Forde marches back to top in Spring shears

MEDIA RELEASE

On behalf of Shearing Sports New Zealand

October 15, 2012

Forde marches back to top in Spring shears

Southland veteran Darin Forde took advantage of the absence of the top North Island shearers and his leading southern opposition to win his third New Zealand Spring Shears Open title in Waimate on Saturday.

Along with such recent regular North Island competitors as 10-times winner David Fagan and 2009 champion Cam Ferguson, the event was also missing Invercargill shearer Nathan Stratford, winner six times in 2001 and from 2004 to 2008, the last South Island victory until the weekend.

Riverton shearer and first-year Open-class shearer Shaun Mathieson won the race over 16 hoggets, shorn in 17min 33sec to beat Forde off the board by 3.7 seconds, but had to settle for fifth place overall..
Forde’s combined time and quality points enabled him to hold out Rakaia guns Tony Coster and Grant Smith, second and third respectively. Coster had the best pen points while Smith had easily the best pen points in the six-man final.

Forde had previously won the event in 1998 and 2003, the starts of seasons in which he scored two of his four wins in New Zealand’s premier multi-breeds shearing series, now known as the PGG Wrightsojn National, of which Waimate is the second leg..

Dipton shearer Cory Palmer won the Senior final by almost two points from Mataura’s Brett Roverts, the Intermediate final was won by Phoenix Hawkins, of Rakaia, and Cory Smith, also of Rakaia, won the Junior title.

Last season’s top-ranker woolhandler and recently-acclaimed Master Woolhandler Keryn Herbert, of Te Awamutu, won the Open woolhandling final, in which New Zealand Transtasman series team member Rocky Hape-Taite, of Dannevirke, was runner-up. Third was Masterton’s Tina Rimene, and fourth Taiwha Nelson, of Alexandra.

Herbert had won in 2008, and was third in 2010 and fourth last year.

Martinborough’s Kodi Hawkins made it two-from-two in the first week of the new Senior woolhandling season with a win at Waimate to go with victory in the Merino championships at Alexandra seven days earlier, and the Junior woolhandling final provided a debut victory for Sarah Higgins, from Marlborough.

With the event having an occasional calendar clash with the Poverty Bay Shears in Gisborne, entries were still considered reasonable, with 73 shearers and 39 woolhandlers competing.

Results of the New Zealand Spring Shears at Waimate on Friday and Saturday, October 12-13:

Shearing:
Open final (16 sheep): Darin Forde (Winton) 17min 36.7sec, 71.461pts, 1; Tony Coster (Rakaia) 18min 21.13sec, 72.12pts, 2; Grant Smith (Rakaia) 19min 47.11sec, 74.107pts, 3; Andy Mainland (Invercargill) 19min 33.19sec, 76.098pts, 4; Shaun Mathieson (Riverton) 17min 33sec, 77.15pts, 5; Ant Frew (Oamaru) 19min 16.11sec, 79.494pts, 6.
Senior final (8 sheep): Cory Palmer (Dipton) 12min 3.3sec, 50.79pts, 1; Brett Roberts (Mataura) 10min 24.48sec, 52.599pts, 2; Brook Todd (Dipton) 10min 5.86sec, 56.668pts, 3; Cody Beck (Taumarunui) 13min 27.83sec, 58.017pts, 4; Linton Palmer (Dipton) 13min 7.11sec, 58.856pts, 5; Floyd Neil (Taumarunui) 11min 45.7sec, 61.66pts, 6.
Intermediate final (5 sheep): Phoenix Hawkins (Rakaia) 9min 12.55sec, 41.028pts, 1; Andrew Leith (Dipton) 9min 1.89sec, 43.895pts, 2; Ethan Pankhurst (Masterton) 10min 12.11sec, 48.406pts, 3; Sonny Kennedy (Winton) 10min 21.19sec, 48.46pts, 4; Shun Oishi (Japan) 10min 34.05sec, 54.103pts, 5; Joseph Stevens (Ireland) 10min 18.5sec, 55.525pts, 6.
Junior final (3 sheep): Cory Smith (Rakaia) 8min 34.92sec, 43.746pts, 1; Taniora Poole (-) 7min 0.19sec, 48.343pts, 2; Kahn Culshaw (Ashburton) 7min 34.05sec, 50.37pts, 3; Cory White (Waimate) 9min 3.78sec, 54.189pts, 4; Nicola Amery (Auckland) 13min 24.5sec, 71.891pts, 5; Turoa Hiri (Gore) 8min 0.72sdec, 77.369pts, 6.
Open Blades (5 sheep): Tim Hogg (Timaru) 17min 15sec, 73.35pts, 1; Bill Michelle (Timaru) 13min 24sec, 76.6pts, 2; Richard Watson (North Canterbury) 14min 24sec, 767.8pts, 3; Chris Russell (Woodend) 17min 44sec, 81.8pts, 4; Ross Kelman (Omarama) 13min 10sec, b84.7pts, 5; Tom Rarere (Timaru) 14min 38.11sec, 99.521pts, 6.
Woolhandling:
Open final: Keryn Herbert (Te Awamutu) 118.874pts, 1; Rocky Hape-Taite (Dannevirke) 125.06pts, 2; Tina Rimene (Masterton) 140.34pts, 3; Taiwha Nelson (Alexandra) 157.736pts, 4.
Senior final: Kodi Hawkins (Martinborough) 141.404pts, 1; Juliette Lyon (Alexandra) 161.512pts, 2; Amber Stringer (Ranfurly) 204.496pts, 3; David Ropiha (Omahu) 241.676pts, 4.
Junior final: Sarah Higgins (Marlborough) 189.14pts, 1; Laurie Tegelaars (Pleasant Point) 199.66pts, 2; Amanda McCone (Geraldine) 206.66pts, 3; Kandy Huata (Raupunga) 213.074pts, 4.
ENDS

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