Emotional win tops weekend shears for Toa Henderson

Northland shearerr Toa Henderson emerged as a new northern Golden Shears open shearing final hope with an emotional win and two major placings in the weekend countdown to the 60th annual championships starting in Masterton on Wednesday.

The 29-year-old from Kaiwaka won the Apiti Sports Shears Open final on Saturday, immediately dedicating the win to son Tahi, who died, aged 18 months, when struck by a vehicle in Southland shearing town Mataura on December 21.

With just three Open wins beforehand, the victory was sandwiched by a fourth placing at Friday’s Taumarunui Shears and third on Sunday at the Pahiatua Shears, events both won by defending multiple Golden Shears champion and Hawke’s Bay shearer Rowland Smith, who also grew-up in Northland, and who now has 161 Open wins to his name.

Henderson had come close to a boyhood dream of a Golden Shears win when runner-up to brother Tahi in the 2008 Senior final, after which he left New Zealand to shear in West Australia.

He returned to win at Warkworth last March, and started planning for a mid-2020 World record bid in Australia – plans for which were ultimately shelved after the tragedy which hit himself, partner Phoebe and the family 10 weeks ago.

One day he was shearing, the next he “could’t move,” he recalled, but with the support of Phoebe he was back on the competition board winning a North Kaipara show title at Paparoa on February 1, and the Northern Wairoa show’s title at Arapohue a week later.

His trip south for the “miles” he regards as a must for any serious Golden Shears contender reaped rewards he’s never dreamed of so early on what he regarded as the start of a path towards claiming the big one sometime in the future.

In the space of two days he’d catapulted from hopes of being among the one-in-three to make their from the almost 90 in the Golden Shears heat to make the Golden Shears Top 30 quarterfinal shootout next Friday, to becoming a genuine chance for a place in the six-man final 24 hours later.

“I’m over the moon,” he said after the Pahiatua final. “I’m rapt.”

Smith was not in the field of 43 on Saturday when Henderson emerged from sixth-best in the heats and second-best in the semi-finals to make what was still a high-quality top six, including four who have been Golden Shears Open finalists.

With a record of 70 Open-final wins, Southland shearer and 2019 Golden Shears runner-up Nathan Stratford and Stand 3 was the man to beat, with the other five mustering less than 10 wins between them.’

But it was Henderson, on Stand 2, and reigning PGG Wrightson Nstional Circuit champion Paerata Abraham, of Masterton, on Stand 1, who created the spectacle.

Shearing the 20 second-shear sheep in 18mins-flat, Abraham beat Henderson to the finish by 15 seconds. With the Wairarapa shearer sacrificing some quality the result came down to whether Henderson had done a clean enough job to hold-out Southland gun Stratford, who two weeks earlier had scored a rare win over Smith in the Southern Shears Open final in Gore.

Henderson got the nod by 0.65pts from Stratford, with third place going to former Golden Shears Open runner-up Aaron Haynes, from Feilding.

On Sunday, with Smith, Stratford and Wairarapa shearer David Buick claiming a combined total of about 250 wins compared with six of the other three in the showdown, it was again Henderson throwing out the challenges, ultimately beaten by just 0.55sec as Smith finished first in 17min 19.84sec.

Buick, next off, kept up enough quality to sneak into secondp place overall. ue Show a week later.

Meanwhile, another hope for the Golden Shears Open woolhandling title emerged when Napier shearer and woolhandler Ricci Stevens had his first Open woolhandling at Taumarunui on Friday.

It was the first of two weekend defeats for Gisborne’s Joel Henare, this week chasinhg an eighth Golden Shears Open woolhandling title in a row but at the weekend having to be cobtent with second placings at both Taumarunui and,, to multiple New Zealand Shears Open champion and Taihape woolhandler Sheree Alabaster, at Apiti.

Also among the weekend’s placegetters in both woolhandling finals was Stevens’ wife, Angela Stevens, who was third at Taumarunui and fourth at Apiti.

Mangamahu shearer Simon Goss won the Apiti and Pahiatua Senior shearing titles, and missed a third for the weekend by being beaten by Eketahuina shearer Ruka Bradick by just 0.22pts at Taumarunui.

Northland shearer Toa Henderson on his way to his Apiti Sports Shears Open final win on Saturday.
PHOTO/Doug Laing SSNZ

Woolhandling champion Joel Henare at Apiti settling for another weekend second placing ahead of his Golden Shears title defence this week. PHOTO/Doug Laing SSNZ