Te Kūiti shearer Jack Fagan after the Corwen Shears Open shearing final win, with the Fagan Brothers Trophy, presented more than 30 years ago by his father and uncle. Photo supplied
Two King Country shearers grabbed back some Kiwi pride with wins at glamour Welsh lamb shearing and woolhandling competition, the Corwen Shears recently.
The wins went on Saturday to Jack Fagan, 31, of Te Kūiti, in the open shearing final, beating new world champion Gwion Evans, and Blake Mitchell, 20, of Patea, in the junior shearing final, while on the Friday Sonya Fagan (Jack Fagan’s second cousin), aged 19 and also of Te Kūiti, took out the intermediate woolhandling final.
While Jack Fagan has had several wins in a decade in the open class, including the Royal Welsh Open in 2015, and in the 2022-2023 season, the New Zealand Corriedales Championship in Christchurch and the New Zealand Crossbred Lambshearing title in Southland – his cousin has had just one previous win, in a novice woolhandling final at the Devon County Show in England in May. Mitchell’s win was his first.
The Fagan victories continued a family link to the Corwen lambshearing championships, with brothers John and David Fagan – Jack Fagan’s brother and father respectively – closely involved in the event when it was established in 1989, as the first show in the UK with a 20-sheep final.
They presented the Fagan Brothers Trophy, the silverware that was claimed by Jack Fagan today. The now-Sir David Fagan won the first final and went on to win 13 times, and John Fagan also won, as did son James.
It was the culmination of a big year for Jack Fagan who last December set a world eight-hour strongwool lambshearing record of 754, an average of 38.2 seconds a lamb.
He was first-off, at the same rate of 38.2 seconds a lamb, caught, shorn and despatched, shearing the 20 in 12 minutes 44 seconds, and beat next-man-off Evans by 23 seconds, while also scoring the best quality points in the shearing board.
Evans’ better points from judging in the pens enabled him to close the gap to just 0.7 pts.
In the test match, Gethin Lewis, who will return to New Zealand later this year for a seventh season with Napier shearing contractor Brendan Mahony, made the pace, shearing the 20 lambs in 13min 7sec.
Meanwhile, Fagan and Clay Harris have wrapped up a busy season in the UK by each winning two finals in a series of back-to-back competitions at different venues in England and Wales.
Treading the trails followed by father Sir David Fagan 30-40 years ago, and having finished runner-up to new world champion Gwion Lloyd Evans at Cothi on July 22, fifth in the Royal Welsh Open four days later and then winning the Corwen Shears Open final on July 29 – started a succession of four competitions in four days as part of a double King Country hit at the Burwarton Show last Thursday.
The next day, Fagan was runner-up to veteran Welsh international Gareth Daniel at the Bro Ddyfi Shears, and his biggest triumph of the new week was at the Brecon County Show on Saturday, shearing a 20-lambs final in 13min 35sec, a minute and 50 seconds quicker than the second man off the board.
On Sunday, the last show before heading home to shear in Central Otago, represent shearers as a delegate at the Shearing Sports New Zealand annual meeting and ultimately head back to Te Kūiti, Fagan was third to Jones and Daniel at the Cneifo Bont Shears, at Pafiliwn Pontrhydfendigaid.
Fagan, who last October won the New Zealand Corriedale Championships in Christchurch and then in January, won the NZ Crossbred Lambs title at Winton, said it was pleasing to have made the finals of all the lambshearing contests he had entered this season in the UK.
But the most prized victory was at Corwen, where the title had in the past been won by his father, uncle John Fagan, and cousin James Fagan.
Meanwhile, Piopio shearer Harris, who had 10 senior wins in New Zealand last season including the big four of the Otago Shears, Southern Shears, Golden Shears and New Zealand Shears, won at the Burwarton and Bro Ddyfi competitions on Thursday and Friday, and was runner-up on Saturday at Oswestry.
He said he would work in Australia before returning to New Zealand and his first season competing in the open-class.
