Snow Quinn Snow embellished the Gold

By Des Williams When Golden Shears celebrated its 30th anniversary in 1990 it was quite common for people to reminisce and express the sentiment, “When the Shears started in 1961 no one dreamed it would still be going thirty years later!’ Now here we are, it’s sixty years later and it’s still going strong. It may be fair to suggest much of the aura that became attached to Golden Shears in the earlier years came from the exploits of Brian ‘Snow’ Quinn, who won the open championship six times from seven attempts from 1965 to 1972. He came second to Bing Macdonald in 1966 and did not compete in 1969. Shearers from around the country made the annual pilgrimage to Masterton, wondering if this would be the year someone could wrest the purple ribbon from the tall man’s shoulders. Nobody could, and he retired at the early age of 31 to let others ‘have a go’. Then it became, “Will anyone else ever win the Shears six times?” Many thought, ‘No way!’ Thus, Quinn’s name and record remained at the forefront whenever the subject of Golden Shears came up for discussion. Until along came David, that is, because all records are made to be broken. Through the 1990s and into the new millennium [Sir] David Fagan turned six into sixteen. Brian Quinn remained retired until the prospect of having a crack at the world championship in 1980 provided sufficient incentive for him to again polish up a couple of favourite combs.

With mission accomplished, the 40-year-old again quietly faded away from the competition stage, save for a few celebrity occasions here and there. Though he did take to the boards again for many years as a shearing sports judge. Now less than a year away from an eightieth birthday, Brian (and Lyn) have spent the past 30 years on a block of land at Earnscleugh, on the outskirts of Alexandra. It carries a few hundred sheep that, under his expert management, produce a lambing percentage of most impressive numbers. Brian Quinn’s achievements with handpiece in hand have been documented over the past sixty years by writers trying to capture the legend from a renowned reluctant interviewee.

Let us then give the last words to a writer with some inside running - his seven-year-old grandson, Rocky, who had to give a speech to his classmates last year about somebody famous: ‘I am going to do a speech on my Grandad, Brian Snow Quinn. He is famous because he was the best shearer in the world. He started shearing sheep when he was 17. When he was 20 he went in lots of competitions and won lots of cups and ribbons. In 1980 he won the world championship and in 1981 went to Wellington to get an MBE medal from the Queen. ‘He shore thousands of sheep in New Zealand, Australia and England. Today he looks after 300 sheep and lambs. He still shears pet sheep for people. I think my Grandad is the best.’ Nobody at Golden Shears 2020 is likely to argue with you on that score, young Rocky!

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