A and P Show: Tie-breaker needed in rare shearing dead-heat

The historic Open shearing final lineup at the Hawke’s Bay A and P Show on Saturday - where quality points were used as a tie-breaker in a dead-heat on overall points. From left sponsor and Hawke’s Bay farmer Hamish De Lautour, of Primary Wool Co-op, and shearers John Kirkpatrick, David Gordon (the ultimate winner), Jack Fagan and Brook Hamerton. Photo / Shedtalk

A countback was needed to separate one of the World’s most successful shearers from a rising star after a rare dead-heat in the Central Hawke’s Bay A and P Show’s Open shearing final in Waipukurau on Saturday.

Hawke’s Bay shearer Johnny Kirkpatrick, who has won more than 200 Open finals Worldwide, including a World championship, and Masterton shearer David Gordon, just half Kirkpatrick’s age and with just two wins behind him, were tied on 65.45 points, after a four-man final of 20 sheep each.

Amid the confusion, the red ribbon was awarded to Kirkpatrick on the basis of superior quality points in the judging of the shorn sheep in the pens afterwards, when the calculation of points from both the pen judging and shearing quality points on the stands, which gave Gordon the nod by 0.4 quality points.

Competition watchers could remember just one other Open shearing final where the quality points had had to be used to separate the shearers in a dead-heat, and shearing legend Sir David Fagan, who won over 640 Open finals worldwide, and shore in hundreds of other finals, who was present on Saturday to see a final in which son Jack Fagan was third, said: “I never had one.”

Other Hawke’s Bay successes during the championships were a a Senior woolhandling win to Tatijana Keefe, originally from Raupunga, and a Novice woolhandling win to Kaivah Cooper, who has as a shearer for Kirkpatrick Shearing, has won a string of Junior shearing titles at other competitions this year.

The competitions attracted 107 entries, with 70 across five shearing grades and 37 across four woolhandling grades, the best of five shearing and woolhandling competitions at shows in successive weeks along the east coast and into Manawatu.