NEW Zealand's Rowland Smith successfully defended his Golden Shears open shearing title when he secured first place at the final held at Masterton, New Zealand, at the start of the month, marking his fifth win in six years.

Having done the double last year to claim the Golden Shears title as well as the World Championship title, Rowland edged ahead with a final score of 57.270 and the best pen score for quality of any final of 7.650, landing him the RE O’Hara Trophy. This also marked his 36th open win in New Zealand.

The 20-sheep open final was dominated by New Zealanders, but it was Scotland’s Gavin Mutch – originally from Huntly, but now a resident of Whangamomona and a double Golden Shears winner – that recovered from a nasty injury last summer to secure fourth place with 61.758.

Other prizes went to David Buick, who secured second with 59.631; John Kirkpatrick – a winner of the Royal Highland Show as well as Lochearnhead Shears – was third with 60.843; Murrary Henderson finished fifth with 63.154; and with 64.340 points Nathan Stratford was sixth.

It was a different matter in the Trans Tasman team test as Australia’s Shannon Warnest, Jason Wingfield and Daniel McIntyre notched up 251.251 points between them against New Zealand’s John Kirkpatrick, Nathan Stratford and Rowland Smith with 267.029.

Perhaps the star of the finals evening, however, was woolhandler Joel Henare, who secured his 100th open woolhandling title and his record-equalling sixth Goldies win, all at the age of just 26. The Gisborne-based rousie streaked ahead with 174.202 points on the board.

It was a closer call for second and third as Pagan Karauria scored 240.782 and Sheree Alabaster finished with 242.336, while Maryanne Baty was fourth with 364.200.