Sheep shearing runs in the family for Rowland Smith who after three victories about 24 hours and 1700km apart on the weekend became possibly only the fourth person to win 100 open-class shearing titles.
The Ruawai-raised champion shearer now based in Hawke's Bay clipped his century at the Counties Shears in Pukekohe on Sunday, a few hours after arriving by plane from Gore, in Southland, where on Saturday he won the South Island Shearer of the Year final and the Southern Shears open final.
In the Gore final, the 30-year-old beat newly-minted world champion Napier shearer John Kirkpatrick, who was runner-up in the Shearer of the Year and third in the Southern Shears Open, and New Zealand world shearing team member Nathan Stratford, of Southland, who placed third and second respectively.
It was a repeat of a unique treble Smith also scored last year, the 100th win being achieved at the same show where he has been unbeaten in six finals dating back to his first open A grade show win in 2010, following previous wins at the Kaikohe and North Kaipara shows in Northland and at Devon County in England.
The only other shearers thought to have cracked the century are multiple world champion Sir David Fagan, who retired with 642 wins, Kirkpatrick, who has a list of over 200 wins, and 2008 world champion and Taranaki farmer Paul Avery, winning 178 finals.
Smith first shore in a junior final when aged just 15, and was well known by the time he hit open ranks in 2006, with 23 wins in lower grades including the Golden Shears Junior title in 2004 and the shears' senior title two years later.
Rowland had followed his father and brothers into the shearing shed.
He and his eldest brother Doug set a world two-stand eight-hours strongwool ewes shearing record in 2011.
And Rowland was there to help his 32-year-old brother Mathew set a world shearing record in England last year.
Their father, 61-year-old Ruawai shearer and fencer Allan Smith, of Ruawai - whom their stepmum Lynne said was terrifically proud of his sons - is now in England for seven weeks, working on the Cornwall property Mathew farms with his wife Pippa.
Shearing is also in the blood of Rowland's wife Ingrid. She and her mother, Marg Baynes, set a world 8-hour women's shearing record in 2009.
The couple live at Maraekakaho, near Hastings, with their two children.
Rowland's wins include three Golden Shears open titles and four New Zealand open titles, and 14 wins abroad including the 2014 world championships final in Ireland.
He has scored 34 of his wins in the past 16 months, with 19 in the 2015-16 season, two in the UK including the Royal Welsh Show title, and now 13 this season, including the February 10 Southland All Nations which he shore during the world championships after last November, just missing out on a place in the New Zealand team.
In August last year he was acclaimed a Master Shearer by Shearing Sports New Zealand.
Rowland Smith is also on the shortlist for the New Zealand Rural Sportsman of the Year title in the inaugural Norwood New Zealand Rural Sports Awards to be announced at Palmerston North on March 10.