King pins hopes on big wins in the South

MEDIA RELEASE

On behalf of Shearing Sports New Zealand

January 23, 2012

King pins hopes on big wins in the South

It's five years since Dion King set the nine-hour lambshearing record, and almost another year since he won the Golden Shears Open and PGG Wrightson double at Masterton in 2006.

But at 35, with a degree of ominousness for his opponents, he reckons he's entering the best years of his shearing career, after winning both the Northern Southland Community Shears title on the longwool at Lumsden and the national crossbred lambshearing title at the Winton A and P Show.

The wins came just 24 hours apart, on Friday and Saturday, and established King as a true contender for World championships selection.

His maximum points for two days' work rocketed him up the table from 14th last week to be all-but safe sitting at No 4 with three rounds to go before the selection series final in Gore.

King says "it's not the end of the World" if he doesn't make the two-man machine shearing team for the Worlds in Masterton in March.

"There could be three different New Zealand teams named in the next couple of months," he said. "I wouldn't actually mind going back to the UK."

Runner-up to fellow Napier gun John Kirkpatrick in the national lambshearing championship at Raglan earlier in the month, and winner of titles at Warnambool and his home Great Raihania Shears in Hastings earlier in the season, King was the man in charge in only his second visit to Southland.

He was first to finish both finals, cutting the 20 ewes out in 17min 17sec on Friday, with a 10-second margin to second-man-off Matthew Smith, and on Saturday blew 20 sizeable lambs away in 15min 34sec, eight seconds ahead of Kirkpatrick.

With the near challengers both dropping away amid the clicking of the judges' counters, King led home the same trifecta on each day, Te Kuiti evergreen David Fagan as runner-up and local hope Nathan Stratford, third.

Stratford maintained his lead in the series, with Kirkpatrick and Fagan next. reigning World champion Cam Ferguson, of Waipawa, dropped to fifth, after failing to reach either final. New Zealand Open champion Rowland Smith climbed into the 12 for the first time after placing fourth in the lambs final.

Former World Champion Joanne Kumeroa, of Whanganui, won the Lumsden woolhandling final, and missed out by one place on the Winton final, which featured a return to winning form by Joel Henare, of Gisborne.

Reigning World champions Sheree Alabaster, of Taihape, and Keryn Herbert, of Te Awamutu, had mixed results, appearing in one final each. Alabaster was third to Kumeroa and Monica Potae, of Milton, while Herbert was runner-up to Henare.

Kirkpatrick returned to winning form at Levin on Sunday, his sixth victory of the season.

The absence of the big guns in the south provided plenty of opportunity for others in two Open finals in the North Island on Saturday, with Digger Balme traipsing successfully his happy hunting-ground in Tauranga yet again and Tama Niania, of Gisborne, getting his maiden top-class win at the Wairoa Show.

A feature of the weekend was the number of overseas competitors making their marks in finals, buoyed perhaps by England World Championships woolhandling representative Natalie Crisp's winning of the national junior lambshearing final at Raglan on January 7.

Three more victories came at the weekend with Hastings-based Northern Ireland shearer Jack Robinson winning senior titles at both Wairoa and Levin, and English shearer Dean Nelmes claiming the intermediate title at Tauranga on Saturday, beating Kaeo's Bryce Guy in a final in which Welshman Digger Lewis was third.

Also in Tautranga, Welsh hope Gareh Daniels was runner-up to Balme, while Cory Mifsud, from Australia, and UK shearer Ross Crang were second and third to Waipukurau's Tysson Hema in the senior final.

At Wairoa Irish shearer Colm McLaughlan was fourth in the Junior final.

In the South Island, Alan Brady, of Scotland, was third in the Lumsden intermediate final in which fifth place went to Isle of Man shearer Daniel Creer, who backed-up well with fifth again the next day at Witnon.

Stefanie Kauschus, who competes for Germany in the World Championships woolhandling, was fourth in Saturday's junior shearing final at Winton.

ENDS

© Scoop Media