Shearing Sports New Zealand*

October 10, 2010.

Fagan fires-up with win No 604

New Zealand shearing icon David Fagan has the pundits guessing again after annihilating the best of the rest in Waimate on Saturday for his 604th win in 29 years of Open-class shearing competition around the World.

Due to turn 49 later this month and deciding to fly south to the New Zealand Spring Shears only to support a show worried about declining entries, Fagan won the title for a 10th time, and by a big margin of amost four points.

While maintaining he is taking each show as it comes, his dominance on Saturday has already made him frontrunner and favourite to win the PGG Wrightson National, of which the Waimate heats doubled as the second round. His points with three qualifying rounds to go make him a near-certainty for the series semi-finals at the Golden Shears in Masterton in March.

He was top qualifier among 28 shearers in Saturday's heats, and repeated the performance in the semi-finals, each time more than two points clear of the next-best, 27-year-old World Champion Cam Ferguson, of Waipawa. It was even more commanding in the final, which Fagan won by 3.895pts from runner-up Dion King, of Napier, with Ferguson having to settle for third place.

In the six-man final, Ferguson was unable to match Fagan for pace and it became a contest between the quality of Fagan and the speed of King, who won the race by 15 seconds and finished his 20 full-wooled crossbred sheep in 16min 42.59sec. Fagan was ably to comfortably recover the time-deficit with easily the better points from pen judging.

Winton shearer Darin Forde held the flag for the South Island, finishing fourth, Gisborne's Ian Kirkpatrick was fifth in his best performance since being promoted to Open-class after a Golden Shears and New Zealand championships senior double two seasons ago, and Rakaia shearer Grant Smith was sixth, a week after finishing runner-up to Australian Damien Boyle in the New Zealand Merino Championship.

Pleasant Point shearer Kaleb Godsiff won the senior title with 2007 Golden shears junior champion Phillip Rangiwai, of Mataura, second, and Royal Welsh Show senior champion Willie Hewitson, of Invercargill, third.

Last season's Golden Shears Junior and Novice champions each made successful new-season debuts in their new grades, the intermediate final on Saturday being won by Brett Roberts, of Mataura, and the Junior event by Masterton shearer David Gordon, who at the age of 13 in March in his home town became the youngest person to win a title in the 50 years of the Golden Shears.

Mike McConnell, from Cave, retained the blades shearing title he won last year, with superior quality turning the tables on 2008 winner Bill Michelle, of Timaru, who had won the race through their five sheep by more than 50 seconds.

There were new faces all-round among the woolhandling champions, marked by Dallas Mihaere, of Dannevirke, in a boilover career-first Open victory, downing New Zealand representatives Joel Henare, of Gisborne, and Keryn Herbert, of Te Awamutu, in the final. Jamie Leggert, of Rangiora, won the senior final ahead of more favoured finalists Shani Graham, of Masterton, Juliette Lyon, of Alexandra, and Cushla Gordon, of Masterton, while Alpha Wade, of Cromwell, won an all-South Island junior final.

The Shearing Sports New Zealand season continues next Saturday with the first North Island competition at the Poverty Bay Show in Gisborne and in the South Island the Ellesmere Show in Leeston.

But several big names will be missing, with a New Zealand team in Australia for transtasman machine shearing, blades shearing and woolhandling tests in Hay, NSW.

ENDS