Sheepdog Trials The Farmers' Country Showdown

Across the country,

thousands of farming families work tirelessly around the clock.

Stop arguing, girls, give over.

FARMER WHISTLES

But there is one day each year...

..where they get to leave the daily routine behind.

Right, here we come, Dorset.

These are show days...

-ANNOUNCER:

-A very, very warm welcome to Melplash Show.

..when they come together as a community...

..to showcase the fruits of their labour...

I just love showing my girls off.

..and try to win prizes for their breed champions...

Smashed it.

..and award-winning produce.

That's really nice cheese, that.

It was very good, darling.

There will be highs...

That's what we want to see - red, red is the best.

-..and lows...

-She's not happy enough to go.

..for the dedicated farmers who give everything to walk away a champion.

Fingers crossed.

There are over 15 million sheep and lambs in the UK,

and herding them is a full-time job.

Come by. Lie down.

Shepherds Shirley Cropper from Lancashire...

..and John Atkinson from Yorkshire...

..are sharpening their skills for a showdown at one of

the most prestigious sheepdog trials on the countryside calendar.

A champion sheepdog is a calling card for its trainer,

with prices running into thousands of pounds

for a fully trained animal.

That'll do!

With just two days to go to the big show...

..there is pride and silverware at stake.

The magnificent Yorkshire Dales, just south of York,

is home to shepherd John Atkinson.

He looks after the feral sheep that roam the picturesque 8,000 acre

Escrick Park Estate.

Come by. I can't see the sheep, but she should be bringing them to us.

That'll do, that'll do, come here.

That'll do.

The estate has been owned by the Forbes-Adam family

for around 350 years.

So I'm the 12th generation, which is quite a responsibility.

I really want to hand it over in a better state than I found it.

Part of their challenge is to look after

their huge wild nature reserve.

That's where John comes in.

The cattle, ponies and roaming sheep may be nature's lawnmowers

but they take a lot of looking after.

I first came here because the estate rang me one day,

because I train sheepdogs and I've done for 40 years,

and they said, could I get the sheep, cos they couldn't find them or catch them.

I'm now living on the estate, looking after them all,

treating them all, and living in one of their houses.

We use the dogs not only for gathering them and taking them

on and off and treating them,

but we also move them around the nature reserve.

If the grazing is getting overgrazed on one section,

I'll move the sheep onto another section.

John's absolutely brilliant, as are his dogs.

Skipwith Common is basically 660 acres of scrub woodland,

ponds, reeds, bog, heath, everything,

and without John and his sheepdogs,

there's no way we would be able to look after the sheep

on such a difficult stretch of country.

To control this nature reserve without dogs would be impossible.

John's love of man's best friend began when he was a young lad,

and it's a passion he shares with his partner, Julia.

Julia's the kennel maid, and a good one, she looks after the pups.

What do they call those women that look after babies?

-Wet nurse.

-No, not wet nurse! What's the other one?

-A nanny.

No, not nanny. Midwife!

-She's the midwife.

-Midwife.

Border collies are not the only dogs the couple keep.

Julia has two very energetic pugs.

Mimi. Mimi, Mimi, Mimi, Mimi.

Those are Julia's dogs,

they're more trouble than all the sheepdogs put together.

They're not. You're not, are you, girls?

Come on, my little pigs.

No matter how you feel in life, a dog will always greet you happy.

They have great affection for you.

You should give that affection back.

I don't know how I'd be without my dogs.

What did I used to sing to her?

# Oh, give me a home where the buffaloes roam

# And the skies is all cloudy all day... #

They do get a little bit excited when I sing to them.

Singing to dogs is not John's only talent.

He seems to understand other animals, too.

COW MOOS

I know.

Before they discovered dogs and sheep, 25 years ago,

John and Julia's life was a little different, to say the least.

Julie was a buyer, and I used to sell ladies underwear.

I used to sell it to Julia.

I used to sell her the knickers...

-Tried to!

-Tried to!

That's right, she was a tough buyer.

Sold everything. You used to wear it, the thong...

You did, didn't you? I used to sell everything from a lady's thong,

which is the eye patch, you know, with the string up the bottom,

to the harvest festivals.

-That's how we met.

-And that's how we met.

-25 years ago.

70 miles away, in rural Lancashire's beautiful south Pennines,

there's another devoted shepherd.

Shirley lives here with her pack of border collies.

Come by, come by.

Away.

Mastering her dogs has become a passion for Shirley,

but this is far removed from her first love.

