Fagan duo bounce back with victories

Shearing

King Country shearing legend David Fagan and son Jack wasted no time getting back into winning form yesterday, just a week after both missing out on the finals at the Golden Shears.

Shearing in the Kumeu Show open final, David Fagan, 51, turned the tables on 26-year-old Hastings shearer Rowland Smith, who a week earlier won a Golden Shears open final which was missing 16-times winner Fagan for only the fourth time in 30 years.

Fagan was the third of three shearers to go under 16 minutes for the 20 sheep, and beat Smith by 21s and Golden Shears third-placegetter John Kirkpatrick, of Napier, by another 13s.

The first two off the board, Dargaville's Neville Osborne and Te Kuiti's Digger Balme, sacrificed too many quality points to be in the ultimate reckoning as Fagan held his own in the judging pens to win by 0.565 points from Kirkpatrick, who had the best quality points.

Smith, who won the Kumeu event last year, had to settle for third place on this occasion.

Jack Fagan won the Kumeu senior title for the second year in a row.

The runner-up was Kaeo shearer Bryce Guy. Bryce's brothers, Charlie and Marshall, won the intermediate and junior finals respectively.