Champion shearer John Kirkpatrick after knocking-off career open win number 214 at the Wairarapa Spring Shears, where he scored his first open win 30 years ago. Photo / Shearing Sports New Zealand
Champion shearer John Kirkpatrick after knocking-off career open win number 214 at the Wairarapa Spring Shears, where he scored his first open win 30 years ago. Photo / Shearing Sports New Zealand
It was another Kirkpatrick invasion as the shearing dynasty from Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne moved in on the Wairarapa A and P Show’s Spring Shears on Sunday, at Clareville, Carterton.
Just as they had at the Gisborne Shears which kicked off the competition season at the Poverty Bay A and P Show on October 18, master shearer John Kirkpatrick won the open shearing final, crew member Bruce Grace, of Wairoa, won the senior final, and niece Jodiesha Kirkpatrick, of Gisborne, won both the junior shearing and woolhandling finals.
For Jodiesha Kirkpatrick, it continued a remarkable start to the 2024-2025 season, having just missed another double at Hawke’s Bay’s Great Raihania Shears on October 24, when she won the junior woolhandling final but was runner-up in the shearing.
For John Kirkpatrick, ONZM, it was a particularly special moment.
With 214 open wins to his name in New Zealand, Australia and the UK, he is considered second only to King Country icon Sir David Fagan, who was knighted in the 2016 New Year Honours, after retiring with a career tally of 642 wins.
The show was where he scored his first senior win of 20 in the 1993-1994 season and his first open win the following October.
Kirkpatrick is one of the few to make an immediate winning impression in the open class, notorious for its long apprenticeships for even some of the best performers from the lower grades.
He’s now won the Wairarapa title nine times, but Sunday’s was as tough as it gets.
Kirkpatrick was last off the board in a four-man final over 15 sheep each, about 46 seconds and thus two-and-a-half time-points behind first-man-off David Buick, of Pongaroa.
Yet, he came home on quality points which still enabled a clear win with Kirkpatrick’s 51.565 points being over two points clear of runner-up Buick’s 53.664.
With 28 penalties on the board and 91 in the pens, Kirkpatrick’s combined quality points of 7.934 compared with runner-up Buick’s 12.334.
Third was Napier shearer Paraki Puma, who won the Open Plate at Hawke’s Bay and led the pace early in the final, and fourth was 2023 winner Hemi Braddock, of Eketahuna.
Meanwhile, Grace’s third senior win of the season was by just 0.047pts over in beating Hawke’s Bay winner Laura Bradley, of Papatawa, Southern Hawke’s Bay.
This was based on better quality points after Bradley ended 39 seconds clear on the board after shearing the eight sheep in 8m 48.44s.
Jake Goldsbury, of Waitotara, Taranaki, won the intermediate final by eight points from first-time finalist Daniel O’Boyle, of Masterton.
Jodiesha Kirkpatrick’s win in the junior final was by 1.505pts from Masterton rookie Hayden Sargent, who in a four-sheep final was first to finish by almost 1m 45s.
The novice winner was Phoebe Monk, of Masterton.
Ngaira Puha, of Kimbolton, won the open woolhandling final, her first win of the season, and the third open win of her career.
Eketahuna woolhandler Ngaio Hanson, finishing second for the seventh time in 20 open woolhandling finals in New Zealand spanning more than a decade. Photo / Shearing Sports New Zealand
However, it was again all but for Eketahuna woolhandler Ngaio Hanson, a current Transtasman Series New Zealand representative and 2023 World Championships representative, who was runner-up.
Hanson remains still without an open win despite having reached at least 20 finals over more than a decade as an open-class competitor, including coming second seven times.
Occasional competitor Ashleigh Ostler, from Kimbolton, won the senior woolhandling final, from first-time finalists Jessica Griffith and Shylagh Gordon, both of Masterton.
The competitions attracted 80 shearers and woolhandlers, with the next North Island competition being the Central Hawke’s Bay A and P Show’s Shearing and Woolhandling Championships in Waipukurau this Saturday.
Results from the Wairarapa Spring Shears at the Wairarapa A and P Show
