Shearing giant David Fagan ends a 30th season in open-class shearing competition at the Royal Easter Show in Auckland this week with a new kick in his step and no plans to call it a day.
But, confirming his entry almost in the same breath as confirming he will tackle New Zealand’s World Championships qualifying series next summer, Fagan is not particularly fussed about whether he adds to his career tally of 608 wins.
The draw, he says, is following the career of teenaged son Jack who on Friday and Saturday tries something not even his illustrious father could achieve, with eyes on two titles in two grades on successive days at the one event.
Already the top-ranked Intermediate shearer in the country, Jack Fagan shears his last competition in the grade on the first day of the show’s shearing on Good Friday.
On Saturday he will start his Senior career.
While David Fagan rarely speaks of his goals and dreams, it adds another chance for the pair to both win titles at the same event, something which has eluded them to date.
"It kind of adds a new dimension," he said from their home in Te Kuiti as he looked forward to watching his son follow in his footsteps.
Fagan won five titles during the summer and, despite missing out on the New Zealand Championships final in home-town Te Kuiti for the first time since it was revived in 1986, but was still first to enter next season’s Open grade series to find two shearers to wear the black singlet in the World Championships in Masterton next March, and said: "I’d be going to most of the shows, anyway."
He expects more than 20 shearers to contest the series, which opens with events in Christchurch and Waipukurau just 24 hours apart in November. Qualifying rounds will also be held at Lumsden, Winton, Taihape, Marton and Balclutha before the top 12 go to a semi-finals and final showdown at the Southern Shears in Gore next February.
Fagan, five-times World Champion and runner-up to Kiwi teammate Cam Ferguson in Wales last July, and due to turn 50 next October, will follow the lot, but says: "There are a lot of young shearers starting to put their hands up. I’ll take it as it goes. It’s just another season."
His son, who expects to shear at least one season in the Senior class before graduating to the top grade, isn’t relying just on the obvious source of knowledge in the household, and is training as a Modern Apprentice shearer with industry trainers Tectra.
While the Golden Shears and New Zealand Championships titles have so far eluded him, he has won 11 Intermediate titles in New Zealand this season, including a unique double at the national lambshearing championships at Raglan and the crossbred lambshearing championships in Lumsden. He also won four titles as a Junior last summer, and has also competed in Britain.
While the late Easter has meant shearers have had a three-week break from competition since the New Zealand Championships in Te Kuiti, David Fagan expects the top guns to be at the Auckland show, including Northland shearer Rowland Smith, who won the Te Kuiti final, and reigning show champion and Napier shearer John Kirkpatrick, who last month won his third Golden Shears Open title.
