By Doug Laing Shearing Sports New Zealand
No shearer will have been a warmer favourite to win the Golden Shears Open Shearing ÿ nal to date than defending champion Rowland Smith.
When the 32-year-old Hawke’s Bay-based, Northland-raised, shearer won at the Franklin A&P Show’s Counties Shears on February 17, it was the 145th Open win of his career, the last 45 of which had come in the two years since he raised the century at the same show in 2017.
Smith hadn’t been beaten this year, with 10 consecutive wins in the month since resuming at the Wairoa A&P Show on January 19.
Levin and Gore.
Nathan Stratford and fellow Southland shearer Troy Pyper, and Scotsman Gavin Mutch, who won both the 2012 World title and the 2015 Golden Shears ÿ nal on the Masterton stage. Heading new Open ÿ nal hopes is Mataura shearer Brett Roberts, a Golden Shears competitor since the age of 13, Junior champion in 2010 and Senior winner in 2014.
He also won at Levin the next day, Taihape and Rotorua a week later, Dannevirke and Marton on February 1-2, the Aria Sports title on Waitangi Day, the Te Puke A&P Show three days later, and the Southern Shears in Gore before heading the next morning for his win at Pukekohe.
Interestingly, there are seven different runners-up in the sequence, among the 11 shearers going home with second or third place ribbons.
Mark Grainger, of Te Kuiti, was runner-up three times, at Rotorua, Aria and Te Puke, and Wairarapa shearer and New Zealand representive David Buick was runner-up twice, at
Winner of the Golden Shears Junior title in 2004, and the Senior title two years later, Smith will be going for a fourth consecutive Golden Shears Open title and a sixth since his ÿ rst in 2013, equalling the tally of Brian “Snow” Quinn between 1965 and 1972 but well short of the all-time record of 16 by David Fagan, (now Sir David Fagan) from 1986 to 2009.
Perhaps more importantly, a win will put him into the New Zealand team for this year’s World Championships in France, and the chance to regain the title he won in Ireland in 2014.
Despite the winning form, Smith will be particularly wary of the challenges posed by reigning World champion and four-times Golden Shears Open champion John Kirkpatrick, Buick Grainger, Manawatu shearer Aaron Haynes, regular Open ÿ nalist and leading South Island hope
While yet to reach even the semi-ÿ nal, Roberts leapt into contention with A-grade Open wins at the Northern Southland Community Shears at Lumsden on January 18 and on February 9 at the Otago championships, where he became the ÿ rst shearer to win in all four grades at an A-grade show.
Another showing signs of breaking into the glamour six for the 20-sheep ÿ nal is Southland shearer Casey Bailey.
Going for a sixth Golden Shears win in a row and also in winning form this season, Joel Henare dominates prospects for the Open Wool Handling title, with most likely challenges coming from Alexandra competitor Pagan Karauria, runner-up last year, later acclaimed a Master Wool Handler and recently winner of the Southern Shears title in Gore, and Taihape’s Sheree Alabaster, third last year and later winning her 8th New Zealand Championships Open title.
Smith hadn’t been beaten this year, with 10 consecutive wins in the month since resuming at the Wairoa A&P Show on January 19.
Two years ago Alabaster was runner-up and Karauria third.
Heading other challengers is Keryn Herbert, of Te Kuiti, while other hopefuls include World championships selection series ÿ nalists Chelsea Collier, of Gore, and Cheri Peterson, of Milton, and Dannevirke’s Eramiha Neho, who had his ÿ rst Open win at the Central Hawke’s Bay Show in November.
Maryanne Baty, of Gisborne,
who won a World teams title with Henare two years ago, has been only an occasional competitor this season.
Competition in other grades has left Golden Shears competition wide open, but among other shearers to watch are Senior shearer Lionel Taumata, of Gore, former Junior champion and now Intermediate hopeful Mark Ferguson, of Elsthorpe, and juniors Atawhai Hadÿ eld,
of Wairoa, and Henry Mayo, from Dorset, England, who have dominated competitions in the North and South islands respectively.
Last year’s top Juniors, Golden Shears and New Zealand championships winner Ngaira Puha, of Kimbolton, and the topranked Tyler Hira, of Onewhero, are among hopes for this year’s Golden Shears Senior Wool Handling title.
