Golden Shears 2024

World Premier Shearing and Wool Handling Championship

GOLDEN SHEARS

Trish Stevens: cut from the right cloth

“2023’s Golden Shears was an outstanding event,” says new Golden Shears President Trish Stevens, “and 2024 is shaping up to outshine it.”

This year’s Golden Shears runs from Thursday 29 February to Saturday 2 March.

Trish is only the second woman to take on the President’s role, with Mavis Mullins the rst.

For over 30 years, Trish has held several roles for Golden Shears and has hands-on experience in the shearing sheds as a wool handler. She prefers to support Golden Shears with her organisational skills rather than competing in it, but wholeheartedly supports her partner who has been an avid competitor, is a life member, previous President of the Golden Shears, and a past Chair

of the World Golden Shears Council.

“Golden Shears is the world’s most prestigious shearing event,” Trish acknowledges. “This iconic Wairarapa brand brings a nancial lift to the district each year and showcases the professionalism and skill of those involved in the wool industry. Golden Shears is here to stay and will continue to focus on returning maximum value back to the community via competitors, supporters, and the visitors it attracts to Wairarapa.”

Golden Shears helps to raise the pro le of wool and the sports of shearing, wool handling, and pressing. It also raises the pro le of the athletes. Competitors train to be physically and mentally on top of their game, to be the best they can be, with the hope of a Golden Shears’ winning ribbon.

Trish says it’s a privilege to be appointed President of Golden Shears. Her goal is to “continue the positive momentum of the competition and to uphold its integrity.”

The tension is always palpable at the show, as the crowd gets right in behind these extraordinary men and women who make a living from the sheep’s back.

“If you haven’t been before, come and check out 2024’s Golden Shears,” Trish says, then adds, “I’d like to take this opportunity to thank our sponsors, volunteers, Wairarapa community and local schools for the support shown to this iconic event since 1961.”

And she is already looking forward to the 20TH Golden Shears World Shearing and Wool Handling Championship to be held in Masterton in March 2026.

Trish Stevens, 2024 Golden Shears President.

Golden Shears 2024 Programme

THURSDAY 29 FEBRUARY 2024

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

1 MARCH 2024

2 MARCH 2024

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ALL DAY 7.45AM

Wool Pressing - women’s, men’s, pairs.

MORNING 7.45AM

• Open Wool Handling -HEATS

• Wool Pressing:

MORNING 7.45AM

• Junior Wool Handling -SEMI-FINAL

• Senior Wool Handling -SEMI-FINAL

THUR 29 FEBSAT 2 MARCH

MORNING 7.45AM

• Novice Wool Handling -HEATS

• Junior Wool Handling -HEATS

• Novice Shearing -HEATS

• Junior Shearing -HEATS

• Student Shearing challenge -FINAL

AFTERNOON 12.30PM (approx)

• Novice Wool Handling -SEMI-FINAL

• Senior Wool Handling -HEATS

• Novice Wool Handling -FINAL

• Novice Shearing -SEMI-FINAL

• Intermediate Shearing -HEATS

• Novice Shearing -FINAL

• Men’s -SEMI-FINAL

• Pairs -FINAL

• Women’s -FINAL

• Men’s -FINAL

Senior Shearing -HEATS

AFTERNOON 12.30PM (approx)

• Open Wool Handling Top 20

• Open Shearing -HEATS

EVENING 6.40PM (approx)

• Open Shearing Top 30

• Regional Challenge Shearing -FINAL

• Trans-Tasman Wool Handling -TEST

• Junior Shearing -SEMI-FINAL

• Intermediate Shearing -SEMI-FINAL

• Senior Shearing -SEMI-FINAL

• National Shearing Circuit -SEMI-FINAL

• NIWC Wool Handling -FINAL

AFTERNOON 12.30PM (approx)

• Junior Wool Handling -FINAL

• Senior Wool Handling -FINAL

• Junior Shearing -FINAL

• Intermediate Shearing -FINAL

• Senior Shearing -FINAL

• Open Wool Handling -SEMI-FINAL

• Open Shearing -SEMI-FINAL

EVENING 6.30PM

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EVENING 6.40PM (approx)

• Senior Speed Shear

• Women’s Invitation Shearing -FINAL

• National Shearing Circuit -FINAL

• Māori/Pakeha Team Shearing

• Trans-Tasman Shearing -TEST

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• Teddy Bear Shear

• Open Speed Shear

INSPIRING FUTURE FARMERS

Wairarapa College is proud to be educating the next generation.

