The ultimate rousie hits a century

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.

The two each lived up to the tag of hot favourites for thy successful defences of the Open woolhandling and shearing titles, but Henare just went one step better, scoring his 100thOpen-class woolhandling win, at the age of just 26.

It was an emotional Henare who stood as he was saluted with the powerful Ngati Kahungunu haka Tika Tonu and presented with a commemorative cake, by mum Greta Davoren and fellow woolhandlers Candy Hiri and Nicole Petuha.

It was with similar emotion he paid tribute to some of the tutors he had in his younger days where he grew up around the woolsheds of Otago – including late former Golden Shears Open champions Joanne Kumeroa and Gina Nathan.

The victory was his sixth Golden Shears Open title, a record sequence and equalling Kumeroa’s record for the most Golden Shears Open woolhandling titles.

Henare, from Gisborne and mainly of Ngati Porou heritage, said he plans to defend his New Zealand championships title in Te Kuiti next month, and follow other top shows next year in the hope of defending his Wotld title in France in July 2019.

He has however taken a job in a Motueka fish processing plant, and is no longer working fulltime in the wool industry.

Despite the shadowing of the moment, the 31-year-old Smith, who lives at Maraekakaho, near Hastings, was hardly any less impressive, becoming the third most successful shearer in Golden Shears Open final history, with five wins in six years, behind only Sir David Fagan’s 16 and Snow Quinn’s six.

Astoundingly it was his 36th consecutive win in Open-class finals in New Zealand, during which the only blemish was being eliminated from one competition in a semi-final.

He was put under pressure by Pongaroa farmer David Buick in tonight’s 20-sheep final, Wairarapa’s biggest hope of a first Golden Shears Open title for the host region looking a distinct possibility as the pair finished the race slmost together. Buick was first to the button in 16min 29.618sec, and had the better points in the judging on the shearing board.

It was left to the judging in the pens, many surprised Smith had ultimately won by more than two points.

Reigning World champion John Kirkpatrick, of Napier, unloaded another “burden” when he won the PGG Wrightson Wool National Circuit final for a second time, meaning he and Smith will again be in the New Zealand team for next season’s transtasman test series.

With teammate Nathan Stratford, of Invercargill, they were however heavily beaten by Australians Shannon Warnest, Daniel McIntyre and Jason Wingfield in a test match tonight, although Kiwi woolhandlers Henare and Maryanne Baty balanced the international ledger with awin over their counterparts, Melanie Morris and Sophie Huf.

More than 20 titles were decided during the three-day championships which attracted almost 400 competitors.

World woolhandling champion Joel Henare celerbfrates his 100th open-class win by claiming a sixth consecutive Golden Shears Open woolhadling title.
PHOTO/Pete Nikolaison Golden Shears Media Group

All square in sports shears test

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.

The test was won comfortably by the Australian team of veteran Shannon Warnest, reigning Australian champion Daniel McIntyre, and seasoned international Jason Wingfield.

It was Australia’s 33rd win in 63 tests since the annual home-and-away transtasman ser ies’ started in 1974, and provided some payback for New Zealand’s win in a woolhandling test the previous night, in the latest battle between the New Zealand World champion pairing of Joel Henare and Maryanne Baty and 2017 World championships combatants Mel Morris and Sophie Huf.

Australia effectively had the shearing test won by the halfway stage, both Wingfield and Warnest being more than two sheep clear of the best of the New Zealanders as the Kiwis changed onto the crossbreds, after a tough battle through six merinos each.

It extended the amazing record of South Australian shearing legend Shannon Warnest who has shorn in 31 of of the tests, the last 29 in a row. He was the best individual in a transtasman shearing test for at least the 15th time.

The woolhandling test was held on Friday night but an announcement of the result was unable to be made because of the collapse of veterans event competitor and former Golden Shears Open woollhandling champion Mi Nooroa on the stage, bringing an early end to the night’s programme.

Australian shearing legend Shannon Warnest leads his country to another shearing test victory over New Zealand at the Golden Shears in Masterton NZ.
PHOTO/Pete Nikolaison, Golden Shears Media Group

No problems this time as Maguire Ratima nails Intermediate title

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

The win came 12 months after he was named the winner of the 2017 final, and had been presented the prizes and given a victory speech, before being summoned to an official-looking room to be told there’d been a points fault and he had actually been the runner-up.