Since 1965 Wairere has had a proud history of providing a training ground for hundreds of young farmers. The˜learning and experience they have gained has beneÿ ted themselves and the primary sector.
By Doug Laing
A formal women’s competition is to be held at the Golden Shears for the ÿ rst time as shearing caters to growing numbers of women on the competition board and in the woolshed.
A six-shearer ÿ nal will be held with competitors qualifying from their performances in the standard grades across the 69th championships.
Previous women’s shearing events at Golden Shears have been by invitation only but at least three competitions have made the move.
Shearing Sports New Zealand reports 32 women qualiÿ ed for ÿ nals across the 57 competitions in New Zealand last season, mainly in the Intermediate, Junior and Novice grades, a 100 per cent increase in about three years.
The sport has also received new exposure through the documentary ÿ lm She Shears, following the paths of ÿ ve female shearers to the Golden Shears in 2017, which was launched during the New Zealand ÿ lm festival and theatres throughout the country last year and has this year been shown on Air New Zealand international ° ights.
It has also sparked at least two other women’s events, with the Te Puke A&P Show holding a women’s ÿ nal and
the New Zealand Shears in Te Kuiti planning an event with heats and a ÿ nal during its championships on March 28-30.
The events follow a push from Waikaretu couple and World Record breakers Sam and Emily Welch, aiming to eventually have women’s National and World titles.
Emily Welch’s 2007 Golden Shears Senior second placing remains the highest placing in that grade at the championships. Welch went on to set a women’s world record of 648 lambs in nine hours later in 2007.
Welch took time out to raise a family, returning to win an invitation women’s event in 2015, and competed in the 2017 open heats, as part of the making of She Shears.
She conÿ rmed she’ll pick up the handpiece again to prepare for this year’s Golden Shears and the New Zealand championships.
Welch featured in She Shears with shearer-turned lawyer Jills Angus Burney, successful Junior, Intermediate and Senior shearer Catherine Mullooly, from Matawai, Alexandra’s Pagan Karauria, who came back from major crash injuries to become a champion wool handler and a senior shearer, and up-and-coming Hazel Wood, from Ruawai in Northland.
Thursday 28th February
MORNING
Start time 7.45am
EVENT 1
Farmlands & Woolpacks NZ
Men’s Wool Pressing – Heats
EVENT 2
Farmlands & Woolpacks NZ Women’s Wool Pressing –Heats
EVENT 3
Farmlands & Woolpacks NZ Pairs Wool Pressing – Heats
EVENT 4
Farmlands & Woolpacks NZ Novice Wool Pressing
EVENT 5
Paewai Mullins Novice Wool Handling – Heats
EVENT 6
Rural Women NZ Junior Wool Handling – Heats
EVENT 7
Cydectin Novice Shearing –Heats
EVENT 8
Farmers Weekly Junior Shearing – Heats
EVENT 9
Golden Shears Life Members Student Shearing Challenge
EVENT 15 Cydectin Novice Shearing –FINAL
EVENING
Start time 6.45pm
Children’s Fun with Wool
EVENT 16 Wairarapa Helicopters & Stihl Shop Masterton Evergreens Shearing & Wool Handling –Heats
EVENT 17
Wairarapa Times-Age Cycle Challenge Round 3
EVENT 18
Supreme Automotive Reÿ nishers Senior Speed Shear
EVENT 19 New Zealand Wool Scouring Open Speed Shear
Shearing – Semi-Final
EVENT 27
Trust House Intermediate Shearing – Semi-Final
EVENT 28
Wairarapa Helicopters & Stihl Shop Masterton Evergreens Shearing & Wool Handling –FINAL
EVENT 29
Golden Shears Bayleys Open Shearing – Heats
EVENT 39
Powerco Senior Shearing –Semi-Final
EVENT 40
Abraham Shearing – Women’s Shearing – FINAL
EVENT 41
PGG Wrightson Wool National Circuit Shearing – Semi-Final
AFTERNOON
Start time 12.40pm
EVENT 42
Rural Women NZ Junior Wool Handling – FINAL
EVENT 43
Te Puni Kokiri Senior Wool Handling – FINAL