Our renowned Agriculture Department is led by a team of passionate educators and mentors and is equipped with some of the best facilities

for secondary agricultural learning in the country.

The inclusive programme welcomes students from a wide range of backgrounds to explore a career in farming.

Vaccinations

Desexing/Neutering Surgery

Dentistry

Micro-chipping

• Open Wool Handling -FINAL

• Open Shearing -FINAL

Digital X-Ray

Ultrasound

Home visits

Full after hours & emergency services

Owners Nathan and Nicola Haglund, Sarah Wolland

The legacy of Laurie Keats

Laurie, who celebrated his 90TH birthday in December, is an archetypal modest, salt of the earth, gentleman farmer. He has a dry sense of humour and a twinkle in both eyes.

men’s groups - Young Farmers and Jaycees – on how to speak publicly. He learned to in uence and persuade and turn people’s arguments back on themselves.

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Shearing from the age of 14, and winning his rst competition the same year, the culture of sheep shearing has been a fundamental and important part of his life.

Laurie’s family has owned land in Masterton since 1920 - the love of living o the land runs deep in Laurie’s veins. In his best season, Laurie could shear 40,000 sheep: “which is not many by today’s standards,” he says, “but I was shearing by day and doing my farm work by night, so I had to save some energy for that.”

It was only 20 years ago when he and his now wife Judy downsized from their farm to a lifestyle block. They’ve since downsized further to six hectares.

Laurie talks about the late 1950s, when he was still in his 20s. He and his mates took a bus trip to Wairoa for a regional shearing competition – getting up to all sorts of shenanigans along the way – and, on the way back, they realised New Zealand needed a national competition. The idea for the Golden Shears, based in Masterton, was born.

Laurie, along with his backers and the legions of volunteers required to make such a venture successful, established the rst Golden Shears in 1961, with crowds so big that the local army was called in to help control them. Nearly 300 shearers from New Zealand and Australia, including the legendary Godfrey Bowen, took part. Godfrey’s brother Ivan Bowen became the rst Golden Shears champion.

“Increasingly, overseas shearers were coming to compete in the Golden Shears in Masterton. They’d been trained by Godfrey Bowen and his merry men who travelled the world teaching the Bowen Technique –shearing fast and clean. A World Championship was a logical progression.”

Laurie leasing out his farm to a neighbour and going travelling for about six years all up, doing shearing demonstrations across 17 countries from Norway to Saudi Arabia and even behind the iron curtain in Eastern Europe: Hungary, Poland, and Yugoslavia. He has vivid memories of being accompanied by three or four ‘agricultural o cials’ in those countries and experiencing enormous hospitality including massive meals and “gallons of vodka”. Judy joined him in the wool shed for some of those overseas exploits.

“Many strong-willed people thought I was mad, but I persuaded them. I’m proud about that,” Laurie says. He’s grateful for the coaching he received from the young

Laurie chaired the Golden Shears World Council, establishing the rules between the rst World Champs held in England in 1977 and the second in Masterton in 1980, and further ne-tuning them after that. He’s a life member, patron, and pastPresident of Golden Shears, as well as a foundation member of the organisation now called Shearing Sports New Zealand.

Laurie also raised funds to establish The Woolshed (New Zealand’s sheep and shearing museum in Masterton) and has an oral shearing history

Back in Wairarapa, Laurie and his long-time shearing mate Ian (Scotty) Stewart teamed up – then both in their 60s. They reckoned they’d only shear in sheds where they were served homemade scones and raspberry jam, but that didn’t seem to produce much in the way of smoko, sadly.

Laurie has passed his skills

on to the next generation of shearers, cemented shearing's place in New Zealand history, and received a New Zealand Order of Merit (in 2009) for his troubles. He’s a legend.

“It’s been a most enjoyable journey,” he says with characteristic modesty.

Clockwise from top: Laurie shearing in Saudi Arabia in 1984; Laurie aged 18, o to a shearing event; Laurie teaching Yugoslavian locals how to shear in 1983; Laurie (middle) with his shearing mates on that fateful bus journey in the late 1950s

The Goodgers are a force to be reckoned with. The four boys, Jeremy the oldest (now aged 43), Warwick, James, and Vinnie (now aged 33), were brought up in the woolsheds of Wairarapa working alongside their mother, a wool handler, and father, a shearer.

