Win seals eight years of Kiwi dominance

Rowland Smith, who hails from Northland, won the 2016 Lakeland Shears Open shearing final in England on Saturday.

World champion New Zealand shearer and Hawke's Bay farmer Rowland Smith, formerly of Ruawai, took out the 2016 Lakeland Shears Open shearing final in England on Saturday with John Kirkpatrick, also of Hawke's Bay.

Smith was first and Kirkpatrick second in the contest at Cockermouth in Cumbria, the second stop on their 2016 Shearing Sports New Zealand CP Wool UK tour. It was the eighth year in a row that New Zealanders have won the event.

Smith previously won the Lakeland Shears in 2013, and was runner-up to Kiwi great the now Sir David Fagan in 2011.

The reigning world, Golden Shears and New Zealand champion, Smith has won 86 finals in an open-class career of 10 years, including 14 wins in the UK.

Kirkpatrick won the Lakeland title in 2007, 2010 and 2014, and last year New Zealanders were first, second and third in the event, shorn on the herdwick breed which is almost exclusive to the Lakeland region.

A week ago Smith and Kirkpatrick opened their tour with New Zealand's first test match win over Scotland at the Lochearnhead Shears in 13 years.

There was no test match at the Lakeland Shears, but Smith and Kirkpatrick will face up to England this week at the Great Yorkshire Show before heading west for three test matches against Wales.