Kirkpatrick back in charge at Gizzy Show

Kirkpatrick back in charge at Gizzy Show

Multiple shearing champion John Kirkpatrick has bounced back to winning form after a year off with injury.

The 45-year-old Napier gun returned to original home Gisborne territory to win a four-man, 15-sheep Open final at the Poverty Bay Show in Gisborne on Saturday(October 17).

Injured on a UK tour in mid-2014 and having had a shoulder operation last November, his victory today was his first since returning to competition for shearing legend David Fagan’s New Zealand swansong at the national championships in Te Kuiti in April.

With Golden Shears champion Gavin Mutch winning the race, shearing the 15 full-wooled sheep in 13min 50sec, four-times Golden Shears champion Kirkpatrick needed the best pen judging points to take the win.

He won by 1.7pts from runner-up and Gisborne shearer Tama Nia Nia, while

Wangamomona farmer and Scottish shearer Gavin Mutch had to settle for third place after all points were counted.

Kirkpatrick said he was pleased to be back in winning form, after shearing scomfortablky but without reaching the finals at the New Zealand Merino Championships in Alexandra and the New Zealand Spring Shears at Waimate over the previous two weekends.

He will shear again in the Great Raihania Shears at the Royal New Zealand Show in Hastings on Friday.

South Island-based Joel Henare returned home to win his fourth Poverty Bay Show Open woolhandling final in a row, with Maryanne Baty, also from Gisborne, claiming second place.

Matawai farmer’s daughter Catherine Mullooly claimed another milestone when she won the Senior shearing final, beating three male shearers.

Having had her first win at the show, in the 2011 Junior final, she missed the event last year because she was working in Australia, and flew home just last week.

It was the first win by a woman in a Senior shearing final in New Zealand since Te Atakura Crawford, also from the East Coast, won the New Zealand Merino final in Alexandra two years ago.

It was also the first win in New Zealand for the now globetrotting Mullooly since the 2013-2014 season when she won seven Intermediate finals and became the first woman to claim a No 1 spot in Shearing Sports New Zealand’s annual rankings.

Mullooly reached two senior finals last season, and was one of only two women among more than 80 shearers who reached Senior finals throughout the country.

She had a particularly big moment in July 2014 when she won an historic women’s event at the Great Yorkshire Show in England

Results of the Poverty Bay A and P Show Shears at Gisborne on Saturday, October 17, 2015:

Shearing:

Open final (15 sheep): John Kirkpatrick (Napier) 14min 21sec, 57.117pts, 1; Tama Nia Nia (Gisborne) 14min 17sec, 58.85pts, 2; Gavin Mutch (Whangamomona) 13min 50sec, 59.5pts, 3; David Buick (Pongaroa) 13min 52sec, 61.067pts, 4.

Senior final (8 sheep): Catherine Mullooly (Matawai) 11min 14sec, 54.7pts, 1; Adam Morton (Wairoa) 10min 43sec, 55.65pts, 2; Jacob Moore (Marton) 11min 28sec, 56.65pts, 3; Willie Lambert (Raupunga) 10min 36sec,57.425pts, 4.

Intermediate final (4 sheep): Carlton Aranui (Raupunga) 7min 52sec, 43.85pts, 1; Te Ahou Te Maipi (Gisborne) 7min 1sec, 49.05pts, 2; Stevie Ashman (Gisborne) 7min 3sec, 49.4pts, 3; Hemi Lambert (Raupunga) 7min 41sec, 54.55pts, 4.

Junior final (3 sheep): Hayden Thornton (Raupunga) 8min 26sec, 39.3pts, 1; Carmen Smith (Pongaroa) 8min 58sec, 54.233pts, 2; Tarn Hollis (Gisborne) 6min 52sec, 69.267pts, 3; Richmond Ngarangione (Gisborne) 9min 48sec, 72.067pts, 4.

Woolhandling:

Open final: Joel Henare (Gisborne) 113.4pts, 1; Maryanne Baty (Gisborne) 151.7pts, 2; Cushla Abraham (Masterton) 199.8pts, 3; Emaraina Braddick (Eketahuna) 207.3pts, 4.

Senior final: Marika Braddick (Eketahuna) 116.7pts, 1; Erica Reti (Balfour) 149.3pts, 2; Melanie Barrett (Invercargill) 169.5pts, 3; Keoni Ngarangione (Gisborne) 206.7pts, 4.

Junior final: Nye Kerekere (Gisborne) 1.91pts, 1; Tameka Hema Gisborne) 119.7pts, 2; Robeena Eketone (Marton) 130pts, 3; Clara Taingahue (Gisborne)136.9pts, 4.

Novice final: Charmain Henry (Otaki) 70.42pts, 1; Moetahi Taingahue (Gisborne) 80.47pts, 2; China Jackson (Gisborne) 81.84pts, 3.

ENDS

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