Kirkpatric shear class at show

Napier shearer John Kirkpatrick,  current New Zealand open champion, won the Wairarapa Spring  Shears Open title at Clareville,  near Carterton, at the weekend.
Kirkpatrick, a shock early elimination when he failed to make the  final of the event when it was revived last year, suffered a similar fate last week at his home  Great Raihania Shears in Hastings.
But on Saturday, in a four-man  final, he polished-off 13 sheep in 11m 58s, half-a-minute quicker  than the second man off the board.  When all points were counted, he  finished with a four-point margin over runner-up and fellow  Hawke's Bay shearer Cam  Ferguson, of Waipawa.