Hailing from Sennybridge, Ffion Jones now farms with her husband near Ruthin, North Wales. Both with world shearing championship titles to their names, Ffion and Richard pursue their love of competitive shearing and wool handling while running their beef and sheep enterprise.

It is not very often a family can claim to have two world champions living under the same roof but that is the case for Richard and Ffion Jones.

Ffion and Richard have both held world shearing championships titles, with Richard claiming the machine shearing title in 2019 and one half of the current champion team, and Ffion part of the current world wool handling champion team.

Ffion, a British Wool ambassador, began rolling wool for her father John TL Davies while growing up in and around Breconshire.

Ffion explains that her first foray into competitive wool handling was at Brecknock YFC’s county rally at the age of 14, and says she came away empty handed without a prize card.

Continuing to compete in wool handling competitions into her late teens, Ffion recalls how her father and his shearing gang used to be joined by ‘rouseys’ from New Zealand who would give her hints and tips and help her to improve as they were working.

During this time Ffion continued to compete, regularly without a first prize card. However, in participating at as many shows as possible, she was building up her points, accumulating in winning the Welsh wool handling circuit five times.

At the age of 19, Ffion travelled to Norway for two months, as many of Wales’ keenest shearers and wool handlers do, where shearing sheep in abattoirs is procedure before slaughter.

Here, she made friends with other likeminded youngsters who she travelled on with to New Zealand for the southern hemisphere’s shearing season.

She says: “During this time, between working in Norway and New Zealand, I learnt an awful lot which really helped me on my way to become a better wool handler.

“We worked hard while we were out there. We might be picked up at 5:30 in the morning to work an eight hour day and would only have days off when it rained.”

She says: “Your first year in New Zealand is always your best year as you don’t know what to expect. It was also that year when I met Rich, in the pub after work. I went on to do three more shearing seasons in New Zealand and would go home to lamb in between.”

Ffion migrated north from her home of Sennybridge in Breconshire to join Richard on the family farm in 2014.

Having only won her first major title at the Royal Bath and West Show in 2022, Ffion placed first at the Golden Shears world shearing championships at the Royal Highland Show in 2023 alongside team mate Sarah-Jane Rees.

Richard has had a great deal of his own success, having won the World Shearing Championships in Le Dorat, central France in 2019. At the most recent Golden Shears held at the Royal Highland in 2023, he and Gwion Lloyd Evans took home the team shearing title and, at the same show, Richard stood reserve to Gwion in the individual championship.

He says: “Nothing in shearing is age dependent. You start as a junior and work up through the intermediate levels before qualifying to compete in the open. I started in the junior classes aged 15 and I qualified for the open when I was 19, but it wasn’t until I was around 22 that I started winning finals.”

For many of Wales’ shearers, winning the champion shearer of Wales title at the Royal Welsh Show is one of the biggest goals. This accolade is one Richard is no stranger to.

He remarks: “I have been lucky enough to have won the title five times, but Ffion’s dad John won it six times, so I am aiming at least be able to match him. Ffion has also won the wool handling at the Royal Welsh twice as an individual.”

Farming alongside his father Huw, Richard manages a flock of 1,300 ewes and 60 suckler cows. Their farm features a mix of hardy Welsh Mountain ewes, mules, and cross-bred sheep, carefully bred to produce high-quality prime lambs destined for the live trade.

The couple are now watching their own children starting to come up through the ranks as their daughter Megan, 10, takes to the wool handling stage.

Ffion says: “It is wonderful to see the children take so much interest in shearing and wool handling. In many ways, I think it is due to them that my success has grown in competitions in recent year. With Megan, Sara and Elis watching on, I want to do my best to make them proud.”

Ffion is a British Wool ambassador, having been selected as part of the organisation’s inaugural cohort. As she travels to various shows competing and supporting the British Wool team, she plays an important role in engaging with members and answering their questions, helping to promote the industry and its products.

Ffion says: “I was pleased to be invited to be a British Wool ambassador as it gives me a chance to give something back to an industry I have gained so much from. British Wool provides brilliant shearing courses which are the starting points for many shearers.”

In recent years, Ffion has also worked as a wool handling instructor for British Wool. She has delivered training courses to support new handlers, including one near her home in Sennybridge and another in the Bala area, helping to pass on her skills and experience to others in the industry.

She says: “Due to the nature of the organisation, British Wool will collect any member’s fleeces and without it, there would be a lot of farmers with no outlet for their wool. British Wool supports the supply chain from collection to processing and marketing. The organisation needs volume to benefit from economies of scale.”