Another win for Fagan in Te Kuiti

Another win for Fagan in Te Kuiti

Retiring 53-year-old shearing legend David Fagan burned-off allcomers in an amazing display of speed as he came within a few blows of winning the two major titles at his last New Zealand championships in home-town Te Kuiti last night (Saturday).

Fagan won the New Zealand Shears Circuit final but had to settle for third behind Hawke’s Bay guns Dion King and Rowland Smith in his bid for the ultimate goal of a 17th New Zealand Open Title.

But he won the race to the finish in both of the six-man showdowns in the packed Waitomo Community Cultural and Arts Centre, shearing the tough 15-sheep Circuit final, including five finewooled and wrinkled merinos, in 19min 38.2sec, and the 20-sheep Open final in 14min 59.29sec.

The winners of the two events make-up a New Zealand team to tour UK in June-July, but Fagan, adamant he had shorn his last show in New Zealand, doubted he would take the trip, despite pressure to make one last pilgrimage to Wales - where leading officials say he is like God and as much a household name as Barry John and Gareth Edwards.

After 33 seasons shearing Open-class, and winning 640 finals worldwide, the championships – the last of 60 competitions of the 2014-2014 Shearing Sports New Zealand season - was very much the David Fagan show.

Again there were tributes, and calls from more than one speaker for Fagan to be more formally recognised outside of the sport for his career as a shearer and ambassador, although he has already received an MNZM (1999) and an ONZM (2007).

Among wellwishers, via audio visual recordings played to the audience, were Prime Minister John Key and All Black captain Richie McCaw, while King Country’s other most famous son, All Blacks legend Sir Colin Meads, was present for much of the three-day championships.

Fagan was a founder of the championships when they were first established as the King Country Shears in 1985, and has been on the organising committee ever since..

The 40-year-old King became only the fourth shearer to win Te Kuiti’s three big finals, having previously won the NZ Shears Circuit in 2011 and the next year the North Island Shearer of the Year title, which was on Friday won by by Smith for a third year in a row.

North Wairarapa farmer David Bucik was fourth, and fifth and sixth went to Te Kuiti’s own Dean Ball and Fagan’s nephew, James Fagan, both of whom came out of competition retirement to honour the retiring superstar and surprised by graduating to the final from a competition which started with 61 in the heats.

South Island-based woolhandler Joel Henare, from Gisborne, added the New Zealand Open Championships Open woolhandling title to the Golden Shears title he retained in Masterton five weeks ago, winning a five-person final by just 0.342 points from Eketahuna woolhandler Ngaio Hanson, who is yet to win an Open title at any show.

Results from the New Zealand Shearing Championships in Te Kuiti on Thursday-Saturday April 9-11, 2015:

Shearing:

New Zealand Championships Open final (20 sheep): Dion King (Hastings) 15min 5.77sec, 55.7879pts, 1; Rowland Smith (Hastings) 15min 23.68sec, 56.684pts, 2, 2; David Fagan (Te Kuiti) 14min 59.29sec, 58.515pts, 3; David Buick (Pongaroa) 15min 27.25sec, 60.313pts, 4; Dean Ball (Te Kuiti) 15min 36.64sec, 61.582pts, 5; James Fagan (Te Kuiti) 15min 2.15sec, 62.958pts, 6.

New Zealand Shears Circuit final (5 merinos, 5 second-shear, 5 lambs): David Fagan (Te Kuiti) 19min 38.2sec, 92.644pts, 1; Tony Coster (Rakaia) 20min 51.86sec, 92.993pts, 2; Nathan Stratford (Invercargill) 20min 57.51sec, 96.81pts, 3; Gavin Mutch (Scotland/Whangamomona) 20min 54.99sec, 100.217pts, 4; Troy Pyper (Invercargill) 21min 1.85sec, 101.227pts, 5; Darin Forde (Winton) 19min 41.83sec, 102.692pts, 6.

North Island Shearer of the Year final (10 second-shear ewes, 10 lambs): Rowland Smith (Hastings) 16min 5.48sec, 59.874pts, 1; Dion King (Hastings) 15min 44.44sec, 61.922pts, 2; Gavin Mutch (Scotland/Whangamomona) 16min 7.56sec, 63.528pts, 3; Murray Henderson (Feilding) 17min 54.72sec, 67.786pts, 4; David Fagan (Te Kuiti) 16min 15.14sec, 71.107pts, 5; Mark Grainger (Te Kuiti) 16min 21.84sec, 76.442pts, 6.

