Steve Hepworth is toasting success after making it to the English National Sheepdog Trials -- the only 'amateur' to do so.

Steve, "Shep" to his friends, has a day job as an independent financial advisor in Keighley but loves competing with his sheepdogs Sue and Carrie in his spare time. What began as a hobby has now netted the Denholme father-of-three several trophies, and national recognition.

At the National Trials held over the weekend in Cumbria, he was the only one of 150 competitors not from a farming background.

It all started when he bought Sue as a 40th birthday present for himself.

"I was brought up on a council estate in Coventry but I used to trail round after the stray dogs, and I enjoyed watching One Man and His Dog on the television," he said. "Sue was just a pet, but when I took her on a trip to the Lakes, she was eyeing up the sheep and cows and a farmer advised me to train her."

The pair began training together, with support from the Yorkshire Sheepdog Society based at Silsden, and they went on to win local trophies.

"She was never going to be a world beater, she gets too tense and her tail goes up like a periscope, which is frowned on in the sheepdog world - she was just a pet, after all," said Steve.

He bought another dog, Carrie, who has proved to be a sensation.

"We have been competing a year in open trials and won five, including one championship," he said. "I have had some big offers for her from farmers. We won the most prestigious trial this year, the Deerplay Hill Trial in Lancashire, and that put us on the map. It was unprecedented for us to win that, and it was unprecedented to qualify for the nationals in what is only my third year of trialling."

Already in the top 150, Carrie is good enough to follow in her father's footsteps and reach the national squad, Steve believes.

"The problem is, I hold her back - it's like having an amateur jockey on a class racehorse. She knows more about sheep than I do."

He is cheered on at trials by wife Sharon and children Rebecca, 17, Samantha, 15, and seven-year-old Philippa.

"Colleagues at the Skipton Building Society think I'm weird, and call me Shep," he added, "but doing this is the only thing that keeps me sane.''

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.