EVENT 44
Gibbs Honeybees NIWC Wool Handling – FINAL
EVENT 45
Wairarapa Moana Maori/ Pakeha Shearing - Teams
EVENING
Start time 6.45pm
EVENT 30
Farmlands & Woolpacks NZ Men’s Wool Pressing – FINAL
EVENT 31
Golden Shears Bayleys Open Shearing – Top 30
EVENT 32
Friday 1st March
MORNING
Start time 7.45am
EVENT 20
Shear Expertise Open Wool Handling – Heats
EVENT 21
Farmlands & Woolpacks NZ Men’s Wool Pressing – SemiFinal
EVENT 22
EVENT 10
Paewai Mullins Novice Wool Handling – Semi-Final
EVENT 11 Te Puni Kokiri Senior Wool Handling – Heats
EVENT 12
Paewai Mullins Novice Wool Handling – FINAL
EVENT 13
Cydectin Novice Shearing –Semi-Final
EVENT 14
Trust House Intermediate Shearing - Heats
Farmlands & Woolpacks NZ Women’s Wool Pressing –FINAL
EVENT 23
Farmlands & Woolpacks NZ Pairs Wool Pressing – FINAL
EVENT 24 Powerco Senior Shearing –Heats
EVENT 25
Shear Expertise Open Wool Handling Quarter-Final
AFTERNOON
EVENT 26
Farmers Weekly Junior
CP Wool Trans-Tasman Wool Handling – Test
EVENT 33
Wairarapa Times-Age Cycle Shearing Challenge – FINALE
Saturday 2nd March
MORNING
Start time 7.45am
EVENT 34
Te Puni Kokiri Senior Wool Handling – Semi-Final
EVENT 35
Rural Women NZ Junior Wool Handling – Semi-Final
EVENT 36
MSD Coopers Animal Health
NZ Young Farmers Teams Event – FINAL
EVENT 37
Johnson Brothers World Wool Handling Qualifying - SemiFinal
EVENT 38
MSD Coopers Animal Health
NZ Young Farmers Blue Ribbon Shearing - FINAL
EVENT 46
Tui Encouragement Invitation Shearing
EVENT 47
Farmers Weekly Junior Shearing- FINAL
EVENT 48
Trust House Intermediate Shearing - FINAL
EVENT 49
Powerco Senior Shearing –FINAL
EVENT 50
Shear Expertise Open Wool Handling – Semi-Final
EVENT 51
Golden Shears Bayleys Open Shearing – Semi-Final
EVENING
Start time 6.45pm
EVENT 52
PGG Wrightson Wool National Shearing Circuit - FINAL
EVENT 53
Johnson Brothers World Wool Handling Qualifying – FINAL
EVENT 54
Lister Shearing Trans-Tasman Shearing – Test
EVENT 55
Shear Expertise Open Wool Handling – FINAL
EVENT 56
Golden Shears Bayleys Open Shearing - FINAL
Last October was the theatre release of She Shears at Masterton’s Regent 3 Cinemas.
Since then the ÿ lm has enjoyed excellent ticket sales, positive comments from ÿ lm goers and praise from ÿ lm critics.
Shearing a sheep is said to be one of the hardest jobs in the world and that is what documentary director Jack Nicol hoped to prove in She Shears, which followed the lives of ÿ ve women shearers gunning for glory at the Golden Shears.
Nicol, a self-confessed townie, said it took about a year of reading and talking to people before ÿ lming began.
“I always wanted to do a shearing movie because no one had really done one in quite the way we did it,” he said.
Shearing was fascinating to him, especially the concept of women shearing “back in the day” which was not really the done thing – but that’s all changing, he said.
“In all the shearing books you come across these chapters on female shearers, and they are wedged in there and are just a few pages.
“New Zealand shearers are the best in the world and no one had really celebrated that.”
Nicol said it was fun to “hang out with a bunch of shearers, I don’t really get to do that in my daily life”.
Our reviews were fantastic. We were consistently rated as a four star ÿ lm. The best part was engaging with all our fans and hearing stories about how they loved seeing a quirky part of New Zealand culture on screen.
“I just fell in love with the people, they are what hold the documentary together.”
“What motivates them, is really interesting because it’s just like this passion and obsession that drives them which makes for a really cool ÿ lm.”
As an up-and-coming director, Nicol believed he and his crew had “pulled off something world class” despite only costing about $300,000 over the three years.