The aim of wool pressing is to press the perfect bale to the pre-set standard in the quickest time. Something the Goodger brothers have mastered when pressing, both together and singly.

Jeremy began wool pressing at age 15. “A couple of days a week I was in the shed, learning from dad and some of the old masters.”

For a few years, Jeremy pressed in the sheds while listening to the live radio commentary from the Golden Shears wool pressing nals. Carl Cox won the exciting single nals in 1998 and backed it up with another win in 2001. “He was a master. And a role model for me.”

Jeremy watched videos of Carl and emulated his technique. In 2000,

he attended the Golden Shears as a spectator and the following year he competed for the rst time, coming 10TH out of about 30 competitors.

“I was placed ahead of a few local guns from the Wairarapa and was on a high.”

The next year he got serious about his training and, in 2002, Jeremy made the nal – and won. He couldn’t stop after that.

“Wool pressing is addictive. I’ve retired a few times but every time the season comes around, I’m back in the sheds. I might have another 15 years in me yet. The body keeps moving and the mind follows.”

These days, Jeremy divides his seasons between Masterton (August to March) and Australia (March to August). “After 25 or more years of wool pressing, I still get excited and experience a bit of an adrenaline rush when I work on big sheep farms, especially in the 10 or 20-stand sheds. It brings out the best in me.”

He mainly wool presses but also loves to jump on a stand and do some

shearing when he can. And he’s encouraging his 14-year-old son (and swimming champion) to get into the sheds.

“He’s the spitting image of his Uncle James, flexes his muscles and does his hair like Uncle Warwick, and has the strength and attitude of Uncle Vinnie. And when he beefs out a bit, he’ll look like me,” Jeremy laughs. Brother Vinnie was only eight years old when he started wool pressing, beginning to compete at the age of 14. He’s since gone

on to add shearing and wool handling to his repertoire too.

Jeremy says about Vinnie that “he’s a natural at all of it. He goes hard and fast.”

“I love the physicality of the work,” Vinnie says. “You have to work hard if you want to get better.”

2014 was the first year Vinnie won the wool pressing at Golden Shears. “The singles, the doubles, and the triathlon – the trifecta.”

At Golden Shears 2024, Vinnie intends to compete in the triathlon involving shearing, wool pressing, and wool handling. He’s shearing full-time in South Australia these days, so he’ll be in tip-top condition for the Golden Shears. One of his goals is to become a great shearer and, maybe, to get to the World Champs in the future.

Vinnie says “the sheep in Australia are different to those in New Zealand. They’re different breeds and have tougher wool;

I was this shy little nobody. Now look at me! Thanks Printcraft

it’s a harsher environment.”

He’s looking forward to coming back and shearing New Zealand breeds, as well as spending time with his three children; something he does every three months. He will also be competing for brother Warwick, who passed away ten years ago after living as a tetraplegic for about five years. Warwick had previously been a top-class wool presser himself.

“I promised Warwick before he passed that I’d keep competing until my son was old enough to shear competitively. He’s just turned eight, so there’s a few years to go yet.”

Both brothers will also be competing for their mother at Golden Shears 2024. She’s being treated for cancer but is beating the odds and intends to be at the competition to cheer on her boys.

Vinnie (L) and Jeremy Goodger in action at Golden Shears 2023

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Close shave for Master Shearer

Being awarded the title of Master Shearer by Shearing Sports New Zealand “is an honour,” says David Buick.

The award will be presented to him at Golden Shears 2024, when he’ll join the 60 or so others who have been awarded the title of Master Shearer over 40 years.

Other career highlights for David include over 30 wins in the Men’s Open Class, participation in six Golden Shears Open nals and being runner-up in 2018, 12 wins in lower grades, participation in 15 tests for New Zealand, and numerous titles from national and international competitions.

completed a cadetship at Smedley Station aged just 16 years old, completed a Diploma in Agriculture at University, and was “ nished o ” at Turanganui Romney Stud.

David and his wife Rebecca bought their Pongaroa farm about 22 years ago and went on to grow it into 500 hectares and establish a shearing business called ‘Shear Exhaustion,’ now with 20 sta .

of the farm’s drainage system when the earth caved in, taking him down with it.

“Luckily, I was able to stand up instantly. Within seconds, earth had lled the culvert.”

He was buried up to his neck.

If he hadn’t stood up, he would have been lost.

