Romney Shears Buick's biggest victory

ON THE LAND:David Buick and wife Rebecca on their Pongaroa farm.

Wairarapa farmer David Buick scored the biggest win of his shearing career on Saturday in Australia's top crossbred shearing event, the Romney Shears Open at Warrnambool, Victoria.

The 36-year-old Buick, based at Pongaroa, where he also runs a contract shearing operation, was in Australia with a Te Kuiti New Zealand Shears selection.

It also included runner-up Dion King, of Hastings, who had had a classy win at the Poverty Bay Show in Gisborne a few days before last week's trip across the Tasman.

King won the 15-sheep race by just a second, finishing in 13mins 45secs, but Buick, a 1999 Golden Shears intermediate champion who had to wait almost a decade in the top grade before his first open win in New Zealand in 2011, sealed the victory with comfortably the better quality, and a margin of more than two-and-a-half points.

It was Buick's seventh open win, his biggest in New Zealand being the 2013 and 2014 Apiti Shears.

On both occasions he beat Hastings gun Rowland Smith, who, also on both occasions, went on to win the Golden Shears Open final a week later, and who this year won the world championship in Ireland.

In 2013 Buick was unable to be at Golden Shears in Masterton, being best man at a friend's wedding, but he made the Golden Shears open final this year for the first time, and has also shorn in two New Zealand Championships open finals in Te Kuiti.

Third on Saturday was Dannevirke shearer Adam Brausch, Australian world championships team member Jason Wingfield was fourth, Aaron Haynes, of Feilding fifth, and Queensland-based Jovan Taiki, from Porangahau, sixth.

There was similar New Zealand domination in other events, including the senior final won by Turi Edmonds, of Raetihi.

Third place went to this year's New Zealand Championships intermediate winner Darren Alexander, of Whangamomona, Jacob Moore, of Marton, was fifth, and 2013 Warrnambool intermediate winner Alex Smith, of Gisborne, was sixth.

The Romney Shears intermediate final was won by Ramone Smith, of Gisborne, while multiple former world and Golden Shears woolhandling champion Joanne Kumeroa, from Wanganui but based in Victoria, retained the Romney Shears open woolhandling title.