Shearing: Wales clinch series 2-1 with win over NZ at Corwen Shears

The New Zealand team of David Buick (left), manager Mark Barrowcliffe, and Jack Fagan ready to return home from six shearing tests in the UK and France.

Te Kūiti shearer Jack Fagan completed a remarkable series of four open final wins on a UK and France tour with victory at the Corwen Shears International Lamb Shearing and Woolhandling Championships at Rhug Estate in Wales.

For the second time in four days, he pipped reigning world champion Gwion Evans, who he had beaten in the Royal Welsh Show open final on Wednesday, having already won the Great Yorkshire Show open final in England and the open final at Martel in France this month.

The wins came while on the Wools of New Zealand Shearing Sports New Zealand tour, in which Fagan and teammate David Buick, of Pongaroa, also claimed test match wins at the Great Yorkshire Show, in France and at the Royal Welsh Show.

But there was not quite the same success for the test team, who were comfortably beaten by Welsh pair Richard Jones and Gethin Lewis at Corwen to secure a 2-1 series victory, a week after Lewis and original teammate Llyr Jones won the opening Welsh series test at Cothi on July 20.

The black-singlets pair were beaten in the opening test of the tour against Scotland last month.

Fagan, 32, won his way into the team with victory in the New Zealand Shears Circuit final in Te Kūiti in April.

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He nearly emulated an achievement of his father, Sir David Fagan, who, during numerous tours in the Northern Hemisphere in 2000, had a string of wins; including at the All-Ireland Championships, the Royal Bath and West and Great Yorkshire shows in England, the Royal Welsh Show and the Corwen Shears.

The Corwen Open attracted 56 entries, with Buick qualifying from the heats in fourth place among 18 for the semifinals, and Fagan ninth.

While Buick dropped out, Fagan qualified in second place for the final, between leader Evans and world teams championship teammate Richard Jones, and then made a sprint of the final in 11m 41s — 20 seconds clear of next man off Lewis.

Richard Jones had the best quality points on the shearing board and in the pens, but having finished last in 13m 14s, had to settle for sixth place.

Fagan, the world eight-hour lamb shearing record-holder, was also first to finish in the test, at 12m 28s and just three seconds quicker than Lewis.

With the better quality points, and Buick incurring a maximum 5pts penalty on one lamb, Lewis and Jones won by a comfortable 7.15pts.

New Zealand shearer Jack Fagan, pictured after winning the Royal Welsh Show open final on Wednesday, is congratulated by runner-up and 2023 world champion Gwion Evans.

For Buick, who won the New Zealand Shears open final in April, capping a remarkable comeback after suffering critical injuries in a farm accident in 2021, it was the 21st test match since a debut in a transtasman test in Australia in 2014.

While a regular shearing in the UK and France, Fagan, who also won three speed shear events in the past week and is a qualified shearing judge and a shearers delegate to the Shearing Sports New Zealand national committee, was on his first tour.

In October he will be in Australia for the first of the summer’s transtasman tests at Katanning, WA, joined by new Golden Shears open champion Leon Samuels and the best New Zealander in the open final at the New Zealand Merino Shears, which kicks off the Shearing Sports New Zealand season on October 4-5.

Also on at Katanning will be blade shearing and woolhandling tests, with teams of two representatives each.

Corwen Shears results

Third Test (20 lambs each): Wales (Gethin Lewis 12m 31s, 47pts; Richard Jones 14m 32s, 50.45pts) 97.4pts, beat New Zealand (Jack Fagan 12m 28s, 47.75pts; David Buick 13m 18s, 56.8pts) 104.55pts. Wales won by 7.15pts and won the series 2-1.

Corwen Shears open final (20 lambs): Jack Fagan (New Zealand) 11m 41s, 42.3pts, 1; Gwion Evans (Wales) 12m 4s, 43.65pts, 2; Gethin Lewis (Wales) 12m 21s, 45pts, 3; Llyr Jones (Wales) 12m 1s, 45.55pts, 4; Alun Lloyd Jones (Wales) 12m 2s, 46.05pts, 5; Richard Jones (Wales) 13m 14s, 46.1pts, 6.