Buick sets hectic pace

Shearing & woolhandling

Pongaroa was put on the map at the Manawatu A and P show at Manfeild on Saturday with two of the major titles in the shearing and wool handling competitions going their way.

Shearer David Buick returned to the scene of his first open class victory 12 months earlier to win the open shearing title and there was no semblance of a fluke about his victory.

He completed his 12 sheep 11 seconds quicker than Golden Shears and New Zealand champion John Kirkpatrick and ultimately had a comfortable winning margin of 2.17 points.

The previous year had seen Buick beat off stern challenges from the then defending New Zealand champion Rowland Smith and world champion Cam Ferguson so this is obviously a show which brings out the best in him.

The other Pongaroa success came in the senior class of the woolhandling competition with Carmen Smith taking the spoils from Masterton's Samantha Gordon.

Also in the shearing the intermediate final was won by David Gordon of Masterton, who a week earlier had claimed similar success at Clareville, and the novice final went to Laura Bradley of Woodville.