The eighth win for Rowland Smith - still the dream
Champion shearer Rowland Smith achieved the goal he’d set all season when he won an eighth Golden Shears Open shearing title in Masterton tonight.
Capping three days of a fever-pitched return of Golden Shears after two years of pandemic cancellations, and taking a break from driving his tractor in the Hawke’s Bay cyclone recovery, Smith won the right to represent New Zealand at the 2023 Golden Shears World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships in Scotland on June 22-25, where among the toughest opposition will be brother expatriate kiwi Matt Smith, representing England.
Rowland Smith, who won the World title in 2014 in Ireland and 2017, claimed tonight’s victory by more than three points from runner-up and Marlborough shearer Angus Moore, despite being only third off the board after a classic race for time honours on stand 1, 2, and 3.
A time points deficit of over one point was nothing against the trademark quality of the two-metres giant, who seemed always in control despite having to settle I for the
Moore, in the Open final for the first time, but having earlier in the night won the multi-breed PGG Wrightson Vetmed National Shearing Circuit final for a third time, bolted into the lead on the second sheep, and remained in front until the eighth when Masterton shearer Paerata Abraham hit the front and, shearing at a consistent pace of a little over 40 seconds a sheep, stayed there till the end, finishing in 15min 43.88sec..
It revived memories of Abraham’s only previous Golden Shears Open final, when he cleared the 20 sheep in 15min 50.234sec in 2016.
The fastest time final of all was when David Fagan shore 15min 27.4sec in 2003 with John Kirkpatrick second off the board in 15min 43.8sec, when they were ultimately winner and runner-up respectively.
Third place went to near-perennial beaten finalist and Invercargill shear Nathan Stratford, despite being last to finish, in 16min 57.959sec.
Fourth was first-time finalist Hemi Braddick, of Eketahuna, Abraham was fifth and four-times winner Kirkpatrick was sixth.
Joel Henare, from Gisborne but living with his three children in Motueka, justified hot TAB favouritism to win a ninth-consecutive Golden Shears Open woolhandling title a wide margin from runner-up Keryn Herbert, of Te Kuiti.
Henare was unavailable for World championships selection, leaving what became one of the closet finals ever in a woolhandling final as four others fought out a team selection final.
The two positions were claimed by Candi Hiri of Gore and Ngaio Hanson of Eketahuna, with less than a point covering the first three places, just-cutting Foonie Waihape, of Alexandra, out of the trip to Edinburgh.
Hanson’s performance was one of three putting both Eketahuna and her family on the map. She’s the sister of Open shearing finalist Hemi Braddick and Open woolhandling third-placegetter Ana Braddick.
Meanwhile, the New Zealand shearing team of southern trio Stratford, Stacy Te Huia and Leon Samuels staged an amazing comeback to win a transtasman shearing test against Australian visitors Daniel McIntyre, Nathan Meaney and Sam Mackrill.
The black singlets had been given a sound beaten in the season’s first test in Bendigo, Vic, in November, but sprung the surprises by being in charge over the six merinos each that comprised the first half of the contest, followed by the New Zealand breed fullwools and second-shears.
The TAB had favoured the Australians, but it became payback also for the previous night’s surprise win over New Zealand in a woolhandling test.
Among lower grade triumphs, 21-year-old Abby Curnow, of Bendigo, Vic, is the new Junior woohandling champion, becoming the first Australian to win a Golden Shears woolhandling title in the 38-years since woolhandling was added to the Shears’ ribbon parade in 1985.
It also made it a double of the Junior titles for Australia, after 18-year-old Tyron Cochrane, of Goodooga, NSW, won the Junior shearing title on Friday, the first Australian to win a New Zealand Golden Shears title since John Allan’s Intermediate victory at the Golden Shears’ inception in 1961.
The Senior woolhandling title on Saturday was won by Rahera Kerr, of Hauturu, the Senior shearing final was won by Clay Harris, of Piopio, and the Intermediate shearing final was won by Will Sinclair, of Balclutha, both backed by recent winning form.
In the woolpressing, Masterton’s Goodger brothers again battled for men’s singles title, with Jeremy scoring a 14th win, claiming the title back from brother Vinnie, winner four time in a row from 2017 to 2020.
The women’s title was won for the first time by Savannah King, of Eketahuna, beating eight-times winner Fiona Healy in the final.
History-making Golden Shears win for trailblazing Aussie teen
A teenager from a remote corner of northwestern New South Wales has created a major piece of sheep shearing history by winning the Golden Shears Junior final in Masterton.
The Friday-afternoon triumph by 18-year-old Tyron Cochrane in a six-shearer final of five New Zealand strongwool sheep each was his first in competition, the first New Zealand Golden Shears title win by an Australian since legendary shearer John Allan’s win in the Intermediate final in the first year of the championships in 1961, and possibly the first by a First Nation Aboriginal representative, anywhere.
It is thought to have been just the 11th win by a non-New Zealand competitor across more than 460 shearing and woolhandling titles decided in the 61 years of the championships, which have this week bounced back after two years of cancellations in the global pandemic.
