John Kirkpatrick (right ) in his 14th Central Hawke’s Bay A and P Shears Open final line-up as the winner. From left, show president Richard Ellis, fourth-placed Brook Hamerton, third-placed Hemi Braddick, runner-up David Buick, and the victorious Kirkpatrick. Photo / SSNZ
John Kirkpatrick (right ) in his 14th Central Hawke’s Bay A and P Shears Open final line-up as the winner. From left, show president Richard Ellis, fourth-placed Brook Hamerton, third-placed Hemi Braddick, runner-up David Buick, and the victorious Kirkpatrick. Photo / SSNZ
By Doug Laing, media officer, Shearing Sports New Zealand
Good numbers of entries in the lower classes continued to be a feature of competitions when the Central Hawke’s Bay A and P Show Shears were held in Waipukurau on Saturday.
Of 128 competitors across the nine classes of shearing and woolhandling, there were 87 shearers, half of them in the Novice and Junior grades, which had 18 and 25 respectively.
Both were won by local rookies, with the Novice final won by Bugs Butler and the Junior by George Peacock, the latter claiming his second win of the season having stepped up from the Novice grade during last season to finish fourth in the New Zealand Shears Junior final in Te Kuiti in April.
As winners went on Saturday, they were in good company, with the Open final won by Hawke’s Bay shearer John Kirkpatrick, who has won more than 200 Open finals, including the 2017 World title and four Golden Shears Open finals since he first appeared at the Waipukurau competition in 1994.
Bouncing back from shoulder surgery, Kirkpatrick was claiming his third win in five finals in six competitions in successive weeks at the start of the 2024-2035 season.
Reigning New Zealand Shears Open shearing champion David Buick, of Pongaroa, on the ringer’s stand powering into sheep No 17 in the 20-sheep CHB A and P Show Open shearing final in Waipukurau on Saturday. He was first to finish but victory went to Hawke’s Bay gun John Kirkpatrick on points. Three years ago Buick was crushed in a ditch and left with injuries such that it was considered possible he might not walk again. Photo / SSNZ
He started at the New Zealand Merino Championships in Alexandra, and then finished fifth at Waimate’s New Zealand Spring Shearing Championships, before winning at the Gisborne Shears, finishing second at Hawke’s Bay’s Great Raihania Shears in Hastings, and winning again at the Wairarapa Spring Shears.
It was his 14th win in the CHB Open final, which first he won in 1997, and came by less than four-tenths of a point from David Buick, who was also second at Gisborne and Wairarapa, and who won the NZ Shears Open final seven months ago, on the comeback trail after suffering life-threatening and near-crippling injuries in a farm accident three years ago.
Southern Hawke’s Bay shearer Laura Bradley claimed the latest bragging rights in a growing Senior grade rivalry with Wairoa shearer Bruce Grace.
But it was close, with Grace first to finish, shearing the North Island’s first 10-sheep Senior final of the season in 12min 40.22sec, almost half-a-minute clear, with Bradley’s better quality giving her the red ribbon by just 0.046pts. It was the sixth win of her Senior career.
King Country farmer Keryn Herbert, claimed her third CHB Shears Open woolhandling title, and her 58th win in an Open-class career now in its 22nd season, with 2022-2023 New Zealand transtasman series team member Cushla Abraham, of Masterton, in second place, and Marika Braddick, of Eketahuna, third, after fourth placings at Gisborne and Hastings.
The Intermediate shearing final was won by Napier shearer Kaivah Cooper, his second win in the grade after being the No 1-ranked Junior nationwide last season, the Senior woolhandling final provided the first win of the season for defending CHB Senior champion Tatijana Keefe, from Raupunga, the Junior final was a first for local Kaylah Ferguson, daughter of 2010 Golden Shears and World shearing champion Cam Ferguson, and the Novice woolhandling was won by Caitlin Murphy, of Pongaroa.
Eketahuna woolhandler Marika Braddick finishing third in the CHB Open woolhandling final, won for a third time by Keryn Herbert, of Te Kuiti. It was Braddick’s third final in four weeks, but still she remained without a win. Photo / SSNZ
The next competition is the New Zealand Corriedale Shearing and Woolhandling Championships at the Canterbury Shears in Christchurch on Thursday and Friday, with no events next weekend.
The Nelson and West Otago A and P Shows will have shearing competitions on November 23, the Taranaki Shears will be held in Stratford on November 30, and the Whangārei A and P Show (shearing-only) and the Rotorua A and P Show (shearing and woolhandling) will end the pre-Christmas stage of the season on December 7.
Results from the Central Hawke’s Bay A and P Show Shears at Waipukurau on Saturday, November 9, 2024:
Shearing
Open final (20 sheep): John Kirkpatrick (Pakipaki) 19m 28.54s. 67.377pts, 1; David Buick (Pongaroa) 19m 1.25s, 67.7125pts, 2; Hemi Braddick (Eketahūna) 19m 6.91s, 68.2455pts, 3; Brook Hamerton (Hastings) 20m 28.13s, 73.2565pts, 4.
Senior final (10 sheep): Laura Bradley (Papatawa) 13m 9.31s, 46.6655pts, 1; Bruce Grace (Wairoa) 12m 40.22s, 46.711pts, 2; Jack Hutchinson (England) 14m 5.91s, 51.1955pts, 3; John Cherrington (Huntly) 13m 37.9s, 51.395pts, 4.