I was a hairdresser, and I did beauty therapy treatments.

I did enjoy what I was doing, I must have had enough of that,

and I must have been at a stage in my life

when I was just ready for a change.

Shirley's life did change one evening in a local pub,

where she met the man who was to become her partner of 23 years.

I met Jimmy Cropper.

And that's how I got interested in the sheepdog trials.

Jimmy, a former coalminer,

was in fact one of the greatest sheep trial champions

this country has ever produced.

He's the best.

I daren't say anything else.

No, she came from a hairdresser's shop and a beautician.

No, not a hairdresser's shop,

I were a self-employed hairdresser and beauty therapist, excuse me.

And then met an old fool like me, a fool on the hill...

Yeah. That's right.

When I first met Jimmy, I think that was the first place you took me to,

a sheepdog trial, when I first met you.

Yes, I was courting then, sheepdog triallers.

A day out!

We went to quite a few.

I could see that Jimmy was doing something just a little bit special.

I didn't think at first I wanted to do it even,

I just thought it was marvellous to watch.

And, bit by bit, I learned.

And then I got my own young dog and started training that.

Jimmy taught me a lot. Yes.

Took some doing!

Jokes aside, the couple have become an excellent team.

They have 600 sheep on their 800 acre farm,

which are managed by their dozen dogs.

And there's also the raft of ducks.

When you're working with sheep, that can be hard work.

There's never a day goes by when you've nothing to do.

Christmas Day, New Year's Day, any day.

You just get on with it, don't you, you just do what you have to do.

But Shirley doesn't always feel that she is living the dream.

We're 1,500 feet above sea level, we can get really bad storms.

Sometimes it does cross me mind that I would like to be

in a nice warm salon somewhere, just painting somebody's nails.

But despite the hardships,

Shirley's love for her dogs and what she does keeps her going.

We're not hard on our dogs, I do pet me dogs, and I do say, "Good dog,"

when they've done something really good.

And you can feel the proudness in them, that they know.

A good dog makes a good shepherd.

You teach your dog to be kind on stock

and it becomes an easier job then.

However, there's only one dog in this farm

which manages to get inside the house.

We have a little house dog called Horace.

We could never have the border collies in the house.

Some people work dogs, bath them and take them into the house,

but they've maybe only one or two dogs,

I wouldn't like to take just one or two dogs into the house.

Back in Yorkshire, former salesman John is busy with his champion dog

who has just had a litter.

Given they've inherited their mother's excellent genes,

these puppies are highly prized.

This is a little bitch called Jess, good little work bitch,

and it's the first litter she's had.

I've got them ordered - she's that good,

people have seen her working already.

They order them in advance from me.

The pups will be about £500 each.

If I trained a dog and took it all the way through its training,

that dog could be worth £5,000.

But to realise their potential, a lot of work goes into sheepdogs.

And for John and Julia, that means teamwork.

I train them, but Julia knows just as much as I do about

inside the head of the dog, she knows how to bring young dogs on,

whether a dog's tough, whether it's gentle.

I've worked with babes and young children for years

and as silly as it sounds, young dogs, puppies -

you do see similar things in them,

the way they learn or how they behave.

Once Julia has done her nurturing, the next step lies with John.

For any shepherd, the real skill is to find that special puppy,

who could go on to become a fully-trained champion.

You know within minutes if that dog is any good.

It has a feel for sheep, it's kind to sheep,

yet it has a presence about it.

When you get a dog like that, I just look to the heavens and say,

"Thank you, God."

You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear,

but if you have the piece of silk, you can make the silk purse.

Silk purse or not,

a sheepdog's got to understand the commands from its trainer.

Well, the dog has four commands.

It has to go to the left, which is, "come by".

Has to go to the right, which is, "away".

It has to stop, which is, "lie down",

and it has do bring the sheep to you - "walk up".

When the dog gets further away from you,

you then go on to the whistles.

For the away and for the come by...

Walk up...

For the stop...

Once the dog is dancing to the tune of his whistle...

..John knows just where to market them.

Farmers, shepherds, and triallists.

The money is in the triallist, they want the top-notch dogs,

they want the best, so they can win trials.

And once a salesman, always a salesman.

-You enjoy a deal, don't you.

-I love a deal. Love a deal.

When I shake hands with someone on a deal with a dog...

..that really does give you a buzz cos you know what's coming.

Back across the border in Lancashire,

Shirley has also got her work cut out with a new litter.

