Saturday March 1 2008

WAIROA’S fast family of shearing at New Zealand’s greatest shearing contest this week, the Golden Shears 2008 in Masterton.
Bayne family members Lachie, 19, and Ingrid, 21, were close by to support their mum Maggie, centre, as she shore in the Senior Shearing Heats on Thursday.
The siblings then competed against one another in the Intermediate Shearing Event with Ingrid beating her brother in the semi-finals to shear a tough final against an otherwise all-male line-up today.
She finished sixth in the final but drew plenty of comments from the commentators for her style.
“She’s a beautiful quality shearer down there,” they said.
 Maggie and her husband Colin Baynes taught their children to shear and then caught the show bug as a family.
“I was taught as a child, at age 13, by my father, but he didn’t believe in shows so I never shore competitively,” she said.
“But when we taught all our children to shear and they started getting into it we thought we better set an example and started shearing in shows too.”
It was Maggie’s first Golden Shears but she did well with support from her children, both past shears competitors.
“The first time you’re all nervous because it’s like ‘it’s the Golden Shears!’,” said Ingrid.
Maggie agreed and said the Golden Shears was a must for competition shearers.
“I always wanted to do it before I died…and I could have died up there!” she said, dog-tired after the five-sheep event.
Later on this year mother and daughter hope to set a precedent by doing a two-women, eight-hour lamb shear, which hasn’t been done before.
Maggie said her family’s shearing wouldn’t be what it was today without the encouragement of their mentor, gun shearer Bart Hadfield.
“Thanks goes to Bart for all the training and pushing us to do it. Without him we wouldn’t be here,” she said.
 
For a full programme and live video action see www.goldenshears.co.nz.

For free images or further information contact the Golden Shears Media Group at goldenshears@pete.co.nz or phone 021 488 137 or 027 5788 137.