Thursday March 5 2009

Boy Shearers Start Young At The Golden Shears

THEY start 'em young down at the shears; three 12-year old comb-welders took to the two-tooths this morning in the opening day of the 49th annual Golden Shears.
Masterton's Manahi Fox first picked up a hand-piece at age seven under the watchful eye of his father Sam Fox.
"I've been shearing ever since I was little," he said.
School holidays and weekends saw him add speed and quality to his shearing culminating in his first appearance in the Golden Shears novice heats this morning.
Fox said he thought his inaugural competition run went well and he remembered the advice of his father and uncles.
"Have confidence and keep the bottom tooth down."
Following on the stand were fellow young shearers David Gordon of Masterton and Kimbolton's Simon Goss.
Goss was also introduced to the art of shearing by his father.
"My dad used to be in shearing gangs and go around shearing. We own a farm and we do all our own shearing. I watched and I thought 'I could do this'," he said.
 "You can make a bit of money and some times if you're shearing in a gang you get to go round New Zealand and meet new people and visit other places."
He went on to be the top qualifier coming out of the novice semi-finals and  then placed second in the final, the youngest competitor to do so in the history of the Golden Shears novice and junior competitions.
The crowd and commentators alike were impressed by the tenacity of the young trio and commentator Nikau Gordon said Gordon was working twice as hard as the other competitors in his heat.
"It seems like the sheep is twice as big as he is. It is like for anyone else shearing a ram!"
Gordon had to stand tippy-toes to push the finished sheep through his legs and down the chute on completion.

For all other results and archived video action see http://www.goldenshears.co.nz. 
 
For further information and free higher resolution images contact the Golden Shears Media Group at goldenshears@pete.co.nz or phone 021 488 137 or 027 5788 137. International callers phone 006421 488 137 or 006427 5788 137.


ENDS

Caption:

FUTURE shearing champs Simon Goss, David Gordon and Manahi Fox, all aged 12.