From Goodooga, in the Brewarrina Shire, home of the Yuwaalaraay people of parents Terry and Belinda and just 20km from the Queensland border and recognised as one of the most disadvantaged areas of New South Wales, his win was a major step not only for his family and people but also for the First Nation employment development projects of Dubbo-based REDi, which brought a small team to New Zealand and the Golden Shears the Golden Shears to get first-hand the feel of shearing sports competitions in New Zealand.
Following an experimental trip to the New Zealand Merino Shears in Alexandra in October by an earlier group, with Australia-based New Zealand shearing legend and project mentor Sam Te Whata, Cochrane and two others with REDi deputy chief executive Michael Cooper just five weeks ago and competed in shearing sports for the first time at Taihape on January 28.
He has been shearing for Masterton contractor Paddy Mason.
Despite the comparative lesser familiarity of the New Zealand breeds, after shearing mainly fine-wooled merinos in Australia, Cochrane qualified for a final for the first time six days later and finished sixth at the North Island championships in Marton on February 4.
He was then third at the Aria Waitangi Day Sports on February 6, fifth at the Southern Shears at Gore, in the South Island on February 18 and again at the Taumarunui Shears back in the Central North Island last Friday(February 24) and the Apiti Sports Shears the ext day.
All were won by shearers he was to meet in today’s final, thus, barely having previously travelled further afield than the 415km from Goodooga to Dubbo, where he has shorn for well-known contractor and shearer Steve “Muddy” Mudford - having initially been shown the handpiece by his dad, also a shearer - Cochrane never dreamed of a win in the sport let alone at the Golden Shears.
Not even when he was second to finish and was second on time and shearing board quality points while awaiting the judging decisions from the finished product in the pens to determine the final outcome.
He hopes the win will inspire other young Australians into shearing, particularly those of the Aboriginal community at home, where he has three sisters.
Cooper said for Cochrane to have qualified for the final was a mjor achievement on what was a venture designed to give young hopefuls the experience, and be the trailblazers for their contemporaries.
“To win was the cherry on the top,” he said.
Result:
Golden Shears Junior shearing final: Tyron Cochrane (Goodooga NSW) 7min 16.889sec, 27.044pts, 1; Jake Goldsbury (Waitotara) 6min 30.912sec, 29.746pts, 2; Cody Waihape (Gore) 8min 46.864sec, 31.543pts, 3; Emma Martin (Gore) 9min 10.982sec, 32.749pts, 4; Dan Rogers (Raetihi) 8min 39.114sec, 32.756pts, 5; Ryka Swan (Wairoa) 7min 43.711sec, 33.586pts, 6.
Tyron Cochrane, 18, from Goodooga, northwest New South Wales, shearing to his history-making Golden Shears Junior in win in Masterton today(Friday).
The moment of realisation for Tyron Cochrane (second from right) at the announcement of his history-making win in the Golden Shears International Shearing Championships Junior shearing final in Masterton today(March 3).
A Goldies ribbon a a nurse's day off
It can be said that Eleri Bradley’s family are into the shearing sports hard-core. Twin brother Tegwyn won the Golden Shears Intermediate and Senior shearing titles, sister Laura is in the books as Novice woolhandling champion in 2020, and mum Helen is there too, as Junior woolhandling champion in 1995.
But at 28 years old, and now also the Shears’ Novice woolhanding champion, Eleri Bradley does it as a hobby, something to give her a break from her job as a registered nurse, in theatre, at Palmerston North Hospital.
After struggling to convince workmates it’s a sport before she told them she was taking the day off on Thursday, she won the final and, if she chooses, might on her return on Friday flail the Goldies ribbon as proof – a Goldies ribbon the dream of the 370-plus at the three-day championships.
From the family farm at Papatawa, between Woodville and Dannevirke, she says workmates wondered what she meant, and when she showed some on von-line clips from competitions, one said: “That looks quite easy.”
But it wasn’t, with the pressure on all the way from the opening day’s 7.45am start, Bradley finished second among the 22 in the heats, and after the semi-finals was top qualifier among the four hopefuls chasing the win on a buzz-filled opening day in Masterton’s War Memorial Stadium as the Golden Shears returned after two years of cancellations amid the restrictions of the global pandemic.
But for her nursing studies it might never have happened, for she says she only did any regular woolhandling in summer to pay her way “through Uni”.
In 2020 she entered a competition for the first time, just for “the fun of it” and the chance to be with the family at the Shears in 2020.
Then came Covid-19, and it wasn’t until four weeks ago that she returned to the competition table at the Dannevirke A and P Show, where she thought she “might as well” as she was already there helping out.
A Golden Shears dream sprang suddenly into focus when she won the Apiti Sports Novice final last Saturday, and decided: “I’ve got to enter the Goldies.”
King Country wool handlers Crystal Newton and Bryndyll Pinkham were second and third respectively, and fourth was Ana Mason, of Masterton.
It was also all about family as 14-year-old Maaka Nikora won the Novice shearing final, with uncles and cousins appearing from all corners and after he thrust his arm triumphantly in the air and gave a short speech with all the eloquence of someone who’d been doing it for years.
