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Scoop
20-07-2025
- Sport
- Scoop
The Fastest Guns In But NZ Shearers Still Beaten In Wales
Two Welsh shearers who've shorn numerous summers in New Zealand have struck the first blow to the hopes of New Zealand shearers Toa Henderson and Jack Fagan winning a new test series in Wales. Shearing Welsh lambs at the Cothi Shears, in Carmarthenshire, on Saturday, Gethin Lewis and Llyr Jones beat the Wools of New Zealand team Toa Henderson and Jack Fagan by a comfortable margin of 6.1pts. But while the Welsh dominated the quality points, it wasn't as comfortable in the race for best time points, with Northland gun Henderson shearing 11min 48sec, one of the faster times by a New Zealand shearer in a 20-sheep final, and putting a sheep around Welsh shearer-of-the-moment and second-man-off Lewis, with 34 seconds separating the pair on the clock. A short while earlier, King Country shearer Fagan, a former Royal Welsh Open winner, blasted through 20 lambs in 13min 1sec to be first home in the five-man Cothi Shears Open final, beating second-man-off and current World champion Gwion Lloyd Evans by 25 seconds, but had to settle for fourth place as Lewis claimed his third individual success in 11 days. Lewis, who shears for Hawke's Bay contractor Brendan Mahony, beat Henderson and Fagan to win the Great Yorkshire Open final in England on July 9, and last weekend shore 696 sheep in eight hours to set a new British ewe-shearing record, in what was also part of a successful bid for the two-stand record. Lewis had best overall points in the test, while Jones was just pipped for the honour and had the best quality points, while in the Open final Lewis had the best quality points. While Henderson's time in the test was more than a minute quicker then Fagan's Open final and both the test and Open final at Cothi last year, Fagan shore 11min 41sec in winning the Corwen Shears Open title last year, But Welsh commentator Huw Condron believes the fastest time ever for a 20-sheep final was the 10min 30sec by New Zealander Paul Avery in winning the Royal Welsh Open in 2007, beating a previous record of 10min 36sec attributed to Fagan's father, New Zealand shearing legend Sir David Fagan. Condron had a clear memory of Avery's achievement, saying: 'I was his pen-man.' Another New Zealand shearer to break 11 minutes in such a final in the UK was Hawke's Bay gun John Kirkpatrick, with 10m 59s at Corwen in 2009. The second test of the current tour will be shorn on Wednesday at the Royal Welsh Show, where Fagan had a big day last year, winning the Royal Welsh Open for a second time and, with Wairarapa shearer David Buick, a test match, and tie-up a series Wales ultimately won 2-1 with victory at the Corwen Shears a few days later. Fagan, who was second-fastest in the Open heats, which saw Henderson's early elimination after winning the French Open at his last start, said: 'It was good to make the final today. We have a clear set of goals for Wednesday, so we are preparing for that.' In March, he and Buick beat Lewis and Jones 3-0 in a series in New Zealand, and now he and Henderson, while out to keep the Wales series in the Northern Hemisphere alive in the last two tests, will also be out to at least keep the balance on the tour, with a 2-2 record to date, having had wins over England and France and losses to Scotland and Wales. Results: International (20 lambs): Wales 94.6pts (Gethin Lewis 12m 22s, 47.15pts; Llyr Jones 13m 3s, 47.45pts), New Zealand Toa Henderson 100.7pts (Toa Henderson 11m 48s, 49.7pts; Jack Fagan 12m 59s, 51pts). Weles won by 6.1pts. Cothi Open final (20 lambs): Gethin Lewis (Wales) 14m 15s, 52.1pts, 1; Gareth Daniel (Wales) 14m 26s, 53.45pts, 2; Gwion Lloyd Evans (Wales) 13m 26s, 57.2pts, 3; Jack Fagan (New Zealand) 13m 1s, 59.7pts, 4; Ian Jones (Wales) 14m 37s, 61.65pts, 5.
Scoop
25-06-2025
- Sport
- Scoop
International Shearing Test Match: Black Singlet V The "Blackies - Man V Sheep In Scotland
New Zealand shearers Toa Henderson and Jack Fagan have arrived in the UK ready for the first of six test matches in a four-nations tour starting at the Lochearnhead Shears in Scotland this weekend. Northland shearer Henderson, representing New Zealand for the first time, claimed his place as winner of the New Zealand Open Shearing Championship and Fagan, who was in the Wools of New Zealand tour team last year, retained his position as third placegetter in the New Zealand Shears Circuit final, both events being shorn in Te Kuiti in April. In a twist, circuit winner and Southern Hawke's Bay-based shearer and farmer Gavin Mutch is expected to return to his native Scotland team after winning the Royal Highland Open title and finishing second in the Scottish National Circuit final last weekend. The Kiwis, managed by King Country competitions judge Neil Fagan face not only the challenge of a tough Scotland team on its home stage and gearing-up for the 2026 Golden Shears World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships in Masterton, but also the unfamiliarity with the Lochearnhead Shears' scottish blackface sheep, known as the 'blackies'. The challenge has been met successfully by New Zealand shearers in the past, notably last year when Wairarapa shearer David Buick won the Open final, but no New Zealand team has beaten Scotland in any of the mainly-annual test matches at Lochearnhead since 2016. Following the test on Saturday, Henderson and Fagan will shear against England at the Great Yorkshire Show at Harrogate on July 9, France at the French Shears in Boussac on July 13, and then a three-match series against Wales, with tests at Cothi on July 19, the Royal Welsh Show on July 23 and the Corwen Shears on July 26. The 35-year-old Henderson is determined to make sure his first international bid is a success, taking one step at a time, buoyed by the support of his Kaiwaka community, especially the rugby club, where he has played as a flanker in the past, and father Mike has been a coach. His 2025 Golden Shears and New Zealand championships open finals double was celebrated at a function put on by the club in his honour last month. Henderson is the front-runner for one of the two World Championships' New Zealand machine-shearing berths with wins in the first three events in the selection series, but that is all 8-9 months away. Having spent several years' shearing merinos in Australia he is familiar with some of the hardest animals in the industry, but was yet to meet a 'blackie.' Last week, preparing for his first trip to the Northern Hemisphere, he was looking forward to the confrontation, and just getting into the swing of the competitions again. 'There hasn't been a lot of shearing (in Northland),' he said. 'It's been wet up here, but it's still enough to pay the bills.' 'I am looking forward to getting back into the show shearing side of things,' he said, but a for the 'blackies', he added: 'Yeah, I've heard about them. Well, I've got three days to sort them out.'
