World champ shows class in Nelson sheep Shears

World champion shearer Cam Ferguson proved a class above the rest when he won the Nelson A and P Shears open final on a flying visit to the South Island on Saturday.

Finishing the 20-sheep final in 19min 13sec, the 27-year-old Central Hawke’s Bay gun was more than two minutes ahead of the next-man-off, Scottish shearer Grant Lundie, from Dundee. When time and quality points were tallied, with Lundie and the other two finalists all breaching a quality benchmark, Ferguson had scored by about 18 points, possibly the biggest winning margin seen in a New Zealand shearing competition. Peter Lyall, of Tapawera, was credited with second place and West Coast veteran Sam Win, of Ikamatua, third, as Lundie was relegated to fourth place.

It was the second win of the season for Ferguson, who flew to Nelson just a couple of hours before shearing. He has now won 15 individual open finals, 12 of them in the last 13 months including his Golden Shears open title in Maserton in March, his World title in Wales in July and two other titles in the UK.

The 56-year-old Win on Sunday won the Top of the South open final, finishing 20 sheep in 22min 14sec to beat second-man-off and 2009 winner Chris Jones, of Renwick, by almost half-a-minute. When all points were counted, second place went to Win’s nephew, Rhys Liddell, of Reefton, extending a family tradition in the event. Win’s son, Jason, is a past winner, most recently in 2008, but was not on hand for this year’s final, the culmination of eight competitons over the last year in the Nelson, Marlborough and West Coast regions.

Another to make a successful trip from the North Island was Masterton shearer Matene Mason who won elson senior final by more than five points from runner-up Mike Bramley, of Tapawera, while Japanese shearer Shun Oishi won the third title of his career with victory in the junior final, in which Irish shearer Joseph Stephens was second.