Kirkpatrick back on top

MOVIE STAR: Shearer Catherine Mullooly, from Matawai but nowadays based in Piopio, is one of five women shearers to feature in the documentary film She Shears that will screen at the Odeon Multiplex on Friday, October 12 — the same day as the Friday of the 2018 Spring Show. File picture

MULTIPLE shearing champion John Kirkpatrick has bounced back to winning form after a year off with injury. The 45-year-old Napier gun returned to original home Gisborne territory to win a four-man, 15-sheep open final at the Poverty Bay Show on Saturday.

Injured on a UK tour last year and having had a shoulder operation last November, his victory was his first since returning to competition for shearing legend David Fagan’s New Zealand swansong at the national championships in Te Kuiti in April.

With Taranaki-based Scotsman Gavin Mutch winning Saturday’s race — shearing the 15 full-woolled sheep in 13min 50sec — Napier’s Kirkpatrick needed the best pen judging points to take the win.

He won by 1.7pts from Gisborne shearer Tama Nia Nia, with Golden Shears champion Mutch third after all points were tallied.

Kirkpatrick said he was pleased to be back in winning form after missing out on the finals at the New Zealand Merino Championships in Alexandra and the New Zealand Spring Shears at Waimate over the previous two weekends.

South Island-based Joel Henare returned home to win his fourth Poverty Bay Show open woolhandling final in a row. Maryanne Baty, also of Gisborne, was second.

Matawai’s Catherine Mullooly claimed another milestone when she won the senior final, beating three male shearers. It was the first win by a woman in a senior final in New Zealand since East Coast’s Te Atakura Crawford won the New Zealand Merino final in Alexandra two years ago.

It was also the first win in New Zealand for the now globetrotting Mullooly since the 2013-2014 season when she won seven intermediate finals and became the first woman to claim a No.1 spot in Shearing Sports New Zealand’s annual rankings.

Mullooly reached two senior finals last season and was one of only two women among more than 80 shearers who reached senior finals throughout the country.

She had a particularly big moment in July last year when she won a historic women’s event at the Great Yorkshire Show in England.