He recalled today the reversal “pulled me down” – the prizegiving having been watched by thousands of people via live-streaming, including excited family and friends at home, and in Masterton where also has relatives.

As a consequence, he skipped the New Zealand championships in Te Kuiti four weeks later, but with four wins already behind him in one season in the Intermediate grade has bounced back with another six in his second, including at Taumarunui and Pahiatua a week ago.

Tut today he left no doubts about where it was really at as he won by more than five-and-a-half points, a particularly big Golden Shears finals margin achieved despite the fact he was just fourth to finish the six-man final of eight sheep each.

The 21-year-old already has an established record for quality whis enabled him to comfortably overcome the time-points advantage he conceded to quicker finishers Daniel Seed, of Woodville, Welsh shearer Gwydion Davies, and Madison Bright, of Takapau, spanning almost 40 seconds from Seed’s first-man-off 11min 24.133sec.

Despite the ultimate margin, he wasn’t confident when he finished, saying he though he would get “hit” hard in the pen judging.

“I don’t really know what to say,” he would tell the crowd in victory speech second-time-around.

Employed in the South Island by contractor Brry Pullin and in the north by Mark Barrowcliffe in the King Country, Maguire Ratima comes from a shearing family, his brother being a prominent Senior grade shearer. He expects to be back in the King Country for the New Zealand championships next month, before stepping-up to Senior-class for next season.

Result:

Brandon Mguire-Ratima

Top lineups in tonight’s Golden Shears finals

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.

The winner of every final he has contested in New Zealand in the last 13 months, Smith was just pipped for top qualifying spot from this aftenoon’s semi-finals.

Heading the six finalists, all of whom have been there before, was Pongaroa farmer David Buick, by just 0.063 points.

The margin means little going into the 20-sheep showdown starting just before 9 o’clock, apart from being a confidence booster for Buick and red-rag-to-a-bull for Smith.

The six finalists in order of qualifying are David Buick, of Pongaroa, Rowland Smith, of Hastings, Gavin Mutch, of Whangamomona, Nathan Stratford, of Invercargill, John Kirkpatrick, of Napier, and Murray Henderson, of Halcombe.

Joel Henare, from Gisborne, is on target for a sixth consecutive Golden Shears Open woolhandling title, with about as tough a lineup ever seen in the final. The four qualifiers are Joel Henare, South Island hopeful Pagan Karauria, of Alexandra, Sheree Alabaster, of Taihape, and Maryanne Baty, of Gisborne.

Surprise entrant, surprise winner

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.

The winner of the over-60s event was 60-year-old Bo Paku Clark, of Masterton, who had had only minimal experience as a competitor but who has been a volunteer resident stadium woolhandler at the Golden Shears for 36 years, including Golden Shears Open championships finals won by such multiple champions as David Fagan, Colin King, John Kirkpatrick and Rowland Smith.

Aunt Hinerau Mason was a resident woolhandler from the start of the Golden Shears in 1961, and Paku Clark says: “She ordered us to all go to work in the woolsheds.”

With only a handful of competitions of her own, in a career that has taken her to the UK, Norway and North America, along with years now as a woolhandling judge, she still needed prodding to have a go on shearing’s most famous stage.

She was “pushed” again, by fellow judge Morri Gibbs, to enter the veterans event only hours before the heats on Thursday.

“She came up to us and said I was entered into the veterans,” said the eventual event winner.

The final on Friday night was to be a traumatic time,Paku Clark just finishing as she saw the collapse of just-finished fellow finalist and former Golden Shears Open woolhandling champion Mii Nooroa, also of Masterton.

“He was sitting watching me finish,” she said. “He dropped right in front of me.”

As Nooroa lay yesterday in Wellington Hospital he was named t hird placegetter.

The Veterans shearing event was won by 62-year-old Russell Knight, of Apiti, clasping his first red ribbon, 38 years after he was runner-up in the Golden Shears Senior final.

Among those in the Veterans final was Hugh McCarroll MNZM, who at the age of 78 shore with the Lister handpiece he received as winner of the Golden Shears Intermediate shearing championship in 1967.

Veteran winners

Happy travellers make it to multi-wool shears final

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.

The event is one of the two major Open shearing titles, the winner of the circuit and the winner of the Golden Shears Open championship becoming the New Zealand team for the 2018-2019 transtasman series.

