Shearing: NZ beats England in Great Yorkshire Show test match

The New Zealand shearing team, David Buick, (left), manager Mark Barrowcliffe, and Jack Fagan after the test march win at the Great Yorkshire Show. Photo / SSNZ

The Wools of New Zealand Shearing Sports New Zealand team has scored a big double at the Great Yorkshire Show in England with a test match win in an open championship on Wednesday.

Shearing in a match of 20 sheep each, New Zealand shearers David Buick, from Pangaroa, and Jack Fagan, of Te Kuiti, beat the England team of Adam Berry and Nick Greaves by just 0.55pts, while Fagan won the Great Yorkshire Open Final by 1.05pts from runner-up Richard Jones, of Wales, with Buick in third place.

Meanwhile, Clay Harris and James Wilson were beaten by England in a development teams match.

Harris and Wilson were chosen from other New Zealand shearers competing at the show by New Zealand team manager Mark Barrowcliffe on the day.

Barrowcliffe said he, Fagan and Buick were a happy team after the test match win, after being beaten by Scotland at the Lochearnhead Shears on June 29 and heading into a three-test series against Wales.

“The boys shore well all day,” he said.

The 18-man open championship semifinal was “very tight” and as a manager, Barrowcliffe said he was “over the moon to get both David and Jack into the final”.

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“Jack led from the front and showed real grit and determination to keep the pressure on,” he said.

In the test, it was Buick who applied the time pressure with Fagan never far behind, although it was Berry who claimed overall individual honours.

Te Kuiti shearer and New Zealand team member Jack Fagan after his win in the Great Yorkshire Show open shearing final. Photo / SSNZ

Rare shearing test match for NZ in France

Next up the New Zealand shearing team will cross the English Channel for a rare test match against France.

Buick and Fagan will shear against French brothers Gilles and Pierre Grancher in the picturesque setting of Martel, a medieval town in the southwest of France, for the French national championships.

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It is where Fagan’s father, Sir David Fagan, in 2015, shore the last competition in his 33 years of open-class shearing, and where Jack won the French all-nations open final in 2017.

The test is the third of six on a month-long UK tour.

The tour ends with a three-test series against Wales, at the Cothi Shears on July 20, the Royal Welsh Show on July 24, and the Corwen Shears on July 27.