New Zealand shearers Rowland Smith and Dion King have suffered a narrow loss to England in the opening international of a test series in the UK.
The English team of Adam Berry and Mark Fox, recently selected to represent their country at the 15th World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships in Masterton
in March, won the match by just 0.97pts at the Three Counties Show in Malvern, Worcestershire, yesterday.
With three Open-class wins behind him since arriving in the UK early last month, 24-year-old New Zealand Open champion Smith, from Ruawai in Northland but based mainly in Hawke's Bay, marked his test-match debut with a keen race for time honours with Fox, the new English national champion.
Fox won by five seconds, finishing 17 sheep in 12m 04s, while Berry and King were about half-a-minute behind, Berry being third-man-off in 12m 33s, but scoring the best quality points.
Napier shearer King, 36, overcoming a recent bout of pneumonia and flying into Manchester just 24 hours before the test, tailed by another five seconds but, despite having not shorn in Britain for more than three years, was able to keep his quality in check, while Smith was penalised uncharacteristically, on the board and in the pens.
Both also reached the final of the Three Counties Open, in which Smith and brother Matthew were second and third to Welsh champion Gareth Daniels. King was fifth.
Mathew Smith dominated the pace, shearing the 20 sheep in 14m 42s, almost half-a-minute ahead of his brother and Daniels, both timed at 15m 10s.
Rowland Smith and King face up to nine tests over five weeks, against England, Scotland and Wales, the last at Corwen in Wales on July 23.
Result:
International (17 sheep): England 95.91 penalty points (Adam Berry 12m 33s, 46.59pts; Mark Fox 12m 4s, 49.32pts) beat New Zealand 96.88pts (Dion King 12m 38s, 48.19pts; Rowland Smith 12m 9s, 48.69pts).
Three Counties Open Final (20 sheep): Gareth Daniels (Wales) 15m 10s, 55.95pts, 1; Rowland Smith (New Zealand) 15m 10s, 57.2pts, 2; Matt Smith (New Zealand) 14m 42s, 58.15pts, 3; Richard Jones (Wales) 16m 44s, 60.95pts, 4; Dion King (New Zealand) 16m 31s, 62.2pts, 5; Antony Rooke (England) 17m 8s, 64.1pts, 6.
