Fins fly in filleting final

Press, 19 March 1988, Page 8

Fins fly in filleting final

Ill' By TONY SMITH The finsj ' were flying and the knife blades were a blur at thb| national Fish Filleter bf the Year final in Nelson yesterday.

Fifty | kilograms of prime j orange roughy werel laid I 'on the slab before jeach competitor and 14 minutes after the| starter shouted “fillet” the fastest | filleters had carved through their quotas. | Filleters from a Napier ; company, Townsend arid Paul, Ltd, took the three top placings and the ,'Quantas Cargo Fish Filleter) of) the Year title was I awarded to Fenton Delamere, I i who was runner-up | pn the inaugural) event in 1986. Competitors were

judged on speed and the quality of the finished fillet. Mr Delamere won the over-all title and also the award for the best “recovery” rate after judges assessed he had recovered 39.44 per cent of his fish.

Another Townsend and Paul filleter, Lionel Tata, last year's defending champion, was second, one point behind Mr Delamere, and Len Gattsche was third. The leading South Island competitor, Dean Grooby from Talley’s fisheries in Motueka, finished fourth, one place ahead of Davena Hutchinson from Westland Processors in Hokitika. Miss Hutchinson, who had the misfortune to drop her knife at the start

of the final heat, won the award for the ; tdp-placed woman filleter. Her fifth placing was the) highest achieved by a woman in the three-year history of the event. j ' She and Mr j Grooby were; part of the South Island relay teahi which dished out a resounding defeat to the North in the inter-island relay filleting event. The othhr South Island filleters were Kerry O’Donoghue from Sealords, the : company which hosted the national event, and Phil! Caldwell from Skeggs. ) The prize for the top new entrant was awarded to Mark Jorgenson, from Napier, who was sixth over-all, one (place in

front of his brother, Brett. The top 12 competitors were — .Fenton Delamere (Townsend and Paul, Napier) 14.38 mins 39.44 per cent recovery, 103 points, 1; Lionel Tata (Townsend and Paul) 14.33, 39.08, 102, 2; Lon Gattsche (Townsend and Paul) 16, 39.12, 100.5, 3; Dean Grooby (Talleys, Motueka) 4; Davena Hutchinson (Westland Processors, Hokitika) 5; Mark Jorgenson (Townsend and Paul) 6; Brett Jorgenson (Townsend and Paul) 7; Phil Caldwell (Skeggs, Nelson) 8; Kerry O’Donoghue (Sealords) 9; Vic Barnes (Sealords) 10, Alan Heal (Townsend and Paul) 11; Shane Pinga (Talley’s, Motueka) 12.