Northland-raised Hawke's Bay shearing champion Rowland Smith became possibly only the fourth person to win 100 Open-class shearing titles with three victories about 24hours and 1700km apart during the weekend.
He raised the century at the Counties Shears in Pukekohe yesterday(Sunday), a few hours after arriving from Gore, in Southland, where on Saturday he won the South Island Shearer of the Year final and the Southern Shears Open final on Saturday.
It was a repeat of a unique treble he also scored last year, the 100th win being achieved at the same show where he scored where he has been unbeaten in six finals dating back to his first Open A-grade show win in 2010, following previous wins at the Kaikohe and North Kaipara shows in Northland and at Devon County in England.
The only other shearers thought to have cracked the century are multiple World champion Sir David Fagan, who retired with 642 wins, Napier gun John Kirkpatrick, who was runner-up yesterday and has a list of over 200 wins including a long-sought World Championship win in Invercargill on February 11, and 2008 World Champion and Taranaki farmer Paul Avery, who was recorded to have won 178 finals.
Although just 30 years old, living at Maraekakaho, near Hastings, with fellow shearing-record breaker Ingrid and their two children record, first shore in a Junior final when aged just 15, and was well known by the time he hit Open ranks in 2006, with 23 wins in lower grades including the Golden Shears Junior title in 2004 and the shears' Senior title two years later.