The two are Ethan Pankhurst, of Masterton but based in Mortlake Vic, and Stacey Te Huia, originally from Marton and Te Kuiti but based in Forbes NSW.

Each travelled from Australia to compete in the qualifying rounds of five shows with five different types of wool since the start of the season in October, Pankhurst qualifying for this morning’s 12-man semi-finals in fourth place, and Te Huia in 12th place despite having to miss the last round at Pahiatua last week to be with his father who had taken ill.

Today, Pankhurst stepped-up even further to qualify in second place for the final, beaten only by 2014 winner and multiple New Zealand representative Nathan Stratford, and ahead of 2013 winner John Kirkpatrick, while Te Huia also stepped up and made it at No 5 in the surviving six.

Qualifiers for the final of 15 sheep and the five varying wool types, starting about 7pm, are: Nathan Stratford, Ethan Pankhurst, John Kirkpatrick, Colin O’Neill, Stacey Te Huia, Grant Smith.  

Ethan Pankhurst shearing today in the PGG Wrightson Wool National Circuit semi-finals.
PHOTO/Peter Nikolaison Golden Shears Media Group

Former woolhandling champion collapses at Golden Shears

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.

Mii Nooroa, also known as “Mic” and aged about 61, grew up in Masterton and and has been a competitor almost from the time woolhandling competition was formally added to the programme in 1985.

He won the Junior woolhandling title in 1988, and in the Open championship was fourth the following year and third in 1991, before becoming Golden Shears Open Woolhandling champion in 1992.

In that 1992 final the runner-up was eventual multiple World and Golden Shears champion Joanne Kumeroa.

Veterans events have been held occasionally at Golden Shears to meet demand from former competitors and also people still working in the industry, with many around the country known to be regularly shearing or woolhandling till well over the age of 70.

Nooroa had finished competing in the final of this year’s veterans woolhandling event, for competitors aged over 60 years, when he collapsed on the stage.

One of more than 20 events to be decided during the three-day championships, which have attracted almost 400 shearers, woolhandlers and woolpressers, it was the last scheduled on the second night.

The programme coming to an abrupt end as an on-site medic and others, including a trained nurse, worked frantically on veteran. A defibrillator was also on-hand in the Masterton War Memorial Stadium, where the Golden Shears have been held every March since the event was established in 1961.

The final prizegiving of the night, including that for a transtasman woolhandling test match, was held over till today as a consequence of the emergency.

Golden Shears president Phil Morrison, who has known Nooroa for most of the 30-plus years of the woolhandler’s involvement, said everyone was hoping for a speedy and full recovery. “We are thinking of Mii and the family and friends, and wishing them all the best.”

“The whole shearing industry and sport, around the World, is one big family,” he said. “Obviously everyone is feeling for the wellbeing of Mii Nooroa.”

Mii Nooroa

Smith closing in repeat Golden Shears win

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.

But it was yet another close call iun the Top 30 quarterfinal shootout in front of a crowd of 800 tonight, with a margin of less than two-tenths of a point from second-to top qualifier Gavin Mutch in a now clearly identified quartet of top hopes, including three winners of both the Golden Shears Open final and the World Championship.

Smith, four times the winner and World champion in 2014, was followed in order by 2015 champion, 2012 World title winner and Scots international Mutch, of Whangamomona, Pongaroa farmer David Buick effectively the odd-man-out in third place, followed by reigning World champion and four-times Golden Shears Open winner John Kirkpatrick, of Napier.

Uniquely, just six of last year’s top 12 made the cut, and it could have been just five had it not been for the four-thousandths of a points between last-man-in and 2017 first-time semi-finalist Ant Frew, of Pleasant Point, and next-man-in Ethan Pankhurst, of Masterton.

The top six in the semi-finals will contest shearing’s most famous 20 minutes tomorrow night, starting just before 9pm. 

The qualifiers for the Golden Shears Open shearing semi-finals on Saturday afternoon (in qualifying order): Rowland Smith, Gavin Mutch, David Buick, John Kirkpatrick, Mark Grainger, Tama Niania, Sam Welch, Murray Henderson, Nathan Stratford, Jimmy Samuels, Caisey Bailey, Ant Frew.

On target Goodger upholds family tradition at Golden Shears

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 woolpressing title in front of his home Wairarapa crowd in Masterton’s War Memorial Stadium tonight.

