A NORTH Yorkshire sheep breeder has achieved a remarkable treble.

Ruth Pedley not only won the overall fleece championships at both the Royal Show and the Great Yorkshire Show but went on to repeat the achievement at Sheep 2002, held at the end of last month at Malvern, Worcestershire.

Mrs Pedley keeps a small specialist flock of Wensleydale sheep at Hunton, near Bedale, and narrowly beat a Merino fleece to take her most recent title.

She has bred and exhibited Wensleydale sheep and their fleeces for the past 15 years, having previously kept commercial sheep.

She shears all her competition sheep herself, using traditional hand shears, and last year had to shear the entire flock of 40 adult sheep because of foot-and-mouth restrictions.

The Royal and Great Yorkshire shows were won with the same fleece, but a fresh fleece took the Sheep 2002 title. Judges at each event were from the British Wool Marketing Board.

Mrs Pedley describes the Wensleydale as the leading dual-purpose sheep of its type - both crossing sire and quality wool provider/improver.

"It provides the finest lustre wool in the world and is in demand for high quality, luxury knitwear," said Mrs Pedley.

"There are now several flocks on the Continent and a society has been formed in North America to 'breed up' using Wensleydale ram sperm in North American long-wool ewes."

One of Mrs Pedley's own rams will be used in that programme this autumn.

The Wensleydale is a well-known but still scarce breed but the society has established a breed web site for anyone interested, including breeders, www.wensleydale-sheep.com

Mrs Pedley is pictured, right, with the multi-award winning fleece and one of her flock at her Hunton Home - D&S