“My pelvis and hips were crushed, and I spent a couple of months in hospital.” David says. “My specialist said I’d never work again.”

Showing characteristic determination, David did workouts and weights every day, but recovery has still been a long road. Today, he’s up to shearing a few sheep – it’s been a big part of Buick’s life, and he doesn’t want to lose it.

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Shearing Sports New Zealand rarely awards the Master Shearer title. The last was in 2017 to Matt Smith: a former Hawke’s Bay shearer.

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Born and bred in Mauriceville, David has almost three decades of shearing under his belt. He attended Wairarapa College,

Things looked bad when David nearly lost his life in a farm accident in October 2021, but both David and his farm (which had a bumper year last year) are bouncing back. He’s walking and working again, which hadn’t previously been assured. David had been standing on the bank

When he was younger, David idolised the shearers on the Master Shearers’ list, so being awarded the title has left him speechless. And he’s even more determined to shear again at a Golden Shears competition – maybe even at the World Champs. `

David Buick shearing his way to runner-up in the Golden Shears Open nals in 2018

Having the time of his life

In the mid-1960s, still in his early 20s, Kevin Aplin started competing at Golden Shears.

These days, aged 79, he still shears on his 41-hectare Carterton farm but has stepped back from shearing at competitions. He’s a life member of the Golden Shears committee, however, and is deeply committed to volunteering and supporting the industry of shearing.

Wairarapa and shearing are in Kevin’s blood. His father was a local shepherd and Kevin was born and bred locally, went to Wairarapa College, and worked in the region as a shed hand and shearer for a few years, before purchasing some land.

Kevin married Pauline and they moved onto their Parkvale farm in 1972. Throughout the years, they’ve both been involved

in Golden Shears: Pauline as a volunteer on the merchandise stall and Kevin as a shearer and volunteer in maintenance and erecting the shearing stage. It was in the late 1990s, when he took to timekeeping for other competitions as far afield as Te Kuiti, that Kevin invented and built a magnificent timekeeping machine he christened the Time Box.

“It’s hard to find multiple people to sit all day and do the time keeping,” Kevin says, “so the Time Box was invented out of necessity.”

Most shearing competitions have six stands and so that number of timekeepers – or a Time Box with six watches – is required to keep track of events.

The wooden switchboard holds six digital watches in a row, with switches to start and stop them, and little black pads placed

for waiting fingers (like on a keyboard) allowing easy access to each switch.

“The placing of the pads was based on the hand size of one of our daughters, Penelope,” Kevin says. Of Kevin and Pauline’s eight children, four are or have been involved in farming and three have

volunteered at Golden Shears. He still uses the first Time Box he ever made – with the watches now nearly 30 years old – but has also made another 25 machines now used all round the world. Kevin says that invention is in his family’s DNA with a grandfather who built swing bridges and an uncle

who was an inventor and had an engineering shop.

Kevin and Pauline have no plans to leave their sheep farm with its magnificent view of the Tararuas. They wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

Kevin Aplin, life member of Golden Shears, with his wife Pauline.

On that legendary bus trip in the late 1950s when Laurie Keats and his fellow shearers decided to establish a national shearing competition (eventually named Golden Shears), the lads got up to all sorts of shenanigans, including a bit of a tipple.

It’s appropriate then, that a group of fun-loving and highly talented musicians named Shenanigans will be at Golden Shears on Friday 1 March 2024 to rouse your voices and move more than your feet. Expect to be energised and uplifted by the Shenanigans who bring something unique and special to the New Zealand music scene.

As well as reconstructing traditional Irish/Celtic tunes that have been around for generations, Shenanigans also enjoy taking well known contemporary classics and “Irishing” them up, which makes for a very entertaining experience.

Paul, and drummer Maurice complete the troupe.

Audiences are encouraged to get involved, with plenty of crowd participation and dancing. The band tends to make up its play list as it goes, depending on the energy of the crowd and requests. Shenanigans loves entertaining its audiences.

Following the tremendous success of its debut album “ballyscullymuckery”, the group followed up with Live in your Lounge” in 2018. NZ Musician Magazine described the album as having “so many good tracks, so much energy, a band in full control and having such fun yet well able to bring things down to a tearful pause”. Most recently Shenanigans was awarded “Top Band of Few” by a guy down the pub.