They're about 14 weeks old, both living here together,

bit of company for each other,

and every now and again we get them out and let them have

a bit of a run round in the field but not on sheep, not yet.

They don't go on sheep.

It's when they're about six months, seven-month-old

that we put them on sheep.

We put them in a big, round pen with a few sheep,

depending on if they're ready, if they want to work.

Some want to work, some don't.

It takes a good 12 months to fully train one.

You're softer, aren't you, you might be easier to train than him.

And Shirley takes the training for the show seriously.

Sometimes at trials, you get a bunch of sheep that gets led out

and you can sometimes get one sheep pulling that way

and another sheep pulling that way,

and there's absolutely nothing you or your dog can do with them.

It's just the sheep's fault.

You try and do your best, but you know you're not going to win it.

Having a former world international champion looking over your shoulder

adds to the pressure.

Walk up, walk up.

Lie down. Lie down.

Lie down. That'll do.

Lie down. Lie down!

Lie down.

And Jimmy often finds it hard not to get involved.

I get so excited when Shirley is running that I got her disqualified,

I shouted Shirley's name. Whether she heard it or not, I don't know.

-No, I didn't.

-But I did shout her name,

and the judges disqualified her.

He gets too excited sometimes.

It were really bad for her then.

-I felt sorry about that.

-He'll not do it next year.

-No... She's going to stick some plaster across my mouth.

-Duct tape!

It's finally time for the two shepherds to start preparing

to leave for the show.

But at the forefront of their minds is the fact that they'll be

coming up against each other.

Lancashire and Yorkshire will be competing against each other

at Nidderdale Show.

John is on home turf in Yorkshire.

His prefix for his dogs is White Rose.

We are in Lancashire, so we are the Red Rose.

It's not the War of the Roses, but it's competition, and hopefully,

the red roses will win.

Come by.

I think Shirley Cropper's...

..done fantastic. I think to come into sheepdogs knowing nothing,

and within probably ten years

she's virtually gone to the top of the game.

I think she'll do well at Nidderdale.

In fact, I think she could finish second, even, you know?

Couldn't she, Queen, eh? Could she finish second?

Come here, my favourite, my favourite, come here.

We just love to win.

Nobody wants a Lancastrian coming into Yorkshire and winning

Yorkshire prizes. Excuse me, I'm from Yorkshire.

Sometimes he beats us, sometimes we beat him.

I hope she does finish second, I think she's a smashing lass,

but I hope she finishes second to me.

Queen, are you going to do it?

Are you going to do it tomorrow?

May the best man win.

Or best man or woman win.

Best person win.

Let the best person win.

But in Jimmy's book, there can only be one winner.

Yeah, she's tremendous, she's getting good now.

Yeah, if Shirley could get to the top at the international

and national trials, I would be very proud.

Winning gives you a buzz.

Show me a good loser and I'll show you a loser.

So I don't go to lose, I go to win.

When they call out your name - first prize, John Atkinson,

with White Rose Queen, woof, that's the feeling you'll get.

It's a very quick buzz, it soon goes, but that moment...

After all the months of preparation, it's finally time to set off.

Little bit nervous.

But hopes for today are to win the show and bring the trophy back.

I hope she does well, White Rose Queen.

The Nidderdale Agricultural Show has been a high point

of the Yorkshire farming community's calendar for over 100 years.

Contestants arrive from far and wide to compete for the many prizes

on offer, none more hotly contested than the annual sheepdog trial.

Before they can begin, all dogs have to be registered,

meaning the two rivals meet at the tent.

-Trouble!

-Trouble!

-Trouble's here.

-John Atkinson.

-Number 13.

Number 13?!

Number 13. Unlucky for some.

-What number are you?

-Ten.

I'll be able to watch Shirley's.

What number are you, Jim?

-21.

-I'll watch your mistakes.

-You're the devil.

-21?

-He asked me age.

LAUGHTER

Who's put me down for 13?

Me!

Lucky for some.

It'll be lucky for some.

Shirley might well be hoping John's luck is out today as she's feeling

a bit sheepish about her chances.

It's a lovely day. Hoping me dogs are going to behave and hoping

I'm going to get a bunch of good sheep so I can have a good run.

I think when you get to these shows,

you get a little bit of tummy rumbling

and you need that little bit of nervous energy to be sharp.

Unfortunately I think one of the best handlers here

is my main competitor, Shirley Cropper.

She's an excellent handler and she's got excellent dogs,

so she should be one of the favourites to win it, but...

