Shearing Sports team to tour UK
Pongaroa farmer David Buick will represent New Zealand on the six-match CP Wool Shearing Sports New Zealand tour of the UK starting later this month.
Buick won his place in the team as fourth placegetter in the New Zealand championships Open final at Te Ku¯ iti on April 7, and joins second-time UK Tour team member and 2017 World teams champion, Invercargill shearer Nathan Stratford, who secured his place with victory in the New Zealand Shears Circuit final in Te Ku¯ iti.
New Zealand Open winner and runner-up Rowland Smith and John Kirkpatrick, the 2017 CP Wool UK Tour team members were not available for this year’s series, which starts with a test against Scotland at the Lochearnhead Shears on June 30.
Third in the New Zealand Open final was Whangamomona farmer Gavin Mutch, the 2012 World champion individual and 2014 World teams champion who arrived in the UK last week to prepare for Scotland’s 2019 World Championships team selection events.
Previously a New Zealand representative in two test matches against Australia, and runner-up in this year’s Golden Shears Open final, Buick will be making his first UK tour, while Stratford toured in 2012, including a meritorious Corwen Shears Open final win. Stratford has also shorn 10 transtasman tests since 2006.
The pair will shear at seven different shows in four weeks, with a focus on the four-test Northern Hemisphere leg of the annual series’ against Wales, in which they will be aiming to be the first New Zealand team to win the series in Wales since 2011.
Last year the New Zealand team of 2014 World champion Smith and 2017 champion Kirkpatrick, with Te Ku¯ iti shearer Jack Fagan standing in for Smith in the first two tests, was beaten 4-0.
But the ledger was balanced a few months later when Smith and Kirkpatrick maintained New Zealand’s unbeaten home record against Wales with a 4-0 series win over visitors Matthew Evans and Alun Lloyd Jones in the summer downunder.
The team will be managed by shearing judge Russell Knight, a representative with shearing supplies company Acto and who runs a small flock near Apiti in Northern Manawatu. He won a Veterans shearing event at the Golden Shears in Masterton in March and plans to shear in veterans competitions at the Great Yorkshire and Royal Welsh shows during the tour.
Itinerary for CP Wool Shearing Sports New Zealand 2018 tour : June 30, v Scotland, at Lochearnhead Shears; July 7, Lakeland Shears (no test match); July 11, v England, at Great Yorkshire Show; July 20, v Wales, at Cothi Shears; July 21, v Wales, at Lampeter Shears; July 25, v Wales, at Royal Welsh Show; July 28, v Wales, at Corwen Shears.
‘The team will be managed by shearing judge Russell Knight, a representative with shearing supplies company Acto and who runs a small flock near Apiti in Northern .’ Manawatu¯