It may have taken more than 30 years but a woolhandler was the genuine star of the final night of the 58th Golden Shears in Masterton tonight as ultimate rousie Joel Henare overshadowed the performance of shearing phenomenon Rowland Smith.

Two transtasman tests at the Golden Shears have been shared 1-1 each after the shearing team of World champions John Kirkpatrick, Nathan Stratford and Rowland Smith was unable to keep in touch with their Australian visitors on the finewooled merinos that dominated their shearing match.

It was payback time for Southland shearer Brandon Mguire-Ratima as he won the Golden Shears Intermediate shearing final in Masterton this afternoon.

Gun Hawke’s Bay shearer Rowland Smith has hit the mildest of speed bumps but still qualified to defend the Golden Shears Open title in Masterton.

One of the stalwart families of the 58 years of Golden Shears has celebrated a significant success today with the winning of the Golden Shears veterans woolhandling event in Masterton.

Two New Zealand shearers working in Australia have realised a dream by qualifying for tonight’s final of the PGG Wrightson Wool National Circuit championship at the Golden Shears in Masterton.

A former two-times Golden Shears woolhandling champion is in Wellington Hospital after collapsing in front of about 800 spectators while competing in a Veterans event at the 58th annual shearing and woolhandling championships in Masterton last night.

Hawke’s Bay shearer Rowland Smith continued his march towards his defence of the Golden Shears Open title by heading the field in both the heats and the quarterfinals on the second day of the 58th annual championships in Masterton today.

It was the first bale of wool Vinnie Goodger had pressed in a year, but it was bang on the button as he successfully defended his Golden Shears men’s woolhandling title in front of his home Wairarapa crowd in Masterton’s War Memorial Stadium tonight.

Master Woolhandler and former World teams title winner Keryn Herbert was possibly the major casualty of the preliminary rounds of the Golden Shears major events when she was eliminated in the heats of the Open Woolhandling Championship today.

When a guy becomes a Member of Parliament there are some things he just can’t give up.

For Masterton-based Labour Government List MP Keiran McAnulty that something is his role as MC at one of the biggest events in his region – the Golden Shears.

The Gisborne area again dominated the opening day of the Golden Shears with two wins in the three events decided in Masterton today.

Two teenagers who’ve barely had time to come to grips with the tension and fight of the handpiece have claimed the first of more than 20 titles to be presented at the 58th Golden Shears in Masterton today.

Northland-raised Hawke’s Bay shearer Rowland Smith has tonight completed an amazing reply to his omission from the New Zealand World Championships team with a cleansweep of major events on the final night of the 57th Golden Shears in Masterton

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Rowland Smith winner

It wasn’t so much the title he wanted but it’ll do for Napier shearer Ricci Stevens after he won the Junior woolhandling title at the 57th Golden Shears in Masterton today.

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Ricci Stevens woolhandler

Invercargill shearer Nathan Stratford has loomed as a big hope of claiming the South Island’s first win in the Golden Shears Open final for the first time in 28 years.

It was a bit more than a dream come true for Taranaki shearer Darren Alexander as he won the Golden Shears Senior shearing title, emulating the win by father Lloyd Alexander in 1988.

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Darren Alexander

The World champion New Zealand woolhandling team of Gisborne’s Joel Henare and Mayryanne Baty has been kept intact for next season’s Transtasman series after Baty’s win today in the North Island Open woolhandling circuit final it the Golden Shears in Masterton.

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Maryanne Baty

A bit of pining for home was behind the success of Taihape’s Jamie McLean as she won her second Golden Shears woolhandling title in Mssterton today.

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Senior Woolhandlers

Shearing at the Golden Shears was one of the last things on the mind of farmer Mark Ferguson as he started to the feel the grip of a tough Hawke’s Bay summer a while before Christmas.

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Mark Ferguson - winner