..this'll win it. I've got to be confident, haven't I?

Out there lies the course, the challenge to all the handlers today.

First, the dog is sent out to collect the sheep

and bring them under control.

Then it must drive the sheep through two sets of gates

before circling the shepherd at their post.

Finally they are penned and then let out and split.

A lot for the judge to follow and he will be doing it all

from inside his car.

As a judge I'm looking for straight lines

and control of the sheep.

Each competitor will start with 100 points.

The competitor wants to keep as many points as possible

while I, as a judge, am sat there looking for fine-tuning points

and deducting points.

Everybody that runs sheepdogs in this area

wants to be in that trial, yes.

So it does mean a lot, winning at the show.

Across the fields,

Nidderdale is starting to fill up and the crowds are building.

The sheepdog trials are about to begin.

But there's an extra challenge our competitors will have to face.

Keeping the dogs focused and the sheep calm in all of the noise.

When a trial is connected to a show as well,

there's a lot of noise from the show.

The sheep don't quite relax the same,

the dogs don't listen the same,

and it does make it more difficult, but it's there for everyone.

It's the luck of where you get drawn to run.

First up is Shirley and her nine-year-old collie, Danny.

-ANNOUNCER:

-Next up to run is Shirley Cropper. Thank you.

If she gets four good sheep, she'll certainly make a good job of them.

She's been competing a while and she's a good competitor, is Shirley.

Lie down. Lie down.

Come by.

And they're off.

She will only have eight minutes to complete the course...

..and all eyes are on her.

SHE WHISTLES

And she's got them through the gate.

There's a lot of extra pressure on Shirley,

as she is one of only a handful of female trainers in the country.

I am in a minority.

It's probably maybe 10% or 15% women.

I was well nervous when I first started.

The run's been going well, but suddenly Shirley is struggling

to get the sheep into the pen.

Lie down. Come by.

Lie down. Lie down.

Away.

Lie down. Lie down.

Come by.

Come by. Come by.

Come by.

Get up. Get up.

Lie down. Away.

Lie down.

Away. Lie down.

Lie down.

And they're in.

Lie down.

Lie down.

The last thing Shirley has to do is to split them into pairs.

She's done it...

..just before the judge hoots to indicate that her time is up.

Why wouldn't they go in the pen?

You panicked.

They don't tell you your score until the end of the day

so I don't know how I've done.

The trickiest bit for me then was the pen.

They looked like they were going in straightaway

and I think the dog just moved a tiny little bit.

But I won't get the full ten points.

To get the full ten points they've got to go in straightaway.

Come on, Danny, get in.

Go on, Shirley, get in.

I'm not getting in!

Unfortunately, or fortunately for me,

she had one bad sheep out of the four.

She's left plenty of room.

As long as I get four good sheep, I should be OK.

The competition's heating up.

Shirley's set the bar and now it's time to see if rival John

and his White Rose Queen can make a better run of it.

I'm thinking about where they are and which side to send it

but I think I'll go right on the away side

and go up behind those trees

and see how she goes. Fingers crossed, everything crossed.

Have to see what he can do.

There's two good dogs coming on now and then that's the last.

You've got to hope that the next man does bad,

and we shouldn't do really, but you do.

When you're trialling you think, "I hope he does bad."

And it's...

You shouldn't really think that way, but you do.

And off they go.

You are tense while you're running.

There is nothing easy about it.

You're concentrating on the sheep so strongly, you're not thinking,

"This is fun."

Concentration is paying off because within a few minutes,

John's got them through the gates.

Lie down. Come by.

Now it's the tricky bit.

Getting them into that pen.

Lie down.

Can he do it in better time than Shirley?

Lie down.

And he's done it like a pro.

APPLAUSE

Lie down, lie down.

Now all that's left is to split them into pairs.

But the sheep aren't interested.

Away. Lie down. Come by.

-Lie down. Away.

-HORN TOOTS

Time's up.

Despite some good moves, John hasn't finished the run.

We'll just have to see. He could still be in front of me.

It was a very good run.

It depends on the judge and what the judge likes at the end of the day.

It's not up to us, sadly.

It was a shame that I just ran out of time for the split,

which is a big deduction.

It could be tight because...

..she had quite a lot of flaws on the course that we didn't have,

so those points will be going.

Even though I lost ten at the end,

it will be interesting to know how the judges judged her on the course.

It all depends on that man sat in the vehicle over there.