The ÿ lm was funded via crowd funding, and some of its main sponsors including Rural Women New Zealand, Trust House and Farmlands.
After its nationwide release in in Masterton on October 11, the ÿ lm went on to become one of the widest released ÿ lms of 2018, showing on over 40 screens in New Zealand and was the ÿ fth highest grossing New Zealand ÿ lm last year.
It was shown also shown at
the Hawaii International Film Festival.
“Everyone loved the ÿ lm,” Nicol says. “Our reviews were fantastic. We were consistently rated as a four star ÿ lm. The best part was engaging with all our fans and hearing stories about how they loved seeing a quirky part of New Zealand
What happens next with the ÿ lm?
“We are enjoying watching the DVD version of the ÿ lm rush off shelves – it’s in the top 10 selling DVDs on mightyape. co.nz right now. We’re also excited about our UK cinema release coming soon, and showing it to the rest of the
The Noodles, who entertain at the Golden Shears on Friday evening, are Wellington’s busiest professional covers band, playing three to four nights a week in Wellington and all around New Zealand’s top nightspots.
The band was formed by Nick Noodle over 14 years ago. The guitarist and lead vocalist for the band, Nick started out as a solo act performing through the Wellington scene before developing this into a threepiece band and performing full time as The Noodles ever since.
The current band has been together for a decade with Nick joined by Frazer Jones bass and lead vocals, Sam Russell on drums, and Leah Hawkins the band’s entertainment manager and sound tech.
The Noodles’ repertoire ranges from classic rock through to contemporary – from the 1960s to today.
Anthem songs that people
know always seem to get the crowd going or a new song that happens to be really popular on the radio at the time, says Leah.
Song choice and the ° exibility to work with most genres – playing what everyone loves to hear – is the foundation of the band’s popularity, she says.
“We are dedicated to what we do, so I think that re° ects in our music quality and professionalism.”
The Noodles have played to audiences of 50 to 3000 over the years, with many memorable gigs.
“We’ve played at so many events, amazing locations. They are all great and have their differences.
“Toast Martinborough comes to mind as a big event that we’ve been privileged enough to play in every year.”
The Noodles Have also been involved with charity events such as Pink Ribbon Day (breast cancer) and Women’s Refuge.
After a successful inaugural Children’s Fun With Wool at last year’s Golden Shears, the 2019 Golden Shears committee is again organising the competition for Thursday night.
“The inaugural event last year was very successful with all children that entered having a great time,” said committee member Greg Herrick. The competition involves ÿ ve
disciplines pertaining to wool handling:
• throwing a ° eece on a wool table
• loading wool into a fadge
• sweeping a pile of wool from A to B
• wool basket weighing
• loading wool into a wool press
There are three grades for competitors:
Junior: Up to 7 years old Intermediate: 8 – 13 years
Senior: 14 – 18 years
Each Wairarapa school has been invited to have up to six competitors with each student receiving a complimentary prize from Golden Shears. Each competitor will be judged for each discipline with the one with the highest accumulated points winning their grade.
The competition starts at 6.45pm and will ÿ nish at
around 8.15pm including the presentation of prizes. This event is free for the competitors to enter. All students/children have free entry to the Stadium that evening. Adults $5.
Other events on Thursday night, in conjunction with the competition include the Golden Shears Evergreens Shearing & Wool Handling heats and the Golden Shears Senior & Open Speed Shear.
First introduced in 2016, Friday night is the ÿ nale of this popular novelty event to determine which sports code takes line-honours.
Having witnessed Neil Sidwell’s specially engineered bike at Auckland Easter Show, Philip Morrison knew it would be just the thing to entertain the crowd while the Trans-Tasman Wool Handling Test judging is completed.
Neil, a well-known shearer and judge from Silverdale, Northland, had a bike specially engineered to power a shearing hand piece. While one person rides the bike another shears the sheep.
The key to winning is who can cycle the fastest, Philip says. “You can’t shear the sheep any faster than the person on the bike can pedal”.
While the sheep has to be shorn to a good standard, the winner is decided by the fastest team to shear the sheep.
Each year three local sports codes have competed in the Challenge with their prizemoney being donated to their chosen charity.
