Knighthood big for shearing

HONOUR: Sir David Fagan.PHOTO/FILE

Multiple world and Golden Shears shearing champion David Fagan will now be known as Sir David Fagan KNZM, ONZM, MNZM after being made a knight in the New Year Honours announced today.

Wairarapa's adopted King Country favourite son, Sir David, now 54, has been the most successful competitor in the history of shearing, propelled on to the international stage by his ultimately record-breaking triumphs at the Golden Shears in Masterton's War Memorial Stadium.

While considered by many a long overdue recognition for Fagan, who received the MNZM in 1999 and ONZM in 2007, Sir David considered it "big for shearing".

Overwhelmed by the media response, including during the two-day Christmas break at Whangamata, he was back at the farm this week taking care of cows and water, and heading off to help three shearers prepare for a world record attempt in a King Country woolshed next week.

Appointed chairman of Shearing Sports New Zealand in August, he's one of 12 people known by the sport's national body to have received New Year or Queen's Birthday Honours, including five Open shearing champions, a former Intermediate champion, three Golden Shears presidents (one of whom was a Golden Shears Open woolhandling champion), and a Golden Shears secretary.

Sir David Fagan took shearing to new levels worldwide, with 642 victories across 11 countries in an Open class career spanning 33 years, setting numerous records which are unlikely to be beaten.

He had at least 43 wins on the Masterton stage, including two of his record five world individual titles, one of his record seven world teams titles, his record 16 Golden Shears Open titles from 1986 to 2009, and his record nine wins in the final of the national circuit, currently known as the PGG Wrightson National.

Sir David has also won a record 16 New Zealand Open Championships finals in hometown Te Kuiti, where he was a founding member of the King Country Shears committee in 1985, instrumental in the success of the New Zealand Championships which that committee revived just a year later.

His last win was in the New Zealand Shears Circuit final at Te Kuiti in March. Initially turning down the prize of another tour with a New Zealand team, 30 years after first shearing for New Zealand in 1985, he was lured back for a swansong in the UK.

At home with wife, the Devonshire lass now to be known as Lady Wendy Fagan and with whom he also raised daughter and air hostess Jenna, Sir David was quickly the target of media who were given the Honours List under embargo last week.

Wondering for a moment who had put him up for the honour, he said: "This is fairly big for shearing, eh?"

There has been widespread grievance in shearing that his lack of recognition at New Zealand sport's Halberg Awards may have reflected a lack of public acceptance of shearing as sport.

In a Wairarapa Times-Age, editorial in 2013, sports writer Gary Caffell wrote: "Surely the day will come -- and sooner rather than later -- when David Fagan joins the likes of Brian Lochore, Colin Meads and Richard Hadlee, men who have reached the very pinnacles of their sporting pursuits and been knighted for their efforts. Sir David Fagan has a nice ring about it, doesn't it?"