Goodger, having turned to dairy farming for a more stable lifestyle and steadier income with the arrival of children Kya, 3, and Karson Warwick, 2, had stopped working fulltime in the woolsheds three years agao, and he hadn’t pressed a bale since the Golden Shears last year.

But the 27-year-old still managed to press the perfect bale to the pre-set standard of 170kg, which, with also the best time and pressing points, helped him hammer home the advantage over shearer, woolhandler and first-time men’s woolpressing finalist Ricci Stevens to win by the comfortable margin of 18.35pts.

It was the first time he’d pressed to the target in a final.

Goodger, brother of 13-times title winner Jeremy Goodger who was eliminated in the semi-finals, said he keeps competing in the event because “it’s a family tradition.”

“I just save it for the Golden Shears, and rely on the knowledge on the day,” he said.

The women’s woolpressing title went to Cushla Abraham, of Masterton, making her the first person to win individual Golden Shears titles in shearing and pressing, and in the even more unique position of having also been an Open-class woolhandling winner else where on the Shearing Sports New Zealand circuit.

The pairs woolpressing title went to Jimmy Samuels and Jono Hicks, of Marton, capping a good day for Samuels who also qualified for the Golden Shears Open shearing semi-finals for the first time.

Jeremy Goodger was not to be left without for his efforts, winning the Golden Shears Triathlon, based on heats points by 13 people who had competed in shearing, woolhandling and wool pressing during the championships.

Vinnie Goodger, of Masterton, keeps up the familt tradition by winning the Golden Shears men’s woolpressing title.
PHOTO/Pete Nikolaison, Golden Shears Media Group

Triumph and despair on Day 2 at the Golden Shears

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.

The Te Kuiti mum, four-times the No 1 ranked Open-class woolhandler in New Zealand despite having never won the Golden Shears or New Zealand Championships Open title, was just 27th of the 36 in today’s heats, missing a place in the top 16 for the Saturday morning quarterfinals.

Unsurprisingly, the qualifiers were headed by favourite Joel Henare, going for a sixth consecutive win in the event, and a 100th Open-class victory.

Likewise, shearing phenomenon Rowland Smith, of Hastings, headed the qualifiers for the Open shearing quarterfinals being held tonight, after which the top 12 would be named for the Saturday afternoon semi-finals, leading to the naming of the six for tnhe Shears’ glamour final tomorrow night. Other than the order of qualifying, Smith, Pongaroa farmer David Buick, current World champion John Kirkpatrick, of Napier, and former World and Golden Shears champion and Scots international Gavin Mutch, of Whanamomona, were a predictable top four.

Henare and Smith were tonight still the hottest favourites in TAB shearing sports betting history.

Of more than 20 events being decided in the three-day champioonships, which have attracted over 300 competitors, 13 will be decided on the last day.

A transtasman woolhandling test is on the programme tonight, and a shearing test match tomorrow night.

MP: I’m not giving up the Golden Shears

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.

Back in Masterton’s War Memorial Stadium, where he became MC five years ago, after a two-year “apprenticeship” with predecessor and the now-late Craig Cooper, Mr McAnulty said that like many in Masterton, his association with the “Shears” goes back to school days, as a pupil at St Patrick’s School on a school visit being shown the sheep and the shearing.

School groups have been regular school day visitors to the Masterton War Memorial Stadium  ever since the Golden Shears were first held in 1961, in a stadium that was really designed for more regular indoor sports such as basketball.

Sitting in the stadium with Golden Shears life member and former longtime timekeeper Bruce Arcus, Mr McAnulty said that while the event had interested him ever since those schooldays, it was after he came home from the big OE in Ireland he appreciated its real significance, and he’d been a regular at the Shears ever since.

Trained in accountancy, it was when he began working for the TAB that he got to take that interest to another level, running the fixed-odds shearing betting, which had been a unique feature of the TAB programme for more than a decade.

Living in Masterton and commuting to Wellington he soon found himself embroiled almost irreversibly in the Golden Shears structure, firstly as a committee member, and then as the man at the microphone heading-up the more than 20 prizegiving ceremonies at each year’s event.

It’s a voluntary and unpaid role, and always will be, he said.

“It’s almost all voluntary,” he said. “The thing about the Golden Shears is that it wouldn’t be the event it is without its volunteers.”