Transtasman Challenge: NZ Shears Te Kuiti 256.193pts (Aaron Haynes 14min 35.95sec, 80.423pts; Dion King 12min 30.55sec, 84.653pts; Cody Beck 18min 42.34sec, 91.117pts) beat Warrnambool Show 276.437pts (Evo Hennessy 13min 2.68sec, 77.759pts; Roger Mifsud 15min 42.63sec, 92.382pts; Nathan Touhey 17min 13.42sec, 106.296pts).

New Zealand Championships Open Plate (10 sheep): Murray Henderson (Feilding) 8min 58.92sec, 39.046pts, 1; Aaron Haynes (Feilding) 9min 31sec, 39.95pts, 2; Gavin Mutch (Scotland/Whangamomona) 8min 20.04sec, 40.302pts, 3; Adam Brausch (Porangahau) 8min 27.56sec, 40.378pts, 4; John Kirkpatrick (Napier) 9min 48.74sec, 40.837pts, 5; Casey Bailey (Masterton) 9min 56.1sec, 42.805pts, 6..

New Zealand Championships Senior final (12 sheep): Floyde Neil (Taumarunui) 12min 44.5sec, 49.725pts, 1; Ethan Pankhurst (Masterton) 13min 25.86sec, 55.46pts, 2; Whare Whanake (Taumarunui) 12min 53.29sec, 55.998pts, 3; Cody Beck (Taumarunui) 13min 35.75sec, 56.621pts, 4; Dylan McGruddy (Masterton) 14min 12.88sec, 57.311pts, 5; Darren Alexander (Whangamomona) 14min 16.72sec, 58.419pts, 6.

Intermediate final (8 sheep): Kaleb Foote (Waikaretu) 9min 57.8sec, 43.515pts, 1; Marshall Guy (Kaeo) 10min 58.55sec, 43.553pts, 2; Hugh De Lacy (Fernside) 11min 8sec, 45.775pts, 3; Michael Herlihy (Matiere) 10min 14.34sec, 45.842pts, 4; Hemi Lambert (Raupunga) 10min 6.48sec, 47.824pts, 5; Josh Balme (Te Kuiti) 13min 10.26sec, 54.888pts, 6.

Junior final (5 sheep): Ricci Stevens (Gisborne) 9min 28.09sec, 37.805pts, 1; Sean Gouk (Hamilton/Eketahuna) 8min 44.13sec, 38.207pts, 2; Laura Bradley (Woodville) 9min 44.46sec, 39.223pts, 3; Connor Puha (Kimbolton) 9min 48.08sec, 42.404pts, 4; Jeremy Morton (Gisborne) 9min 2.55sec, 44.128pts, 5; Mitchel Hoare (Te Kuiti) 13min 19.6sec, 53.18pts, 6.

Novice shearing final (2 sheep): Cody Greig (Levin) 5min 49.87sec, 27.494pts, 1; Reuben Alabaster (Taihape) 6min 9.97sec, 32.999pts, 2; Jack Virtue (Taumarunui) 6min 8.55sec, 34.928pts, 3; Sarah Reid (Taihape) 8min 41.24sec, 38.562pts, 4; Bailey Rush (Kimbolton) 7min 58.67sec, 39.934pts, 5; Rapana Hohepa (Te Kuiti) 7min 25.66sec, 40.283pts, 6.

Woolhandling:

New Zealand Championships Open final (8 sheep): Joel Henare (Gisborne) 92.42pts, 1; Ngaio Hanson (Eketahuna) 92.762pts, 2; Keryn Herbert (Te Awamutu) 103.4pts, 3; Sheree Alabaster (Taihape) 116.544pts, 4; Logan Kamura (Marton) 127.81pts, 5.

Woolhandling:

Senior final: Ana Braddick (Eketahuna) 79.68pts, 1; Tara Chapman (Matiere) 105.87pts, 2; Paige Brausch (Porangahau) 123.93pts, 3; Erica Reti (Balfour) 130.4pts, 4; Ashleigh Aporo (Masterton) 134.88pts, 5.

Junior final: Chiquita Tamepo (Tikitiki/Winton) 62.85pts, 1; Raewyn Sinclair (Taihape) 95.06pts, 2; Jaya Deva Henry (Milton) 98.54pts, 3; Sarah Hall (Pio Pio) 116.25pts, 4; Monique Mackay (Te Kuiti) 116.72pts, 5.

Shearing and Woolhandling:

Inter-Island Challenge: North Island 288.566pts (shearers David Fagan, Dion King, David Buick; woolhandlers Sheree Alabaster, Keryn Herbert, Logan Kamura) beat South Island 310.881pts (shearers Nathan Stratford, Darin Forde, Tony Coster; woolhandlers Tia Potae, Joel Henare, Dayna Te Aho).

ENDS

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