Hawke's Bay's big hopes for the 16th Golden Shears World Championships in Ireland next week may have been missing from the UK season opener on Sunday, but there was a still a strong Bay influence on the outcome.
Most prominent was Northern Ireland World Championships hope Jack Robinson who was third to Republic of Ireland contender and world record holder Ivan Scott in a five-man Open final at the Donard Shears' Leinster Championships, held on a bleak, cold and wet day on a farm near Enniscorthy, Co Wicklow.
It was Robinson who held the lead going into the last of the mixed pen of 16 very woolly Cheviot and Suffolk-Cheviot specklies, in a dramatic final in which Scott's machine stopped for about 20-30 seconds, and the entire field was stopped for several minutes soon afterwards by a power failure. Scott made up the time without significant quality blemishes and won by 3 points as Robinson had to settle for third place overall.
While Scott at 33 is a long-established Open shearer with more than 12 seasons working in New Zealand, mainly around Rotorua and in the South Island, Robinson, from Claudy, Co Derry, started his rise through the grades in Hawke's Bay, working alongside New Zealand World Championships hope Rowland Smith for Hastings contractor Kerry Brannigan.
But it was just only one of the Bay connections, for Leinster senior final winner Colm McLaughlin and Intermediate winner Jonathan McKelvey, also both from the North Island, also shore in Hawke's Bay; McLaughlin with Robinson and Smith, and McKelvey for Ongaonga contractors Barry and Erin Baker.