Watch out for traditional Irish songs such as Whiskey in the Jar, various Pogue numbers, and

Van Morrison’s Moondance. Then there’s all those other songs done with an Irish style. You might get to hear numbers from Rolling Stones, Kenny Rogers, Don McLean, Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Crowded House, and many more. Lead guitarist and singer Justin became a Shenanigan about twenty years ago – he was hired on the spot because of his authentic Irish accent. Justin’s forebears come from Poland and Scotland via Pahiatua. Fiddler extraordinaire Jane, bass player

Don’t miss the high energy of the Shenanigans, with its toetapping ddling and hilarious banter. Its ne musicians blend the haunting sounds of ddles, Celtic whistles, mandolins, lush guitar, soaring vocals and solid drumming.

and supporting text to showcase

Handing Championships not

sporting code until the late 1980s. Pete’s book includes both black and white and crisp colour photos to take us through competitive shearing, wool pressing, wool handling, transTasman rivalry, young farmers teams, women’s shearing, and blade shearing, covering junior, intermediate, and senior competitions.

In 1963, the Golden Shears took itself to Lower Hutt so everyone could meet the Queen as she visited New Zealand. More than 500 Golden Shears supporters arrived by train to cheer on the competitors – captured on camera.

Each decade is traversed, with hair and dress trends moving with the times.

In the 1990s, the entertainment value of the Golden Shears came to the fore with state-of-the-art lighting, sound, live action video projection, commentators, and MCs. The shearing and wool handling industry became professional over the same period: shearers were now athletes.

Photos from Masterton’s previous times as host of the World Shearing and Wool Handling Championships – in 1980, 1988, 1996, and 2012 - reflect our region’s pride. Pete will be on hand to record the 2026 Champs too.

Golden Shears: 60 Years is a masterful reflection on society and the economy down through the ages and the photos tell a thousand words.

Son of the late George (Ted)

Nikolaison, Pete has continued the tradition started by his father of creating the finest quality photographic images, and now has nearly 50 years of experience to draw on.

Complete with all the results from the 60th competition held in March 2020, Golden Shears: 60 Years is a ‘must have’ for those who follow competitive shearing, and anyone interested in the wool industry.

You can view or purchase Pete’s snapshot of the Golden Shears, as a record for posterity, by going to: https://pete.co.nz/collections/ books. It’s a thing of beauty.

Pete Nikolaison and his masterpiece ‘Golden Shears: 60 Years’. Photo supplied

All wool and a yard wide

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The phrase “all wool and a yard wide” means ‘of great quality’ and Ngaio Hanson is certainly that.

THUR 29 FEBSAT 2 MARCH

Ngaio is one of six siblings brought up in the Braddick wool sheds, all becoming experienced at shearing and wool handling. Her brother Hemi Braddick is a local shearing hero, and her sisters and youngest brother –ranging in age from early 20s to late 30s – are all expert shearers and wool handlers too.

Their father’s shearing business, Braddick Shearing, is now managed by Ngaio and her husband Steve. Ngaio is very happy to be doing something she loves. Shearing and wool handling are addictive, she says.

Every now and then she’s tried to give up the shows but gets pulled back into it.

“Since I was a child, I always wanted to be a wool handler,”

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“Since I was a child, I always wanted to be a wool handler,” Ngaio says. “I was able to go wool handling full-time at age 17.”

Ngati Kahunganu. Ngaio’s roots run deep in Wairarapa.

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Ngaio’s dad’s side of the family, the Braddick’s have a long history in the farmlands of Eketāhuna. And her mum whakapapas to Te Hika o Pāpāuma, Rangitāne, and

At Golden Shears 2023, Ngaio achieved one of her goals - to make the New Zealand wool handling team. “It’s tough to make the New Zealand team,” she says. “2023 was my third go –third time lucky.”

Representing New Zealand in the 2023 World Champs in Edinburgh, Ngaio and her wool handling partner, Candy Hiri, achieved fourth place in the wool handling teams’ event.

Ngaio is one to watch at Golden Shears 2024. `

Cutting a long story short

Economic benefits from sheep

From the outset, sheep farming has been crucial to New Zealand's economy. Between 1856 and 1987, sheep comprised the country’s most important agricultural industry.

It all started for the Wairarapa district in 1844, when just under 1000 animals were driven around the coast from Wellington. In the post-WWII period, Britain took all the meat and wool we could produce, prompting a 40 percent increase in New Zealand’s sheep numbers between 1951 and 1961 alone.

