Waipawa shearer Cam Ferguson returned to winning form in a big way with three victories in two days at the weekend.
Ferguson, who had been runner-up in the Wairoa A&P Show's Speedshear on Friday evening, won the open finals at the Tauranga and Horowhenua shows on Saturday and Sunday respectively,as well as a $2000 first prize Speedshear at Te Puna, near Tauranga, on Saturday night.
The winner of three Open finals in October-November - at the New Zealand Spring Shears in Waimate, the Great Raihania Shears in Hastings and his home Central Hawke's Bay Show - Ferguson now looms into serious contention to win a second Golden Shears Open title in March.
With 2015 world champion Rowland Smith taking a break from competition and four-times Golden Shears champion John Kirkpatrick injured, the opposition still remains a gathering of the tried and true, including Te Kuiti shearing legend David Fagan.
On Saturday, Fagan, 53, must have set some sort of record for duration between national titles when he won a 15th New Zealand crossbred lambs championship in Southland, 31 years after first winning the title.
Back at the Wairoa A&P Show, Pongaroa farmer David Buick and Flaxmere shearer and 2006 Golden Shears champion Dion King featured in a rare tie.
Buick claimed the win on superior pen quality points. It was the second time King had been beaten this way, after finishing tied on overall points with Taranaki shearer Paul Avery at the Southern Shears in Gore in 2007.
In Tauranga, Ferguson won by almost five points from Mark Grainger, of Te Kuiti, but it was tougher at Levin 24 hours later when quality gave him a win over Buick by just 0.4pts.
The biggest other win for Hawke's Bay shearers was teenager Hemi Lambert's victory in the Wairoa junior final, followed by third place the next day at Levin.