“It has been a tremendous honour,” he said. “To be in a position where I’m presenting the awards, when it could be the highlight of a shearer or woolhandler’s life…It really is a privilege.”

Mr McAnulty, who was unable to be in Masterton for the opening day of the 58th Golden Shears on Monday, because of events in “the House” over the hill in Wellington, says Mr Arcus is a tyical example of the many who have volunteer service to the Golden Shears stretching many decades.

Mr Arcus, now in the mid-80s, was a farmer when the first Shears were held, and when he came into town to support his shearers.

One look was enough to convince him, and he said: “I thought: I’ll be back”

So he has been, another 55 times, missing just twice, both times because he was in hospital.

Made a life member in 1985 and now retired in Masterton, he was at the Shears again yesterday from the start.

One long-time vice president, Selwyn Tomlin, stops to say hello, and say: “Why weren’t you home when I rang you this morning?”

“I was here,” replies Mr Arcus. “Where the hell else would I be?

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VOLUNTEERS: The Golden Shears voluntary MC, new Member of Parliament Keiran McAnulty(right), and one of the event’s longest servants, Bruce Arcus. PHOTO/Pete Nikolaison, Golden Shears Media Group

“Gizzie hard” it is as prize goes east again

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

The big win came when 23-year-old Heaven Kemp – “Gizzie hard” as she put it - won her first-ever competition, the Golden Shears Novice woolhandling championship.

The event was won last year by Aromia Ngarangione, of Gisborne, while the inaugural Novice woolhandling final in 2013 was won by another coaster, Tameka Hema. 

“She’s cool, we stay in the same house, she lent me her blade,” said the excited Kemp, proudly wearing the red ribbon of triumph and saying: “This is a shock. I never expected this.”

It was boss Tuhi Hyde who pushed her into it. She reckoned she only came for the social revelry, but she was more than happy to accept the first prize of $150 to fund that pursuit, after all-but disappearing from the race early in the day when just making it into the semi-finals in eighth place.

Earlier, rookie shearers Jacob Maxwell, of Whakatane, and Kristy Roa, of Hamilton, won the inaugural farm students challenge for their campus of Waipaoa Station, north of Gisborne.

Woolhandling runner-up Tracie Baxter, of Pongaroa, made a valiant attempt to match the effort of son Mark Baxter who won last yesr’s Novice shearing final, but then saw second son Andrew win this year’s final.

Shepherding on a farm at Alferdton, between Masterton and Pongaroa, the 21-year-old Andrew Baxter, said that while he’d shorn no more than a few “stragglers” he had on the back of his brother’s success 12 months ago come to Masterton with a plan, and “got the result.”

But it wasn’t clear that it had been the plan that had worked, saying that after he lost a few points on the first of the two sheep he had to speed-up on the second to make-up the difference and said: “I didn’t really know what to think when I came off.”

It wasn’t the only triumph for what has become known as Team Pongaroa, with Mark Baxter’s wife, Samantha, also shearing the Novice final, her brother, Leam, making it to Friday’s Junior shearing semi-finals, and sister Summer qualifying for Saturday’s Junior woolhandling semi-finals.

Andrew Baxter, of Pongaroa, makes it two in a row for the family in winning the Golden Shears Novice shearing final, which was won by his brother last year.
PHOTO/Golden Shears Media Group.

Heaven Kemp, of Gisborne, on her way to her “shock” win in the Novice woolhandling final on the opening day of the 58thGolden Shears in Masterton today.
PHOTO/Pete Nikolaison, Golden Shears Media Group.

Winning at Golden Shears – Just learning

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.

Jacob Maxwell, 18, from a farm near Whakatane, and Kristy Roa, 19, not off a farm but from Hamilton, won the inaugural Golden Shears Life Members Student Shearing Challenge, pitting the newfound skills of cadets from three North Island farm training institutions.

All 10 cadets from the station had competed in Novice or Junior events, said manager Denver Palmer. Roa competed in both shearing and woolhandling.

It wasn’t the first win for Waipaoa at the Golden Shears, the Novice shearing fonal in 2013 having been one by cadet James Alford.

The experience of today’s winners may have been slim – Roa said shed’d barely known a ram from a ewe – but they did have a significant trainer in 2006 Golden Shears and national circuit winner and former World lambshearing record holder Dion King, brought in by specialist instructor Bill Hale, of Napier, who has run the station’s shearing courses for the 11 years since the cadet training programme has been running.

