Wairarapa shearer David Buick has produced another stunning result in his miracle recovery from crippling injuries in an accident on his Pongaroa farm by winning the Lochearnhead Shears open final in Scotland on Saturday.
He mastered both the horned Scottish blackface sheep and the best Scotland could offer of the two-legged kind of opposition in Hamish Mitchell, with New Zealand teammate Jack Fagan third, and Mitchell’s Scotland teammate, Calum Shaw, fourth.
However, roles were reversed when the same quartet shore in the first test of the 2024 Wools of New Zealand Shearing Sports New Zealand shearing team’s UK Tour, won by Scotland.
It left New Zealand still without a win in the annual Lochearnhead Shears’ Joe Te Kapa Memorial Trophy match since 2016.
Buick, who first represented New Zealand in Australia in 2014, suffered major injuries when he was buried neck-deep in an on-farm accident in October 2021. He was considered unlikely to shear again and possibly not even walk.
