Kiwi shearers save best for Welsh swansong

Kiwi shearers save best for Welsh swansong

New Zealand shearers have completed the Kiwi team's UK tour in triumphant fashion with a series-levelling test victory, a trifecta in a major open championship and a senior final quinella at the Cneifio Corwen Shears in Northeast Wales.

The most important was a one-point win by the Kiwi team of James Fagan, of Te Kuiti, and John Kirkpatrick, of Napier, over Welshmen Nicky Beynon and Gareth Evans, to level their four-test series 2-all. It also meant a 4-4 result from the eight-test tour, after a 2-0 defeat by Scotland and a 2-0 win over England.

Evans was first off the board clearing his pen of 20 welsh mountain sheep in 10min 22sec, but Fagan, second off 16 seconds later, finished with the best points overall.

Fagan also won the six-man, 20-sheep open final, in which he was first off the board in 10min 27secs, three seconds before Kirkpatrick, with another 11 seconds back to Fagan's uncle and 13-times Corwen champion David Fagan, also of Te Kuiti. Once time and quality points were totalled, Fagan finished runner-up and Kirkpatrick was third.

It was James Fagan's third open championship of the tour, after winning the Lakelands Shears in England and Thursday's Royal Welsh Open.

Kirkpatrick's nephew, Golden Shears and New Zealand senior champion Ian Kirkpatrick, of Gisborne, also completed a double for the week by winning the Corwen senior final, his last senior competition before being upgraded to open class for the New Zealand season starting in October. Far North shearer Tipene Te Whata, who headed the New Zealand intermediate rankings last summer, scored his best senior result to date by finishing second, while English shearer Malcolm Sweeney, a regular competitor in New Zealand, was third.

David Fagan's son, Jack, was fifth in the Corwen junior final.

ENDS