Queen, where are you going? She's going under the bridge.

Come here. What are you doing? Where have you been?

Come on, that'll do. Come on, my favourite. Come here.

Stay there now.

The Nidderdale Agricultural Show was founded in 1895.

Each year the Meltham Mills Brass Band, led by the show officials,

weaves its traditional route through the market town

to celebrate show day.

There was a committee of ten started it off.

We now have a committee of something like nearly 80 and those wise men

and maybe some ladies kept it going and it's grown throughout the years

as much as it can. We can't hardly fit anything else in now.

As well as the menagerie of animals here to compete,

there are also dozens of opportunities for farmers

to display their wares.

John is taking a break to explore one of his favourite tents

where they are displaying the sheep fleeces.

You see this one's a Yorkshire fleece,

it's from a Swaledale up in the Dales.

There are over 90 different breeds of sheep in Britain,

and their wool differs depending on where they come from.

There's some beautiful fleeces here.

For clothing, you need fine, delicate wools,

and those wools are usually what they call virgin wool.

Virgin wool is the first clip of the sheep.

As the sheep matures, the wool gets stronger.

The stronger wools, they're used for making carpets and various things.

So when you buy a carpet, 100% wool, it'll be all from a sheep,

but it's a strong wool.

I think it's a credit to the show, and to the people that organise it,

to put this on display, cos it's all British wool.

It's the lanolin in the wool -

does your hands good, makes them soft.

After a very competitive start to the morning,

the next triallist up will be the legend, Jimmy Cropper.

Come on.

I'll definitely watch the Godfather here, won't we, eh?

Good lord! Favourite to win it, Jim? No pressure, then. No pressure.

I'm too old for this job now!

-Oh!

-Jimmy Corleone!

-Jimmy Corleo...!

-I've got a new hobby.

John's not the only one who thinks Jimmy might just have the upper hand.

This man Cropper, I don't like to give any plaudits,

but he's the Nelson Mandela of the sheepdog world.

I said the Godfather - Nelson Mandela...!

-Who's Nelson Mandela?

-Nelson Mandela!

So all eyes turn as the great man himself enters the field.

Now in his 70s, it's not quite his heyday,

but it's still a rare opportunity to see the master at work.

Mr 100%'s coming up in a bit, my husband, Jimmy Cropper.

So, yeah, I'll be watching him closely.

She's getting that good, she's beating me every time.

And I'm getting a bit fed up, I think I'll divorce her!

Away, away here.

Away. Stand there.

Away.

And he's off.

But even a champion at this level can still feel the pressure.

I know what I've got to do, but doing it is a different tale.

The sheep will only allow you to do certain things.

If you get a very wild sheep, then it's going to spoil your run.

Jimmy's got them through the gates in no time.

But there's something amiss going on at the pen.

Come by.

Away!

Come by. Come by!

Away. Away.

Away.

Lie down.

Finally, he gets the troublesome sheep in,

like the professional he is.

Come by. Lie down.

He just needs to spread the sheep, and he's home free.

Lie down, lie down!

But the clock is ticking away.

Lie down, lie down!

HORN TOOTS And suddenly, the judge calls time.

I thought I'd had a good course,

and I thought my time might be running out,

cos I saw John's time run out.

And when John's time ran out, he had quite a good run,

and I thought my time might be going.

So then, you start to panic and try and get 'em in the pen in a hurry,

and that's when things go wrong.

We both agreed that he was beating Shirley's run

all the way to the pen.

-He had...

-Yeah.

-Didn't he?

-Yeah.

But the sheep started separating a bit just before the pen.

The major thing about the pen was,

-he was losing time trying to get them in.

-Yeah.

So unfortunately, he ran out of time for the split, where he'd...

Just like I did.

And that was because he went round the course in a nice, steady manner.

Yeah, you can be...

You've got to be steady with your dog on sheep,

on a small course like this.

And... But the time is always against you.

Both John and Jimmy, they both had better runs than me

out in the field.

But it's close competition.

It is, it is.

They won't be... They might be still in front of me...

..but we'll just have to see, see what the judge prefers.

Sheepdog trials have been an integral part of the Nidderdale Show

for close on 100 years.

Like their predecessors,

the 50 triallists here today are all trying their best to show

how well they can train their dogs.

Only ten prizes will be given out,

and there's no results till the end of the day.

John and Shirley have already had one run each.

But Shirley's got an ace up her sleeve.

Are you going again, Shirley?

-Yeah.

