MEDIA RELEASE
 

On behalf of Shearing Sports New Zealand

June 28, 2010.

Kiwis pipped by Scots hopes in shearing test

A mere eight-hundredths of a point has separated New Zealand from Scotland in the first test of the Kiwi shearing team's World Championships tour of the UK.

But it was a home team win in the feature match on Sunday at the Royal Highland Show at Islington, Edinburgh, where New Zealand-based Gavin Mutch and fellow Scotsman Hamish Mitchell triumphed over World Championships favourite and King Country veteran David Fagan and comparative rookie Cam Ferguson, from Central Hawke's Bay.

Ferguson claimed some of the spoils for New Zealand, taking individual honours to complement a rare off performance by the 48-year-old Fagan who trailed both Scots in the final judging.

Fagan also has to wait at least another week for a 600th open-class career win, a milestone which had beckoned after he won at the Romney Shears in Kent last week. 
He was fourth in the Royal Highland Open final, in which Mutch and Mitchell were first and second, followed by Napier shearer and 2008 World champion team member John Kirkpatrick.

World champion woolhandler Sheree Alabaster, of Taihape, made a promising start to her World Championships preparations by finishing third in the Royal Highland Open woolhandling final, although beaten by another New Zealander competing in open ranks for the first time.

Ngaio Braddick, who was sixth in Shearing Sports New Zealand's national senior rankings, was runner-up to Scotland's top World championships hope, Leanne Bertram. Alabaster's World Championships teammate, Keryn Herbert, of Te Kuiti, did not qualify for the final.

The New Zealanders now head for Lochearnead for the second test against Scotland, as they continue the preparations for the 14th Wolrld Championships at the Royal Welsh Show on July 19-22. 

ENDS