Kiwi guns tackle great Scots in shearing test   30 Jun 2016

Kiwi guns tackle great Scots in shearing test

New Zealand shearers Rowland Smith and John Kirkpatrick will be out for a bit of payback when they take on Scotland in a one-off shearing test at the start of their CP Wool UK Tour this weekend.

Competing at the Lochearnhead Shears on Friday and Saturday (UK time), they will be up a team which includes in-form Taranaki-based Scotsman Gavin Mutch, who two years ago spearheaded Scotland to victory over the two Kiwis in the World Championship teams event in Ireland.

His teammate this weekend, Calum Shaw, was in the Scotland team which beat the New Zealand team of Dion King and Tony Coster in a test 12 months ago, also at the Lochearnhead Shears.

From Huntly in Aberdeenshire, but living with Kiwi wife Pip on a farm near remote Whangamomona, 2012 World individual champion Mutch has been in Scotland a month focusing on winning a place in the World Championships in Invercargill next February.

He won four finals in a row, including the all-important team-selection event, the Scottish National Championship, a week ago. Shaw was runner-up, but has to win the Scottish Circuit if he is to win a place at the World Championships.

Reigning World individual champion Smith and fellow Hawke’s Bay gun Kirkpatrick haven’t shorn in competition since the New Zealand Championships in Te Kuiti in April, but they are currently first and second in a New Zealand World Championships team selection series which ends in October.

They will shear at five other competitions in the UK, managed by Masterton farmer Sam Saunders, who will also judge at the events.

The CP Wool New Zealand shearing team UK itinerary is: July 1-2, Lochearnhead Shears, at Lochearnhead, Stirlingshire (test match v Scotland); July 9, Lakeland Shears, at Cockermouth, Cumbria; July 12-13, Great Yorkshire Show, at Harrogate (test match v England); July 16, Lampeter Shears, at Lampeter, South West Wales (test match v Wales); July 18-21, Royal Welsh Show, Llanelwedd, Mid Wales (test match v Wales); July 22-23, Corwen Shears, at Corwen, North Wales (test match v Wales).

ENDS

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