Codes to participate have included rugby, tennis, squash, soccer, multi-sports and, unsurprisingly, cycling.
Previous winners Cycling (2016) and Tennis (2017) will ride/shear against the winner from the last round on Thursday night, in a ÿ nal as the last event on Friday night.
Playing the Golden Shears will fulÿ l a dream for Justin Reedone quarter of The Shenanigans Irish Band.
A resident of Wairarapa for the past four years, Justin has been aware of the Golden Shears all his life.
This year Justin and fellow bandmates Jane Boyers, Maurice Phillips and Neha will not just be attending the event but be the Saturday night entertainment.
Justin is promising some good old Irish-country, foot-stomping music.
The band knows that getting the audience up and dancing is as important as meaningful lyrics and technical virtuosity.
As well as reconstructing traditional Irish/Celtic tunes that have been around for generations, the Shenanigans enjoy taking well-known contemporary classics and “Irishing” them up.
Justin comes from a folk and rock background that took in Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan as well as Johnny Cash and John Denver, before connecting with his Celtic family roots.
Along with vocals, Justin plays acoustic guitar, mandolin, whistles, harmonica and electric guitar.
His enthusiasm for music and entertaining as well as his sense of humour is infectious.
Jane is a classically trained
violinist who has been playing ÿ ddle for over 30 years. She also enjoys playing mandolin and tenor banjo.
Before joining the Shenanigans, Jane lived an incredible existence as a full-time costume designer for large stage-shows in New York.
“Theatre is where music and art come together and the United States is the place for huge musical inspiration where great country, bluegrass, and jazz music co-habit,” she says.
Maurice’s main claim to fame is playing drums on Kiwi 1980s hit “Life Begins at Forty” with Dave and the Dynamos, while Neha supplies exceptional bass skills for the band.
By Doug Laing
New Zealand representative Nathan Stratford is angling for his second PGG Wrightson Wool National Shearing Circuit title as the 47th annual series nears its end at the Golden Shears.
Stratford leads the series with just the ÿ fth qualifying round to go at Sunday’s Pahiatua Shears before the top 12 are decided for the semi-ÿ nal at Masterton on March 2, leading to the ÿ nal a few hours later.
Winner of the title previously in 2014 and a member of the New Zealand team to the UK last year after winning a second New Zealand Shears Circuit ÿ nal in Te Kuiti last April, Stratford has a ÿ ve-point lead over Manawatu gun Aaron Haynes after earlier rounds at Alexandra (merino), Waimate (longwool), Christchurch (corriedale), and Marton (lambs).
Stratford has a long history in the ÿ nal, and was third last year behind winner, reigning World champion and Hawke’s Bay shearer John Kirkpatrick, with whom Stratford won the World teams title in Invercargill in 2017.
The likely qualiÿ ers include four Wairarapa shearers in David Buick, Ethan Pankhurst, Paerata Abraham and Hemi Braddick, each out to be only the second shearer from the ÿ nal’s host region to win the title.
Southland shearer Darin Forde, who won the title four times between 1999 and 2004 is challenging for the 12th and last position, equal with Pleasant Point shearer Ant Frew.
The likely qualiÿ ers include four Wairarapa shearers David Buick, Ethan Pankhurst, Paerata Abraham and Hemi Braddick, each out to be only the second shearer from the ÿ nal’s host region to win the title.
Two wool handlers from the South Otago town of Milton have faced one of the unkindest cuts of all after the ÿ rst stage of World Championships New Zealand team selection.
Cheri Peterson and Tia Potae ended the seven-show preliminary stage locked in a tie for the last of four South Island competition positions for an inter-island showdown at the Golden Shears .
Peterson got the nod and Potae missed out, based on a countback of placings through the seven rounds in the South Island.
Peterson will be joined in the ÿ nal stages by South Island series winner Pagan Karauria, Motueka-based reigning World champion Joel Henare, from Gisborne, and Chelsea Collier, of Gore.
North Island hopes face a hectic last few days with rounds in their series at Taumarunui on Friday, Apiti on Saturday, and Massey University’s Riverside farm,
near Masterton on the eve of the Golden Shears.
The North Island series is headed by 2010 World teams champions Keryn Herbert and 2008 individual World champion Sheree Alabaster and surprise prospects Hawke’s Bay wool handlers Eramiha Neho and Trish Moke Ludlow.
