World shearing champion Paul Avery finished the 2008-2009 season in style winning the Northern Shears open title at the Royal Easter Show in Auckland.

It was the 41-year-old Taranaki farmer's 10th win in 25 finals over the season, which comprised 63 competitions throughout the country.

Napier's John Kirkpatrick and Taihape's Sheree Alabaster have scored their biggest wins since the Shear Blacks' world championships triumphs in Norway six months ago, taking the New Zealand open shearing and woolhandling titles respectively in Te Kuiti.

Kirkpatrick, 38, was both the fastest and the cleanest shearer in what was an especially sweet 17th win of the season on Saturday night.

His triumph came just four weeks after his shock elimination in the Golden Shears in Masterton, where the title was won for a 16th time by five- times world champion and Te Kuiti hero David Fagan.

Kirkpatrick, who won this title for the first time last year, just held off Fagan to take New Zealand shearing's richest prize on Saturday night - an all-terrain vehicle, travel and cash, with a combined value of more than $25,000.

The pair waged an enthralling side-by- side contest on stands one and two. Each was in front at various times until Fagan, 47, began to fade a little and finished second. Another Te Kuiti veteran, Dean Bell, was third and Taranaki's Paul Avery fourth.

Alabaster, 34, a teacher, was in a class of her own in only her second win since beating fellow Kiwi Joanne Kumeroa in the world championships final.

Shears titan Fagan the golden boy again

Shearing icon David Fagan produced a stunning return to the top to win his   16th Golden Shears open title in Masterton - 23 years after his first triumph.

Fagan, 47, of Te Kuiti, had won the title 12 times in a row from 1990 to 2001,   and again in 2004 and 2005.

He featured in a remarkable final on Saturday night, with 52 seconds separating   the six finalists after 20 sheep.

Fagan was first off the board in 15min 56.96s, beating 2006 winner Dion King   of Napier by less than 1.5s, and just after the tailender, Taranaki-based Scotsman   Gavin Mutch, went in for his last.

It was a tense wait before Fagan could be confirmed the winner, by half-a-point   from world champion Paul Avery of Stratford, whose craftsmanship went close   to helping him snatch the Golden Shears title for the third time.

Fagan finished with 58.088 points, Avery 58.607, and third was former New Zealand   open champion Dean Ball, another Te Kuiti veteran, with 58.832.

Marg Baynes and her daughter Ingrid have knocked off more than 900 lambs in a day to set a world shearing record.

The Wairoa pair shore a total of 903 lambs in eight hours on a farm at Mangapehi, near Te Kuiti, yesterday to become the first holders of the women's two-stand eight-hour lamb shearing world record.

Marg, 54, shore 433 animals while Ingrid, 22, notched up 470. Ingrid's effort also secured her the world lamb record for a woman.

Her previous best had been 315 lambs.

Mother and daughter had set themselves a target of 800 lambs during the bid of four two-hour runs, separated by 30 minutes for a morning break, an hour for lunch, and 30 minutes for an afternoon break.

Four judges, including one flown in from Australia, verified the record as official.

"I'm thrilled. It really hasn't hit home yet that we have done it," said Marg, who battled backache and nausea during the day. Ingrid said she was looking forward to her first beer in a long time.

A young Irishman who left school at the age of 14 to help on the family farm has become the first overseas shearer to break a solo world tally record in New Zealand.

Ivan Scott, 27, shore 736 romney lambs today to break the world eight-hour strongwool lambshearing record at the Onuku Maori Trust Farm at Rerewhakaaitu, southeast of Rotorua.

Scott had a strong opening with a record 7-9am run of 192, but left it until just three minutes before the 5pm finish to break the record of 731 set by Taihape shearer Justin Bell in December 2002.

Now a farmer at Weber in southern Hawke's Bay, 35-year-old Bell was one of Scott's right-hand men throughout the four two-hour runs regulated by the World Sheep Shearing Records Society, and among the first to congratulate him at the end.

"Those two hour-runs are bloody tough," said Bell, who set his record at Opepe near Taupo. Two years later he broke the nine hour-hour record.

Taranaki-based Scottish shearer Gavin Mutch on Monday abandoned a similar bid after six hours.

Scott shore 745 sheep today, but had nine rejected by judges Peter Artridge (Australia), Doug Oliver (North Island) and John Hough (South Island), and was also close to breaking the 12-point penalty barrier which could have seen him warned about his quality, and even disqualified.

With about an hour of the day spent catching lambs, the average time per lamb was about 32 seconds. They cut an average of just over 1kg of wool each, comfortably over the minimum requirement of 0.9kg.

Scott said he had not considered challenging the nine-hour record of 866, held by Napier shearer Dion King, although he had previously shorn 878 in an unjudged nine-hour day at work.

He has been largely based in New Zealand since first arriving in 2000, and lives in Rolleston, 22km southwest of Christchurch.