A Royal Show As Coasties Storm The North

The Coasties came to town and left with almost all the goodies at the Royal Easter Show's Northern Shears in Auckland on Saturday.

Napier-based John Kirkpatrick, who grew-up on the East Coast, won the Open shearing final, while the Golden Shears senior and intermediate champions, Gisborne teenagers Tama Niania and Wi Poutu Ngarangione returned to winning form the claim victory in their penultimate performances in their grades before upgraded next season.

The junior final was won by Manawatu teenager Sarah Goss, of Apiti.
The open win was a significant success for Kirkpatrick, turning the tables on 2009 winner and World Champion Paul Avery, of Stratford, in the last competition on the Shearing Sports New Zealand calendar before next weekend's New Zealand Championships in Te Kuiti, where they and the rest of New Zealand's top shearers battle for the last position in New Zealand's team for the year's World championships in Wales in July.

It was, however, one of the closest of finishes, although Kirkpatrick hit the trble of best points for time, the board job, and quality in the pens afterwards. He was first to finish the 20 sheep, but with a slick time of 14min 46.38sec stopped the clock just 1.6 seconds ahead of Avery. The 0.08pts advantage for time was supplemented by margins of 0.05pts in the board job and 0.35pts in the judging pens, to give Kirkpatrick the win by 54.769 penalty points to 55.249. Far North shearer Rowland Smith was more than three points away in third place. Te Kuiti shearers Dean Ball and James Fagan were fourth and fifth.

It was the second win in a week Kirkpatrick after an 11-show drought in which he was runner-up seven times. New Zealand Championships TAB favourite David Fagan, also of Te Kuiti, was eliminated in the semi-final and Waipawa shearer Cam Ferguson, who claimed the first of the two machine black-singlet shearing positions in Wales, did not compete at the weekend.

RESULTS FOLLOW

Results of the Northern Shears at the Royel Easter Show, Auckland, on Friday and Saturday, April 2-3, 2010:

International (15 sheep each): New Zealand 100.813pts (John Kirkpatrick 12min 30.94sec, 48.681pts; James Fagan 12min 2.65sec, 52.132pts) beat Wales 116.548pts (Gareth Daniel 11min 59.57sec, 51.845pts; Gareth Evans 13min 7.41sec, 64.703pts).

Transtasman (12 sheep): Northern Shears 93.407pts (Rowland Smith 10min 30.06sec, 42.668pts; Sam Welch 10min 38.12sec, 50.739pts) beat Warrnambool Shears 109.49pts (Jason Wingfield 10min 36.36sec, 53.235pts; John Hand 10min 53.44sec, 56.255pts).

Open final (20 sheep): John Kirkpatrick (Napier) 14min 46.38sec, 54.769pts, 1; Paul Avery (Stratford) 14min 47.98sec, 55.249pts, 2; Rowland Smith (Ruawai) 15min 24.06sec, 58.453pts, 3; Dean Ball (Te Kuiti) 16min 9.48sec, 61.274pts, 4; James Fagan (Te Kuiti) 14min 59.62sec, 63.931pts, 5.

Senior final (10 sheep): Tama Niania (Gisborne) 9min 59.51sec, 41.376pts, 1; Shelford Wilcox (Gisborne) 10min 36.91sec, 46.546pts, 2; Kri-Jo Te Huia (Te Kuiti) 12min 26.71sec, 47.636pts, 3; Greg Moriarty (Waiau) 12min 6.33sec, 50.516pts, 4; Tipene Te Whata (Tautoro) 10min 36.58sec, 51.929pts, 5.

Intermediate final (8 sheep): Wi Poutu Ngarangione (Gisborne) 10min 16.2sec, 37.435pts, 1; Tysson Hema (Waipukurau) 10min 52.67sec, 38.759pts, 2; Nukutai Tuhura (Ruatoria) 10min 22.74sec, 41.137pts, 3; Alan Boler (Wellsford) 10min 22.69sec, 41.509pts, 4; Corey Mifsud (Australia) 11min 37.11sec, 42.606pts, 5.

Junior final (5 sheep): Sarah Goss (Kimbolton) 10min 0.55sec, 35.428pts, 1; Jack Fagan (Te Kuiti) 10min 0.06sec, 40.203pts, 2; Aaron Bell (Masterton) 9min 11.17sec, 45.358pts, 3; Bryce Guy (Kaeo) 9min 49.07sec, 45.654pts, 4; Rusty Campbell (Dargaville) 10min 47.24sec, 46.162pts, 5.

Veterans (3 sheep): Peter McCabe (Tauranga) 4min 46.49sec, 21.991pts, 1; John Hand (Australia) 5min 17.9sec, 25.895pts, 2; Russell Knight (Apiti) 5min 40.15sec, 26.342pts, 3; Jim Macdonald (Tauranga) 4min 39.46sec, 26.973pts, 4; Ian Buchanan (Te Kuiti) 4min 30.34sec, 29.184pts, 5.

Open/Senior Plate (10 sheep per team): David Fagan (Te Kuiti) and Bevan Guy (Kaeo) 9min 3.04sec, 41.752pts, 1; Mark Grainger (Te Kuiti) and Aaron Haynes (Feilding) 11min 4.1sec, 44.205pts, 2; Gareth Daniel (Wales) and David Hodge (Te Puke) 10min 25.05sec, 44.552pts, 3; Digger Balme (Te Kuiti) and Chris Mills (Taihape) 9min 4.09sec, 44.904pts, 4; Sam Welch (Waikaretu) and Rocky Wegner (Australia) 8min 57.72sec, 50.806pts, 5.

ENDS

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