Paige Jepson, winner at Crufts

A Nantwich student made sure it was a double celebration at this year’s Crufts.

Paige Jepson and her four-legged friend, Poppy, strolled away with a top prize on the 125th anniversary of the world’s largest dog show.

Reaseheath College student Paige, 18, and eight-year-old Border Collie fought off competition from a host of other dogs to scoop the Young Kennel Club’s Pre-Beginner Stakes title.

Poppy was one of nearly 22,000 dogs at Birmingham’s NEC for the prestigious dog show, which first took place in 1891 where it featured just 2,437 entries.

Paige Jepson and PoppyAnd after seeing her beloved pet pooch put her best paw forward at the Kennel Club contest, agriculture student Paige was left beaming with pride at her and Poppy’s performance.

“The competition went really, really well,” she said.

“I think it was quite obvious that me and Poppy both really enjoyed it,” added Paige, who attends the Danesford Obedience Dog Training School.

“It was our first time competing in this competition so we were a little bit nervous to start with but we had an almost perfect first round which got us off to a great start and gave us a good lead to build on.

“She’s a little bit older now so there wasn’t much chance of her running off in the second half so I was confident we would do well.

“Usually we compete in grooming but I had to miss that to give this a go, luckily it paid off but I will definitely be back next year to try and compete in both.

“Crufts is literally my highlight of the year, everyone calls it Cruftsmas and I definitely know why.

“It is the biggest and the best dog competition in the world and I love every single thing about it.”

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