King rules again at Poverty Bay Show

World record holder and former Golden Shears champion shearer Dion King showed he still has the winning touch when he claimed his fifth Poverty Bay A and P Shears Open title in Gisborne yesterday.

King, 39, has shorn 11 Poverty Bay Shears Open finals since 2001, his victory yesterday by just a quarter-point from fellow Hawke’s Bay shearer and 2010 Golden Shears and World champion Cam Ferguson, of Waipawa, following previous wins in the event in 2005, 2006, 2011 and 2012.

For Ferguson, King Country legend and six-times Poverty Bay winner David Fagan, and Open-class fledglng Tama Nia it was a repeat of the second, third and fourth placings they had last year when the final was won by now-injured Napier shearer John Kirkpatrick.

Shearing the 20 sheep in 16min 25sec, King pipped Nia Nia by five seconds in the race for time honours.

But it was Ferguson who pushed hardest in the final count, producing the best pen quality points but having to settle for being runner-up in the final for the third time in four years, and not-quite emulating his New Zealand Spring Shears open final win of a week earlier, when he shore one of that event’s fastest times.

But they had been warned, when King was top-qualifier in the heats by more than 2pts, and 1.7pts ahead of the next best in the semi-final.

King, who in 2006 won the Golden Shears Open final and the PGG Wrightson National Circuit final and then shore a World Record 866 lambs in nine hours in early 2007, last season stepped-back from the week-in, week-out cycle of competition to focus on other aspects of his life.

But he still won a key final at Pahiatua, finished fifth in his eighth Golden Shears Open final, and was third in the New Zealand Championships Open final, when second place could have won him an elusive place representing New Zealand at the World Championships.

He said he will shear in a few more events this season, including flying to Australia later this week with a Te Kuiti New Zealand Shears team competing at the Romney Shears in Warrnambool, Vic.

That trip means he will miss his home Hawke’s Bay Show on Friday, the 10th anniversary of when he won the event when it was relaunched as the Great Raihania Shears in 2004.

Waipukurau shearer Mohi Gray mustered some of the promise of earlier years when he won the Senior final by 1.75pts from runner-up D J Crawford of Gisborne. It was Gray’s first win in New Zealand since he won the Poverty Bay Shears Intermediate title in 2008.

South Island shearer Vahni Stringer, of Ranfurly, had a rewarding trip north to claim a maiden victory in the Intermediate final, by more than 3pts over runner-up Marley Waihape, of Mataura, and Gisborne shearer Zane King celebrated his first final by winning the Junior title.

ENDS