One of England’s biggest agricultural events has again featured in a Fagan shearing family dream come true with father and son David and Jack Fagan both reaching the Open final at the Great Yorkshire Show.
It was at the show three years ago that multiple World, Golden Shears and New Zealand champion David Fagan won his 600th title in three decades of Open-class shearing.
On Wednesday, father and son finished second and fourth in Jack Fagan’s first Open-class final since graduating from the Senior class at the end of the New Zealand season in April.
The pair had had same-day wins in their respective Open and Senior classes in both England and New Zealand during Jack Fagan’s two seasons as a Senior shearer.
Jack Fagan, 21, said: “It was awesome to make the final in such a tough field. It was neat that dad and I got to shear in a final, together, side by side. Thoroughly looking foward to the next one!”
The final was won by Welsh shearer Gareth Daniel, a rare UK win in the event with David Fagan having won the title 10 times, including four since 2005, and New Zealand team member Rowland Smith having won in 2011. It wasn’t held last year when one of the wettest UK winters on record forced the cancellation of the last two days of the Show.
Hawke’s Bay and Cornwall based Northland shearer Matt Smith was third, but brother Rowland failed to come close to emulating his 2011 success when he and fellow New Zealand team member, Tony Coster, from Mid-Canterbury, were eliminated in the heats.
But the two team members compensated by completing a 2-0 Elders Primary Wool Tour test-series win over England in the other big shearing feature of the show.
It was close, with the pair beating English shearers Adam Berry and Antony Rooke by just a tenth of a point. Smith recorded the fastest time in the 20-sheep international, beating Berry off the board by 9 seconds, and also had comfortably the best pen quality points.
Followed by the Fagans and a small number of other New Zealand shearers working and competing in England, Rowland Smith and Coster now head for a test against Ireland at the Rickamore Shears in Ireland on Saturday, before a four-test series against Wales.
