 2019 Supreme International Championship was one of multiple accolades – Moli sold for £2,900 to Richard Westall in Briercliffe, near Burnley.

In fact, many of the high price dogs sold online contained solid breeding lines from the Evans homestead.

Another Welsh handler, David Bevan, of Builth Wells, achieved the remarkable price of £2,600 for an unbroken pup just two-weeks-old and still to be weaned.

Silver.

However, his silver grey bitch, aptly named Silver, has first-rate breeding.

She is one of a litter of five pups by Ross Games’ Caefelin Clem, who also produced the world’s highest priced £27,000 sheepdog, and a full sister to Kevin Evans’ Pink, a 2019-born tan and white bitch that topped the selling prices at £14,300 at Skipton’s opening sale of 2021.

The youngster sold locally to father and son dairy and pig farmers, Norman and Chris Bell in Cowling, and will be used solely as a work dog.

Asked why they had purchased a pup so young, Mr Bell Snr explained: “We have an old work dog who is ready to retire and thought let’s start again. We just liked her and the long-term plan is to potentially breed off her.”

Also sold in the unbroken section for £2,500 was a fully home-bred and reared six-month-old bitch, Barcroft Nika, from well-known Welsh breeder and photographer, Sophie Holt, of Hendre Brynach, Brecon.

The strikingly marked red merle tri-coloured youngster – she has two blue eyes - is by GL Davies’ Dreamwork Fred, out of Sophie’s own Foinaven Ava and a granddaughter of Kevin Evans’ Henna, who sold for a then world record price of £20,000 at Skipton two years ago.

Nika was another dog to find a new home overseas when falling to a Norwegian buyer, Nina Basma, of Viken.

Keeping it in the family, Kevin Evans’ father, David, of Penclyn Farm, Brecon, made £3,100 with a black and white bitch, Derwen Molly, an 11-month-old Derwen Doug daughter.

Ready for further training, Molly, out of Gerwyn Jones’ Gwen, returns to Wales with Gethin Lewis, of Sennybridge in Powys.

Skipton’s next working sheepdog sale is scheduled for Friday, May 21. It will be a live sale with field trials for broken dogs, with an online and telephone bidding facility also available for all lots.