Morale boosting win for Kiwi world champ woolhandler

Taihape schoolteacher Sheree Alabaster has scored a morale-boosting win a fortnight ahead of her world woolhandling title defence by winning the open title at the Lochearnhead Shears in Scotland at the weekencd.

The win followed her third place in the Royal Highland Show final in her season's UK debut a week earlier. Teammate Keryn Herbert, of Te Kuiti, failed to reach the final.

Alabaster won the world title in Norway in October 2008 and is on track for a repeat at the 14th Golden Shears World Championships at the Royal Welsh Show.

The championships take place from July 20 and 21 at Builth Wells in mid-Wales.

Lochearnhead provided mixed pickings for shearers David Fagan, of Te Kuiti, and Cam Ferguson, of Waipawa, who failed to make their open class final, again bowing to the Scottish pair of Gavin Mutch and Hamish Mitchell, and fellow Kiwi and 2008 world championships runner-up John Kirkpatrick, of Napier.

Fagan and Ferguson did, however, turn the tables in a teams event, being joined by Southland shearer Darin Forde to win the Lochearnhead International Relay.

Kirkpatrick and Forde are both on working holidays in the UK, culminating with supporting the New Zealand team at the World Championships which have attracted entries from 28 countries.

- NZPA