Big double for NZ shears stars

MEDIA RELEASE

April 3, 2016

Big double for NZ shears stars

World champions Rowland Smith and Joel Henare each completed Golden Shears and New Zealand Open champion doubles in a near North Island east coast cleansweep of major titles at the national shearing championships which ended on Saturday night.

Each had also won at the Golden Shears in Masterton four weeks earlier.

It was a particularly big night for reigning World shearing champion and 29-year-old Hastings gun Smith who moments after a pulsating six-man final over 20 sheep each in Te Kuiti’s Waitomo Cultural and Arts Centre learnt wife Ingrid had just had their second child, in Hawke’s Bay Hospital.

The New Zealand Shears Circuit title was won by Raikaia shearer and courier delivery operator Tony Coster, but otherwise it was all North Island, headed by Napier shearer John Kirkpatrick, of Napier, winning the North Island Shearer of the Year title on Friday before finishing runner-up in the two other Open-class finals on Saturday.

Masterton’s Dylan McGruddy won the Senior shearing final, also on Saturdaynight, while the other shearing titles went to Paraki Puna, of Napier, in the Intermediate final on Friday, after Connor Puna, of Kimbolton, and Darren Bryant, of Levin, had won the Junior and Novice finals respectively on the opening day on Thursday.

World woolhandling champion in 2012 and hoping to regain the title next year, Henare’s successful defence of the Open woolhandling title came after fellow Gisborne woolhandler Brittany Tibble had her first win in any grade, in the Senior final, while the Junior woolhandling final on Thursday was won by Kirkpatrick’s daughter, mum-to-be Angela Kirkpatrick.

The family connections were extended in Shearing Sports New Zealand rankings winners announced during the championships, with John Kirkpatrick a surprise winner in the Open class after winning four events during the season, which compared with the 19 finals won by Smith.

The rankings were based on points for placings in finals in three different points scoring show classifications. Kirkpatrick eventually reached 25 finals, and Smith 23.

Daughter Angela won Junior ranking honours, after eight wins during the season, fiance Ricci Stevens was top Intermediate shearer, and husband-and-wife Joel and Erica Henare headed the Open and Senior woolhandling rankings respectively.

Kaleb Foote, of Waikaretu, headed the Senior shearing rankings, while the Junior shearer rankings were headed by Connor Puha.

Meanwhile, Smith and Kirkpatrick will represent New Zealand in a UK tour later this year, Coster having declined the trip having already been selected for next summer’s transtasman series after winning a fifth PGG Wrightosn National Circuit title at the Golden Shears on March 5. He is the first shearer in nine years to win both the National Circuit and the NZ Shears Circuit, the two major all-breeds titles.

ENDS

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