He was in only the first week of it, having first won at his home Taumarunui Shears last Friday, but wellwishers were soon reminding him of the Golden Shears triumph of “uncles” Rangi Nikora, who won the 1994 Intermediate title, and Robert Nikora, the Junior champion two years later.
His father’s shearing in Australia, but there’s some handy tutorship around Taumarunui to help guide a new prodigy, who first shore in a competition two years ago and who a week after his birthday in January shore 200 lambs for the first time.
He’s enjoying the “school of shearing” right now, and says “it’s in my blood”, but says he wants “to go back to school”, although the handpiece is still sharpened and at the ready for such events as the New Zealand Shears in Te Kuiti on March 30-April 1.
In Masterton he did it the hard way, the last of 12 semi-final qualifiers from 51 who shore in the heats, and then fifth of the six-making it into the final to shear two sheep each.
Central Hawke’s Bay farm training institution Smedley claimed bragging rights among the farmers of the future by winning the first title decided at the Golden Shears this year.
Second-year cadets Scott O’Connor, 19, from Tinui, and Benazzi Ward, 18, from Pirinoa, won the six-team MKM Student Shearing Challenge, claiming the Tikokino operation’s first win in the event and the first title to be decided at this year’s championships.
Pukemiro, a training farm just east of Dannevirke and which won the first two Student challenges at Golden Shears in 2019 and 2020, was runner-up, with its pairing of Zach Hall and Renee Garrett.
Acclaimed co-educational college Feilding High School, the former campus of such All Blacks as Aaron Smith and Sam Whitelock but also a campus with a shearing competition dating back over 30 years, was third, followed in order by Napier Boys High School, Palmerston North Boys High School, and Growing Future Farmers.
O’Connor and Ward also qualified for the Golden Shears Novice semi-finals but missed out on the top six for the final.
Registered nurse Eleri Bradley and her prized red Goldies ribbon after winning the 2023 Golden Shears Novice Woolhandling Championship in Masterton, the moment shared with Golden Shears stadium compere Tuma Mullins, both from the Dannevirke area. Photo /Pete Nikolaison, Golden Shears Media Group
Student Challenge
Central Hawke’s Bay farm training institution Smedley has claimed bragging rights among the farmers of the future by winning the first title decided at the 61st Golden Shears in Masterton today.
Second-year cadets Scott O’Connor, 19, from Tinui, and Benazzi Ward, 18, from Pirinoa, won the six-team MKM Student Shearing Challenge, claiming the Tikokino operation’s first win in the event.
Pukemiro, which won the first two Student challenges at Golden Shears in 2019 and 2020, was runner-up, with its pairing of Zach Hall and Renee Garrett.
Acclaimed co-educational college Feilding High School, where a campus shearing competition dates back over 30 years, was third, followed in order by Napier Boys High School, Palmerston North Boys High School, and Growing Future Farmers.
There was further good news for the winning shearers, O’Connor ad Ward each making it safely through the Golden Shears Novice heats to qualify for the semi-finals.
It was also a fillip for Smedley, which recently lost a woolshed on one of its blocks to fire.
RESULT:
Student Shearing Challenge (2 sheep): Smedley (Scott O’Connor/Benazzi Ward) 3min 56.319pts, 1; Pukemiro (Zach Hall/Renee Garrett) 7min 26.627sec, 30.831pts, 2; Feilding High School (Camden Bolton-Smith/George Peacock) 6min 39.103sec, 32.955pts, 3; Napier BHS (James Robinson/Max Free) 5min 17.349sec, 33.367pts, 4; Palmerston North Boys High School) 6min 11.211sec, 35.561pts, 5; Growing Future Farmers (George Parke/Ella McMillan) 5min 47.145pts, 6.
Shore to rise - 10-year-old shearer Wairua Edmonds
A 10-year-old shearer added another layer to the multi-generational whanau involvement in the wool industry when he shore in the Novice Heats as the 2023 Golden Shears hot under way in Masterrton.
Among the 51 Novice shearers, and among more than 370 competitors at the three-day, annual shearing sports fest Wairua Edmonds, of Masterton, in competition for the first time, and the fourth generation of the family spanning almost all 61 years of the competition since it was first held in 1961.
His dad, Levi, shore at the Golden Shears, so did koro Dave, and great-grandfather Milton Edmonds.
Dave Edmonds highlighted the big-step up recalling how he made his one-and-only competition appearance, at the Golden Shears, in 1977.
“I was too shy,” he recalled of that big day. “I was too frightened.”
He almost made the top 12 for the Senior semi-finals, and believes he would have had he not got the initial stage-fright, but despite the potential he never shore in competition again, although 46 years later and at the age of 68, he is still shearing regularly in the woolshed.
Despite his own trepidation back in the day, it was he who gave young Masterton Primary School pupil Wairua the push to have a go on shearing’s biggest stage.
It was a promising start, for, while missing out on a place in the top 12 for semi-finals later in the day and being placed 43rd overall, he was among the 20 who each shore their single sheep in under three minutes.
“It was good,” he said, apparently much less flustered than preceding generations.
After all, he’s got he’s got a bit of experience. He first shores a full lamb about five years ago.
