New Zealand beats England in shearing test

Results are in from the CP Wool New Zealand shearing team UK Tour and Lakeland Shears at Cockermouth, Cumbria. Photo / File

The New Zealand shearing team has had a big day by beating England in a test match and dominating the Lakeland Shears in the North of England.

The black-singlet pair of Hawke's Bay guns Rowland Smith and John Kirkpatrick beat England internationals Adam Berry and Antony Rooke 4.85pts in the test match at Cockermouth, Cumbria.

The Kiwis also mastered the local herdwick breed as Smith retained the Lakeland Shears Open title in a Kiwi one-two finish in the feature event of the one-day championships, the second stop on the CP Wool Sharing Sports New Zealand team UK tour.

The Kiwis, who were beaten by Scotland in the opening match of the tour last week, now face a second test against England at the Great Yorkshire Show on Wednesday, followed by a nine-day break from competition before launching ino a four-test series against Wales.

Meawhile, a Scottish shearer has shown 2142 in a two-day fundraising effort about 100km west of Cockermouth at High Balyett Farm, Stranraer, near the shores lof Loch Ryan in the sourthwest of Scotland..

Grant Hurcomb raising funds for Cancer Research UK and MND Scotland, started at 6pm
Thursday and finished at 9pm Saturday local time (8am today New Zealand time).

Taking a half-hour break every two hours, with one-hour breaks 24 hours ninto the event and 12 hours later, Hurcomb averaged more than 53 sheep an hour in the almost 40 hours on the board.

In 2015 Hurcomb shore 934 in 24 hours.

In another big effort for UK and continental shearing, French shearers Christoffe Riffaud and Julien Dincq have over the weekend established a two-stand French record of over 1000 sheep in nine-hours.

The pair were shearing overnight (New Zeaand time) at Le Dorat in Central France, where they are among those staging the next World shearing and woolhandling championships in July 2019.

Results from the CP Wool New Zealand shearing team UK Tour and Lakeland Shears at Cockermouth, Cumbria, on Saturday, July 8, 2017:
CP Wool New Zealand Tour test match (20 sheep): New Zealand (Rowland Smith 14min 5sec, 49.65pts; John Kirkpatrick 15min 25sec, 52.8pts) 102.45pts, beat England (Adam Berry 14min 14sec, 51pts; Antony Rooke 15min 51sec, 56.2pts) 107.2pts.