-With another dog, in the singles?

-Yeah, yeah.

So you're playing with two darts today, and...

-Yeah.

-..I only had one!

-Two bites of the cherry, John!

-Two bites of the cherry!

You might get another bad sheep!

-You had good sheep!

-I did have good sheep, I'll give you that.

-I did.

-You did, they were all friends, weren't they?

They were very friendly, I couldn't have picked 'em better meself!

You might get a dropper next time round!

Oh, shut up!

Oh, dear!

As long as you use a different sheepdog,

the rules say you can have another shot.

With Ben, I'm going to have to do a lot better.

I'm going to have to try and get better turns,

try and get them straight in the pen.

Ben, Ben.

-ANNOUNCER:

-The next competitor is Shirley Cropper, with Ben.

Lie down.

Away.

And they're off.

CONTINUOUS WHISTLING

Shirley's through the gate.

But last time she struggled with the pen -

will she do any better this time?

Lie down. Come by, lie down.

Lie down. Lie down.

Lie down. Lie down.

Lie down. Lie down.

And she's done it - an excellent performance.

Now she's just got to split them into pairs, before time runs out.

Away.

Come by, come by.

Lie down. That'll do, that'll do, that'll do.

That'll do, that'll do, that'll do.

Get up, get up.

And they're split.

HORN TOOTS

A successful run for Shirley,

but she wants it to be stronger than her last.

Well, I think we're both agreed, she had a very good run round.

-Yeah, she did.

-Excellent run.

It's not just having the dog, and the...

It's reading the sheep.

-Yeah.

-You've got to be able to read these sheep,

and how they're going to try and get away from the dog,

and that sort of thing. And she's got that, what we call, sheep sense.

-Yeah.

-And that's what Jim has taught her.

It's the only thing I could teach her, I think, really!

-I don't know, Jim. But we won't go into that!

-No!

It's a good run, I'd say it's a good run, up to now.

But you don't like to say it too much in case somebody else

comes along and just knocks you off the top spot, which they can do.

I made mistakes, just a few, minor,

but somebody could still do it 100% better.

I think it might be going to Lancashire!

Not Yorkshire!

But John and Shirley won't have long to wait now.

Across Nidderdale, the show is beginning to wind down.

And in the fields, the sheepdog trials are over.

All they can do is hope, while the judge tots up the scores.

The judge doesn't look like he knows himself yet.

So I wouldn't like to say, cos he's turning pages over,

going back and reckoning it all up, so I don't know.

Mmm. Mmm.

Both John and Shirley have given their all.

But it's out of their hands now.

Finally, the judge has come to a decision.

Time for the Nidderdale Singles Champion to be crowned.

OK, so, here are the results for the 2016 Nidderdale Show

sheepdog trials.

In reverse order.

In tenth place, Sandy Beaton, on 68.

-Thank you very much.

-OK.

In ninth place, we have John Atkinson on 70.

I thank you!

Thank you very much. Thank you.

John's a winner, but not quite what he was hoping for.

I got lost in the time.

Because I'm concerned about the sheep

and being caring for the sheep - being a shepherd, that's my job.

Trying to be careful with them and kind to them,

and because I was caring for them, and trying to be gentle with them,

I ran out of time at the trial,

and I should think more about the competition.

John and White Rose Queen were very unlucky, actually.

He was just beeped out for time.

Which lost him ten points, cos the shed was fine,

but it was out of time.

Which would have made him into third place, actually.

With first prize still up for grabs,

Shirley's in the running for the coveted cup.

And in first place, we have Shirley Cropper, on 106.

For this former hair and beauty stylist turned farmer...

-Oh, thank you!

-..to break through at this level is a real achievement.

I think Shirley's done very well.

Very well. Yeah.

It's always good to finish on a high,

and to do your best and to get the best out of your dogs,

and come away with some lovely silverware!

Shirley doesn't really need to improve on anything.

She is a very accomplished handler.

Even if I'd done the final exercise, where I'd split the sheep,

I wouldn't have won the trial, I would have been second to Shirley.

So...

Tough luck!

I feel really proud to see her win everything, I do.

-Vice versa!

-Yes.

The trip home, we'll probably have steak and chips.

Might have a bit of sweet cake.

For Shirley and John, it's time to put the rivalry to bed,

for the time being at least!

-Well done, Shirley.

-Thank you, John.

Well done to you as well.

Hey, look! Red rose, white rose!

Unfortunately, she's the winner!

LAUGHTER