Edward Lambert has a strong association with the Junior Shepherd competition and is delighted to have been asked to judge the Final of the RBST competition at the Staffordshire County Showground this year.  

 

Edward started showing sheep at the very site of this year’s Junior Shepherd Final – in Bingley Hall at the Staffordshire County Showground – some 36 year’s ago. Then, Edward showed his family’s North Ronaldsay sheep and an old Ryeland ram belonging to Joan Glynn, as a ‘Young Handler’, at the Midland Counties Rare Breeds Show. He laughs on sharing his story that he was banned by Jane Mack, the then Secretary of the Midland Counties Rare Breeds Show from entering the Young Handler completion after winning it for three successive years. To eleven year old Edward, this seemed pretty unfair – and to forty-year old Edward, his view hasn’t changed, but he can at least laugh about it now! 

 

Edward has over 25 years’ of judging experience and is recognised by the RBST and a number of breed societies as an approved judge of traditional, native and rare breed sheep across the UK. His judging career began at Cheshire County Show when he was invited by Arthur Green at the age of fifteen to judge North Ronaldsay and mixed primitive classes, since which time he has become a familiar judging face to many at shows across the UK. Edward’s love of shows, both as an exhibitor and as a judge, has been life long and he enjoys how shows punctuate the summer months and provide the opportunity to catch up with friends and discharge some competitive spirit. Edward has enjoyed considerable success with his flocks of Hill Radnor, Hebridean and North Ronaldsay sheep and it’s in the North Ronaldsays that he and his family have a particular passion. Edward’s parents, Peter Titley and Stella Lambert founded the Outlane Flock (401) in the early 1980s and Edward has clocked up nearly 30 years’ of breeding with his Inroad Flock (2871), with which his wife, Laura, and children Vinnie and Edith are actively involved.  

 

Of judging the Junior Shepherd Final 2023, Edward says: “It is a great pleasure to be judging the final in what is RBST’s 50^thanniversary year. It feels particularly poignant to be tasked with identifying the winner of The Outlane Trophy, presented by my mother and late father, given my father’s passing earlier this year. The Junior Shepherd competition was close to the heart of my father, and he was instrumental in establishing this RBST competition”. 

 

PLEASE NOTE: ALL FORMS TO ENTER THE FINAL MUST BE SUBMITTED BY FRIDAY 27TH OCTOBER 2023.