WAIRARAPA farmer David Buick emerged from a geographical wilderness and years of living in the shadow of New Zealand's top shearers to win his first open title at the Manawatu A&P; Show on Saturday.
But despite beating some of the best, including world champion Cam Ferguson, the 33-year-old from remotePongaroa has decided against tackling Shearing Sports New Zealand's eight-round 2012 World Championships qualifying series, which opens with a hectic Canterbury and Central Hawke's Bay shows double next weekend.
Buick, who won the Golden Shears intermediate final in Masterton in 1999 and the YFC Blue Ribbon Championship on the same board in 2008 and 2009, had thought about taking part in the series, but says it is a big commitment trying to run a 200ha farm and shear the Northern Wairarapa sheep flock at the same time.
He is also unprepared for the coarse-wooled corriedales on which the series opens, a compulsory round for about 16 shearers expected to vie for the two machine shearing places in the team for the championships, being held at the Golden Shears in March.
An infrequent competitor since graduating to open-class after finishing fifth in the 2002 Golden Shears senior final, Buick had, however, shown he could be a serious contender among the top class, most notably when he reached the New Zealand Championships final at Te Kuiti, the only one of six qualifiers who had not won either a world title or the Golden Shears Open.
On Saturday, he beat four of those expected to contest the qualifying series, Hawke's Bay guns Ferguson, brothers Rowland and Matthew Smith, and Adam Brausch.
Although just pipped for time honours by Ferguson in the 15-sheep final on the three-stand Manfeild board, Buick's quality saw him win with 61.08 points, beating New Zealand Open champion Rowland Smith by 1.88 points. Ferguson had to settle for third place, while Matthew Smith and Brausch were both eliminated in the semifinals.
Buick will shear in Saturday's event at Waipukurau.
