Napier shearer John Kirkpatrick, current New Zealand open champion, won the Wairarapa Spring Shears Open title at Clareville, near Carterton, at the weekend. Kirkpatrick, a shock early elimination when he failed to make the final of the event when it was revived last year, suffered a similar fate last week athis home Great Raihania Shears in Hastings. But on Saturday, in a four-man final, he polished-off 13 sheep in 11m 58s, half-a-minute quicker than the second man off the board. When all points were counted, he finished with a four-point margin over runner-up and fellow Hawke's Bay shearer Cam Ferguson, of Waipawa.