The ÿ rst two in a series ÿ nal on the last night of the Golden Shears will win places in the Shearing Sports New Zealand team for the World Championships in Le Dorat, France, on July 1-7.
Blade shearers Tony Dobbs, of Fairlie, and Allan Oldÿ eld, of Geraldine, won their places in the team in a series that ended at the New Zealand Agricultural Show in Christchurch in November, while the Golden Shears Open shearing champion will also be selected, along with the winner or runnerup in the New Zealand Championships Open ÿ nal in Te Kuiti four weeks later.
Reigning Golden Shears Wool Handling champion Joel Henare is likely to step down from regular competition after this year’s event at which his goal is to win the chance to defend his World title in France later this year.
On the back of a stellar career, claiming his 100th Open title in a record 6th consecutive Golden Shears Open title last year, Henare, from Gisborne, has decided it is time to devote more time to family and, after a period working in a Motueka ÿ sh shed is looking at a future career in real estate.
He ÿ rst won an Open title before he was 15, and earlier this month won the Otago championships’ New Zealand Wool Handler of the Year Open title for a 10th time – ÿ ve times consecutively from 2008 to
2012 and a further ÿ ve times consecutively from 2015 to 2019.
The pinnacles were twin individual and teams World titles in Masterton in 2012 and Invercargill in 2017, and being made the youngest-ever Master Wool Handler, as acclaimed by Shearing Sports New Zealand.
Raised around the woolsheds of Central Otago, Henare has won more Open titles than any other wool handler apart from late idol and mentor Joanne Kumeroa, whom he beat in the 2012 World Championships ÿ nal in Masterton and with whom he shared the teams title.
Henare has been in top form heading towards the Golden Shears, where he will make his 14th appearance for New Zealand in Trans-Tasman tests but where the big one is the ÿ nals of the national team selection series in which he must ÿ nish ÿ rst or second to be able to defend his World title in France in July.
Possibly the ÿ rst shearing competition reported anywhere in the world was commemorated at a 150th anniversary blade shear at the Central Hawke’s Bay A&P Show in Waipukurau last November.
New Zealand 2019 World blades shearing championships team members Tony Dobbs, of Fairlie, and Allan Oldÿ eld, of Geraldine, shore at the Show in commemoration of the anniversary.
The blade shearing competition at Waipukurau on January 21, 1868 predates by ÿ ve years the long-time presumed earliest competition in New Zealand at the Canterbury A&P Show in 1873.
Whether it was deÿ nitely the ÿ rst competition is unclear, but Shearing Sports New Zealand and Shearing Magazine publisher and editor Des Williams know of no earlier record than a February 1, 1868, Hawke’s Bay Herald report that it was “the ÿ rst shearing match in the inland district.”
The competition in 1868 took place on the property of Waipukurau town father H.R. Russell, whose laying out of the town included the A&P show venue – Russell Park.
It was won by James Walker, a shepherd to the chief Te Hapuku. The runner-up was the favourite and more experienced shearer Inia Whangataua of Takapau.
Patangata shearer Nguha was third, and fourth was Hori Tawhai of Waipaoa (Waipawa).
“Out of the nine entries, ÿ ve only ÿ nished their pens within the appointed time, four of whom were entitled to prizes,” the report said.
“Porikaapa was disqualiÿ ed through the careless shearing of one of his sheep.”
The shearers had to shear three sheep in three-quarters of an hour.
Dobbs didn’t have any problem besting that time, both having shorn ÿ ve sheep in under 15 minutes.
The sheep were ewes “of Saxony and French merino blood”, bred from a ° ock thought to have been landed in Wellington and driven up the coast to Hawke’s Bay. There were clear implications that speed was to be discouraged, the report discussing conditions on the
farm, saying that “it would be advisable to shear a reduced number in a better and more workman-like manner.
“There is no lack of good shearers, and it may be that the fault rests with the employer more than the employed,” it continued.
“So long as some sheep farmers encourage the present reckless style, and the men are allowed to ‘tomahawk’ their 100 or 150 a day, an improvement in the style of shearing cannot be looked for.”
The ÿ rst machine shearing competition recorded in New Zealand was at the Hawke’s Bay A&P Show in 1902.
