FIFE shearer Calum Shaw pulled it out the bag in the MacRobert Theatre on Sunday when he landed his first ever open shearing title at the Royal Highland Show.

It was a fast and furious final that featured two Scots, two Welshmen, an Englishman and a New Zealander, with the two Scots - Calum and Hamish Mitchell - setting the pace to pull the cord on exactly the same time, 14 minutes and three seconds for 20 sheep.

With the joint best board mark in the final and the second best pen mark, Calum - who came second in the open and won the Scottish National, last year - secured first place with a final score of 50.300, just 0.400 points ahead of his nearest rival, Wales' Gwion Evans, who had the best score in the pen.

England's Adam Berry landed third with 53.550 having achieved the best mark on the board while the fourth, fifth and sixth tickets went to Hamish Mitchell, Ian Jones (Wales) and Jacob Moore (New Zealand) with 54.500, 57.250 and 59.200, respectively.

Earlier in the day, Hamish landed his 15th National win, having notched up the lowest pen score in the fastest time. He finished with 67.150 points, while Calum Shaw finished second, Scott Wilson was third, Archie Paterson landed fourth, Andrew Baillie was fifth and John Lamb was sixth.

The top three in the National - Hamish, Calum and Scott - were then victorious in the Six Nations test followed by Northern Ireland, Wales, England, France, and the Republic of Ireland.

New Zealand's Alan Oldfield did one better than his second in the blade competition last year to win with the fastest time and best board score, giving a total of 94.533, a full eight points ahead of second placed Wilson Wylie. In third was Michael Churchouse, with William Craig in fourth, Mark Armstrong in fifth and Jimmy Wright in sixth.

Elsewhere, Jack Douglas won the senior section, John McCready led the intermediates, and Aaron Magee topped the juniors.

Leanne Bertram lifted another open wool handling title, with Audrey Lamb in second and Ginny Barnett in third, while Rachel Murphy led the novices with Katie Reid in second and Isla Shaw in third. Katie Reid and Kirsty Donald teamed up to win the wool handling test against Northern Ireland.

See the July 1 issue of The Scottish Farmer for the full report and results, in the bumper Royal Highland Show results issue.