Shearers shore one sheep each in today’s final, in which second place went to Wairarapa institution Taratahi, which has a sheep-handling history with Golden Shears dating back to the beginning of the championships in 1961, and third place went to cadets from Smedley Station in Central Hawke’s Bay.

Maxwell reckoned he didn’t want to go into the event, but when Roa decided she was in he had little choice.

Making the presentation were two Golden Shears life members Ian Stewart, winner of the first UK Golden Shears Open title more than 50 years ago, and Greg Herrick, a former Golden Shears Open shearing finalist who became president of the Golden Shears society and chairman of the Golden Shears World Council.

Farm cadets Jacob Maxwell and Kristy Roa celebrate their win in the first Golden Shears Life Members Student Shearing Challenge. PHOTO/Pete Nikolaison, Golden Shears Media Group

Shearing to make family proud

Making the semi-finals of the Golden Shears Novice shearing event is a bonus for Masterton hopeful Cheyenne Walker. She’s shearing just to make the family proud.

And on the opening day of the 58th championships today in Masterton’s War Memorial Stadium there was even greater pride as she shore on Stand 5 in the first heat.

As it happened, her stadium woolhandler was nan Rewa Walker, a veteran of over 30 years at the Golden Shears and returning after a brek to fight an apparently successful battle against cancer.

The 21-year-old Cheyenne – born and bred in Masterton and an ex-pupil of Wairarapa College - says she’s “the last of the line” of the whanau and wants to keeping up the family tradition by learning to shear.

“I’m the last of the Walkers,” she said. “I’m trying to carry it on.”

“Grand-dad passed away in 2014, so I thought I’ve got learn to shear.”

She entered the Golden Shears in 2016 in his honour and was runner-up in the Novice woolhandling.

Now she’s shearing at the 2018 championships as a tribute to her Nan and her battle to overcome her illness.

She she has taken the backstop approach of getting a career qualification behind her. On February 16, she qualified from a 36-week course with Wellington enterprise Cut Above Academy, as a barber.

Her great-grand parents worked in the shearing industry and her Nan and late grand-dad Hoani (Wonnie) Walker were shearing contractors in Wairarapa for more than 20 years, but Cheyenne’s two older brothers both chose to go into the logging industry.

She’s worked “on-and-off” in the woolsheds over the last six years, mainly for Waurarapa contractors Shear Expertise, but also spent a season working out of Cromwell in the South Island.

Asked before her appearance in the semi-final today what her ambition would be, she said: “Just to make my Nan proud.”

“I am that,” said her Nan. “I am very proud. Out of all my family she’s the only one that’s entered.”

Her only advice to the mokopuna going into the semi-final was to mind those second-cuts. “If you have to leave them on,” she said, “do. They can be pretty costly.”

The semi-finals and final are to be held this afternoon.

Cheyenne Walker, of Masterton, achieves an ambition to shear at the Golden Shears, with nan Rewa Walker as her woolhandler.
PHOTO/PETE NIKOLAISON Golden Shears Media Group.

Golden Shears attract about 300 competitors

About 300 shearers, woolhandlers and wool pressers are starting to gather in Masterton for the 58th Golden Shears which start today (Thursday) and end on Saturday.

By today, 281 people had entered, some in several of the events that will be decided over the three days in the Masterton War Memorial Stadium, where the championships have been held every year since the event was established in 1961.

While the glamour event, as it has been since the first “Shears”, is the Godlen Shears Open Shearing Championship, to be decided in a six-man final over 20 second-shear sheep each on Saturday night, there are more than 20 events.

They include Golden Shears titles in Open, Senior, Intermediate, Junior and Novice shearing, Open, Senior, Junior and Novice woolhandling, and Men’s, Women’s and Pairs titles in wool pressing.

The other major events are the PGG Wrightson Wool National Shearing Circuit final, effectively a national multi-wools championship for Open-class shearers and incorporating the McSkimming Memorial Trophy which was first presented in 1973, and transtasman Shearing and Woolhandling internationals, with origins back to the start of annual home and away shearing tests in 1974.

