Coster bounces back for big Canterbury shears win

November 16, 2013

Coster bounces back for big Canterbury shears win

New Zealand representative shearer Tony Coster saved his best till last to claim his second national Corriedale championship by beating event favourite John Kirkpatrick at the Canterbury Show yesterday(Friday).

Just scraping into the six-man final, for a 12th time in a row, the Rakaia gun found another gear when it counted to win the 10-sheep race and also score the best quality points.

Finishing in 12min 36.86sec, the 2007 winner beat first-time event finalist Axle Reid, of Taihape, by four seconds, with a further 18 seconds to three-times winner and Napier shearer Kirkpatrick, who had established his claims by being the top qualifier in the heats and the semi-finals.

Coster, however, was just sixth of the 32 in the heats, and last of the six qualifying for the showdown after finishing a minute-and-a-half slower than the fastest shearer of the 18 in the semi-finals, where those eliminated included 13-times winner David Fagan, of Te Kuiti.

Reid was unable to keep the quality up to the mark in the final, and Coster won by a comfortable 2.2pts over runner-up Kirkpatrick, with a further 2.3pts back to Invercargill shearer Nathan Stratford, a finalist each years since winning in 2005 and achieving a top-three placing for the sixth year in a row.

Rakaia shearer Grant Smith scored the best points in pen judging and claimed fourth place ahead of Pongaroa farmer David Buick, in his first final in the South Island, with Reid having to settle for the sixth-place ribbon.

It was Coster’s fourth win of the season, having a short while earlier retained the Canterbury Circuit title. It took him to a career milestone of 50 wins in Open competition, dating back to his first in 1992.

Now 46, Coster’s biggest triumphs have been three consecutive wins in New Zealand’s major all-breeds series, the PGG Wrightson National, of which yesterday’s heats were the third of five qualifying rounds heading towards the 2014 final at the Golden Shears in Masterton next March.

His win in the New Zealand Shears Circuit final in Te Kuiti in April won him a place in a two-man New Zealand team for a test-series tour of the UK, having previously shorn in eight tests against Australia.

Canterbury-based Masterton shearer Ethan Pankhurst continued his form with a third win in his debut Senior season.

He won by more than two-and-a-half points from runner-up and Rangiora shearer Rowan Nesbit, who the previous weekend won the Senior final at the Marlborough A and P Show for the third time in a row, his 10th win in a Senior career dating back to 2006.

Waiau shearer Lyall Windleburn, who also won at the Marlborough Show, won yesterday’s Intermediate final by more than 10pts from runner-up Isaac Duckmanton, of Christchurch, with a similar margin to third placegetter and New Zeakland Spring Shears Intermediate final winner and Irish shearer Joseph Stephens.

The Blades final, over five sheep, was a triumph for Tony Dobbs, of Fairlie, 21 years after the biggest triumph of his career, winning the Blades final at the third World Championships in England in 1992.

Bill Michelle, of Timaru was second, Allan Oldfield, of Geraldine, was third, and 2012 World championships New Zealand teammates Mike McConnell, of Albury, and Brian Thomson, of Christchurch, were fourth and fifth respectively.

ENDS

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