THERE reason to continue the birthday celebrations when birthday boy Calum Shaw followed on from his first Royal Highland Show open title to win the open section at Lochearnhead Shears.

The competition attracts some of the best shearers in the country and from further afield too, as several New Zealanders flew in just to take part and some wet weather further south allowed a few of the Welsh shearers to make the journey north for the Scottish Blackface Shearing Championships.

As ever, the open final could have rivalled any other across the world as two Scotsmen, an Englishman and a New Zealander took to the boards to clip their 20 hoggs. The title for the fastest shearer changed hands numerous times but it was the two Scots - Hamish Mitchell and Calum Shaw - that streaked ahead to finish just a second apart, with Hamish first to pull the cord on 15 minutes and 47 seconds.

Calum made a tidy job of it though and clocked up the lowest points on the board and in the pen of 35 and 153, to give him a combined total of 56.800. This placed him nearly one-and-a-half points ahead of his nearest rival, New Zealand's Rowland Smith (58.200), a double winner of the Golden Shears world championships. Finishing in third was Adam Berry (59.850) with Hamish in fourth (60.450).

The Scots kept the form up as they won the Scotland versus New Zealand test for another year to claim the Joe Te Kapa Memorial Trophy. Calum and Hamish picked up a total of 107.960, compared to Rowland and Johnny Kirkpatrick's 108.995.

It was a case of three Scots up against a Welshman in the blade, or hand shearing final, but it was Wales' Rheinhallt Hughes that finished his four hoggs in the fastest time of 14 minutes and 49 seconds. Although he wasn't the cleanest on the board or in the pen, he secured first with 73.700 on the score board, against 75.050 from Willie Craig, 77.950 from Mark Armstrong and 82.200 from Wilson Wylie.

The Scottish team of Willie and Wilson pulled it out the bag for the Scotland versus Wales blade test however, as the Scots finished with 155.500 against Elfed Jackson and Rheinallt's 169.550.

The Republic of Ireland's Padraig Coen and Aaron Magee won the junior develpment test against Scotland when they picked up a total of 63.100 against 80.250 from Scotland's Billy Gray and Stuart Robson.

In other sections, Catherine Mallooly won the seniors, Joe Boylan won the intermediates and also picked up the Colin MacGregor Salver for the best pen in any final, and Padraig Coen won the juniors.

Among the wool handlers, it was a close call between the top two but Leanne Bertram claimed the top spot with 46.200 while Rosie Keenan came in second with 47.300. In third was Zoe Porter Watson while Millie Green finished in fourth.

See the July 8 issue of The Scottish Farmer for the full report, scores and pictures.