Other events include the Golden Shears Maori-Pakeha teams shearing event, the national Open shearing and teams shearing and woolhandling events, and the North Island Circuit Open woolhandling final, while those entered in all three disciplines of shearing, woolhandling and woolpressing have the chance of winning the Golden Shears Triathlon title, based on their points in the heats of each event.

Also at stake are the long-standing YFC national Open shearing and teams shearing and woolhandling titles, and Golden Shears Open and Senior speed shearing titles.

With veterans shearing and woolhandling events added to the programme, for competitors aged over 60 years, the age of competitors is expected to range from that of 14-yerar-old Junior shearing title hopeful Reuben Alabaster, of Taihape, to veterans aged up to about 80 years, including 1967 Golden Shears Intermediate champion Hugh McCarroll MNZM, formerly of Tauranga and now of Whangamata, and fellow Shearing Sports New Zealand life member Robin Kidd, of Taupo.

The warm favourites for the two major Open titles are the defending champions, shearer Rowland Smith, of Maraekakaho, near Hastings, and woolhandler Joel Henare, from Gisborne, but now living with his wife and three children in Motueka, where he he works fulltime in a Talleys fish shed.

Smith has not been beaten in a final in New Zealand since January last year, while Henare is going for his sixth consecutive Golden Shears Open woolhandling title, and during the week his 100th Open-class woolhandling title.

Apart from the wool pressing, there are no gender-based events, with male and female competiting equally across the grades. Female shearers are in serious contention for finals places at least from Novice to Senior grades.

The more prominent include Woodville shearer Laura Bradley, who was Shearing Sports New Zealand’s No 1 ranked Intermediate shearer in the 2016-2017 season and who now finds herself vying with prolific-winning brother Tegwyn Bradley for Senior shearing honours.

More than 25 women made finals in the Shearing Sports New Zealand calendar of about 60 shows last season, and among those whoi have made finals this season are Intermediate competitors Emily Te Kapa, of Scotland, and Anne-Lise Humstad, of Norway.

There is particularly strong competition from overseas shearers in the Intermediate grade, including  Jeremy Leygonie gunning for France’s first title at the Golden Shears, ahead of France’s hosting of the next Wortld Championships in Le Dorat in July 2019. Competitor from at least nine countries will be taking part.

All events are judged on aspects of time and quality, aimed to mirror the aim for efficiency, wool quality and animal welfare in the woolshed and help improve those standards.

Shearing competitions have been around New Zealand for at least 150 years, a report of an 1868 blade shearing contest at Waipukurau having recorded it as being the first “inland” competition in the region, and the first machine shearing competition in the World is thought to have been at the Hawke’s Bay A and P Show in 1902, the winner immortalised in the current name of that event, the Great Raihania Shears.

Pre-Shears; Kamura wins woolhandling marathon

Marton woolhandler Logan Kamura has emerged as a distinct chance for the Golden Shears Open woolhandling title after beating a top field in what a former winner described as "a bit of an endurance test" at the Wairarapoa Pre-Shears Woolhandling Championships north of Masterton today.

On the eve of the start of the three-day 58th Golden Shears starting in Masterton's War Memorial Stadium tomorrow (Thursday), Kamura beat three other leading Golden Shears prospects, including hot-favourite and World champion Joel Henare, in a testing final at the pre-shears event at Massey University's Riverside Farm, at Mikimiki,

The most notable early elimination was defending pre-shears champion Sheree Alabaster, of Taihape, winner of successive finals at Taumarunui on Friday and Apiti, on Saturday.

She got to witness rather than partake in a final of 10 fullwool fleeces per competitor, a possible first, and said: "I've never heard of 10 before. It was a bit of an endurance test."

The runner-up was Pagan Karauria, of Alexandra, and Henare, who is sitting on a sequence of five Golden Shears Open titles in a row and a career tally of 99 open-class wins, had to settle for third place. Fourth place went to Keryn Herbert, of Te Kuiti.

It was also an endurance test in the lower grades, with 8 fleeces for the Senior final and 6 for the Junior final, both grades also having their North Island Circuit finals on the same programme.

It was a big day for Dannevirke woolhandler Ash Boyce who won both Senior finals, and in the Junior grade, the pre-shears final was won by Lucky Garrett, of Eketahuna, while the circuit final was won by prolific Junior winner Tyler Hira, of Onewhero.

The circuit's Open final will be held during the Golden Shears, giving the top competitors two major woolhandling titles to tackle on shearing's greatest stage.