By the early 1970s, however, change was coming. Britain joined the European Economic Community, the costs of transport and production rose because of global oil shocks, and the competition from synthetic fibres and changes in fashions began to bite. Wool prices fell but farmers were initially insulated from the worst impacts because of government subsidies. These were not sustainable, however, and in the mid-1980s, the subsidies were removed.

In 1982, sheep numbers peaked at over 70 million. But, by 2021, numbers had fallen to about 26 million.

In 1970, approximately two percent of New Zealand wool offered for sale by auction was fine (Merino) and 75 percent was coarse. As the price differential between fine and coarse wool increased, farmers adjusted their stock accordingly. By 2019, fine wool was worth over six times more than coarse. At the same time, approximately eight percent of our wool offered for sale by auction was fine, with 65 percent coarse.

Adaptation has always underpinned, and continues to underpin, the place of wool in our lives and our economy. Sheep continue to be farmed for meat and so need to be shorn every year to keep them free from disease. And, so, shearing remains important in New Zealand despite the drop in sheep numbers. Shearing also became an elite sport in the late 20TH century and continues that legacy.

Sources: Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand; Beef + Lamb New Zealand Economic Service 2020; NZ Journal of Animal Science and Production. 2021. Vol 81: 1-15.

Shearing sheep in record time

Here are some of New Zealand’s shearing successes on the global stage, as recorded by the World Sheep Shearing Records Society at www.shearingrecords.com:

Nine hours solo:

In December 2023, New Zealand shearer Sacha Bond made a new world record by becoming the first woman to shear more than 700 sheep in a nine-hour day. She holds the record in the Strong Wool Lambs Women category, with a tally of 720.

Eight hours solo:

• In January 2024, New Zealander Amy Silcock, took the record in the Strong Wool Ewes Women category, with a tally of 386.

• In February 2024, the record for the Strong Wool Ewes Women category also went to Sacha Bond for her tally of 458.

New Zealander Grant Smith took the record in the Merino Wethers category in 1999, with a tally of 418.

• In the Strong Wool Lambs Women category, New Zealander Megan Whitehead took the record in December 2023, with a tally of 686.

• Jack Fagan, from the King Country, took the record in the Strong Wool Lambs category in 2022, with a tally of 754.

Masterton to host the world

New Zealand will hold the 20TH Golden Shears World Shearing and Wool Handling Championships at the home of Golden Shears in Masterton in 2026.

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The event is expected to be held over four days on 4-7 March 2026, in conjunction with the annual Golden Shears Shearing and Wool Handling Championships, held in Masterton’s War Memorial Stadium since 1961 except for the Covid-related cancellations in 2021 and 2022.

The secretariat for the events operates from Bath, West England, where the rst ever World Champs was held in 1977. They’ve been held every two or three years since, except during Covid. Today, 14 countries are members of the World Champs but back then, there were three: New Zealand, Australia, and Great Britain.

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It was at Golden Shears in Masterton that a World Council of Shearing was created, going on to take the name Golden Shears World Shearing and Wool Handling Championships, and rules were then hashed out. These have regularly been revisited in the spirit of continuous improvement.

Masterton has had the pleasure of hosting the World Championships in 1980, 1988, 1996, and 2012. New Zealand shearers, individually and as teams, won both the 1977 and 1980 events. Roger Cox, Godfrey Bowen, Brian Quinn, and Martin Ngataki were the big names way back then. New Zealand shearers have gone on to be winners in many of the events in most of the World Champs ever since.

In the 2023 World Champs, New Zealand achieved just one top-three place across the six titles for individuals and teams in machine shearing, blade

shearing and wool handling: an unexpected result for the country that has previously won four times as many titles in the World Champs as any other nation. Kiwi wool handling pair Candy Hiri from Gore and Ngaio Hanson from Eketahuna did us proud and achieved fourth place in the wool handling teams’ event at the 2023 World Champs.

New Zealander shearers, wool handlers, and wool pressers far and wide will be preparing to pull out all the stops in 2026. And all the life members intend to be there to watch New Zealand make history.

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Golden Shears 2024 Life Members (from left) Greg Herrick, Philip Morrison, Bruce Christensen, Kevin Aplin, Bill Hutchings, Gavin Tankersley, Murray Tomlin, (bottom row from left) Bruce Caseley, Edwin O’Hara, Laurie Keats (Patron), and Ian Stewart.

Photo Pete Nikolaison.