New Zealand shearers John Kirkpatrick and James Fagan have been beaten by a Scottish team for the second time in a week at the start of a seven-test tour of Britain.
The latest defeat, giving Scottish shearers Gavin Mutch and Hamish Mitchell a 2-0 series victory, came at the Lochearnhead Shears, one of the biggest shearing competitions in Britain.
Fagan, from Te Kuiti, was first to finish, shearing 15 Scottish blackface sheep in nine minutes 14 seconds, beating Gavin Mutch off the board by seven seconds.
But Mutch and Mitchell won on points, with better quality shearing, repeating the win they had at the Royal Highland Show in Edinburgh a week earlier.
Kirkpatrick, from Napier, was more than a sheep behind his team-mate.
The New Zealanders will meet England next, in a test at the Lakeland Shears at Cockermouth, Cumbria, at the weekend.
