Te Kuiti shearer Jack Fagan won the Corwen Shears open final.
Three New Zealanders have grabbed back some Kiwi pride with wins at the Corwen Shears, a glamour Welsh lamb shearing and woolhandling competition.
On Saturday, Jack Fagan, 31, of Te Kuiti, won the open shearing final, beating new World Champion Gwion Evans; while Blake Mitchell, 20, of Patea, won the junior shearing final.
On Friday, Sonya Fagan (Jack’s second cousin), aged 19 and also from Te Kuiti won the intermediate woolhandling final.
However, Masterton brothers-in-law Paerata Abraham and David Gordon - the Wools of New Zealand Shearing Sports New Zealand team - were not so successful.
The team ended its 2023 UK tour without a win in a three-test series against Wales, bowing by 13 points to 2019 World Champion Richard Jones and new Champion Shearer of Wales, Gethin Lewis.
The pair were still looking forward to resuming the battle early in the new year back home - where Wales is yet to beat New Zealand.
Gordon, in particular, prospered on his first tour.
He was selected as the sixth placegetter in the New Zealand Shears open final, after the unavailability of others, including World Championships representatives Leon Samuels and Rowland Smith.
Gordon had good personal results in the tests and was fifth to Fagan in the Corwen open final, having just scraped through the heats of 54 shearers to be the last man into the semi-finals at No 18, and then being the top qualifier for the six-man final.
Jack Fagan has had several wins in a decade in the open class.
These include the Royal Welsh Open in 2015 and, in the 2022-2023 season, the New Zealand Corriedales Championship in Christchurch and the New Zealand Crossbred Lamb Shearling title in Southland.
Fagan’s cousin Sonya has had just one previous win, in a novice woolhandling final at the Devon County Show in England in May.
It was Mitchell’s win.
The Fagan victories continued a family link to the Corwen lamb shearing championships.
Brothers John and David Fagan - Jack’s uncle and father respectively - were closely involved in the event when it was established in 1989, as the first show in the UK with a 20-sheep final.
They presented the Fagan Brothers Trophy, the silverware that was claimed by Jack Fagan on Sunday.
The now-Sir David Fagan won the first final and went on to win 13 times.
John Fagan also won, as did his son James.
It was the culmination of a big year for Jack Fagan who last December set a world eight-hour strong wool lamb shearing record of 754, an average of 38.2 seconds a lamb.
On Sunday he was first-off, at the same rate of 38.2 seconds a lamb, caught, shorn and despatched, shearing the 20 in 12min 44sec.
Fagan beat next-man-off Evans by 23 seconds, while also scoring the best quality points in the shearing board.
Evans’ better points from judging in the pens enabled him to close the gap to just 0.7pts.
In the test match, Gethin Lewis, who will return to New Zealand later this year for a seventh season with Napier shearing contractor Brendan Mahony, made the pace, shearing the 20 lambs in 13min 7sec.
But Richard Jones, who with Evans won the World Teams Championship a month ago in Scotland, was again the top individual on points, despite being last to finish.
This was also been the case in the second test at the Royal Welsh show on Wednesday.
There was an element of drama for competitions rookie Blake Mitchell, initially announced as the third placegetter in the junior final and winner of the award for the cleanest shearer.
But, knowing he also had the fastest time, the result was challenged and an error was found, leading to a second prizegiving and his elevation to first place.
Off a dairy farm, Mitchell is an old boy of Francis Douglas Memorial College in New Plymouth and was taught to shear over the last two years by his uncle, and Whanganui shearing contractor, Matt Thompson.
It was his third competition, having shorn only in the heats at his first in Marton last February, and being eliminated in the semi-finals at the Cothi Shears in Wales last weekend.
He was the sixth qualifier for the six-man final, where he shore the five lambs in 6min 33sec, first off the board by 43 seconds, and winning by 0.7pts from runner-up and Welsh shearer Luke Price.
He reckoned if it wasn’t for the shearing he’d be still working on the dairy farm, but after a short time remaining in the UK and then a month or two shearing in Australia he’d return to New Zealand to set some new goals.
“I’ve got the bug for winning now so I’ll be getting some practice in for the circuit in New Zealand this summer to get some more red ribbons,” he said.
Sonya Fagan is now one of Five King Country Fagans on the Corwen Shears honours board after capping a promising season in the UK with her first win
A daughter of Craig and Sarah Fagan, she arrived in the Northern Hemisphere to work in Norway in February.
She had a dream to be at the Royal Highland Show and 2023 Golden Shears World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships, which were held in Scotland on June 22-25, to compete against others from over 30 countries.
Among them were boyfriend and Welsh shearer Philip Price, who had several wins in lower grades in New Zealand before graduating to the open class.
Fagan started in the novice grade, with no winning history from a small number of competitions over the years in New Zealand.
At Edinburgh five weeks ago in a field of 24, she was the top qualifier for the Royal Highland novice woolhandling final, in which she was beaten only by Scottish woolhandler Sarah Bateman.
The form continued with third place on another big stage in the Royal Welsh Show intermediate final last Tuesday, and in an otherwise all-Wales field at Corwen, she qualified for the final in which she beat the first two qualifiers.
Fagan expected it to have been her last competition in the UK before heading home to New Zealand in November and re-launching her New Zealand show career in January, probably at the Taihape A and P Show.
“I’ve been in the shearing shed since I was, like, born really,” she said.
“I did my first main shear rousing when I was 11, and have done about 10 main shears in New Zealand.”
Fagan said 2022 was her first year working as a rousie overseas.
She fell in love with travelling and decided to start competing this year.
“I’ve done a few shows over the years in New Zealand but never really took it seriously until I came here.”
Fagan also competed as a shearer.
Now she is looking to the future; armed with the skills for a travelling lifestyle, along with a short interrupted stint at university.
“I want to travel and see the world, but when I’ve found a place to settle down I want to go back to do agricultural business.
“I love farming. I want to learn the business side of it.”
Shearing
International (20 sheep): Wales 98.45pts (Richard Jones 13min 37sec, 47.05pts; Gethin Lewis 13min 7sec, 51.4pts) beat New Zealand 111.85pts (Paerata Abraham 13min 15sec, 54.1pts; David Gordon 13min 35sec, 57.75pts). Wales won the series 3-0.
Corwen Shears open final (20 lambs): Jack Fagan (Te Kuiti, NZ) 12min 44sec, 48.7pts, 1; Gwion Evans (Wales) 13min 7sec, 49.45pts, 2; Alun Rhydonnen (Wales) 13min 15sec, 49.75pts, 3; Ian Jones (Wales) 14min 17sec, 52.75pts, 4; David Gordon (Masterton, NZ) 13min 22sec, 54.5pts, 5; Dean Nelmes (England) 23min 32sec, 64.85pts, 6.
Corwen Shears junior final (5 lambs): Blake Mitchell (Patea, NZ) 6min 33sec, 31.45pts, 1; Luke Price (Wales) 8min 15sec, 32.15pts, 2; Barney Richardson (England) 7min 16sec, 32.4pts, 3; Ioan Williams (Wales) 7min 50sec, 33.3pts, 4; Elis Jones (Wales) 7min 47sec, 33.35pts, 5; Harvey Samuel (Wales) 7min 41sec, 36.85pts, 6.
Woolhandling
Corwen Shears Intermediate final: Sonya Fagan (Te Kuiti, NZ) 1; Awel Jones (Wales) 2; Ffion Haf Jones (Wales) 3.