Trumphant southern raid on the Golden Shears, but no cigar

The South Island has had possibly its biggest night in the 60 years of the Golden Shears in Masterton with a near cleansweep of major titles on the last of the championships’ four days.

But the south was left still without the big one, as it has done since 1989, with Hawke's Bay gun Rowland Smith claiming Golden Shears Open Shearing Championship for a 7th time by Hawke’s Bay gun Rowland Smith, despite a spirited challenge from 10-times finalist Nathan Stratford and first-time finalist and fellow Invercargill shearer Leon Samuels, who were second and third respectively.

The southern imprint was otherwise everywhere, highlighted by Canterbury-based Southland shearer Troy Pyper’s role in New Zealand’s first transtasman test shearing win in three years, Central Otago-based Gisborne woolhandler Joel Henare’s eighth consecutive Golden Shears Open woolhandling title, and Marlborough gun Angus Moore’s second PGG Wrighson National Shearing Circuit final win, eight years after his first.

Earlier in the day 23-year-old Brandon Maguire Ratima, of Winton, added the Golden Shears Senior shearing title to the Intermediate title he won two years ago, and Amber Poihipi, 29, of Ohai, who voluntarily upgraded from Junior soon after the start of the season in October, won the Senior woolhandling title.

Marlborough shearing contractor Sarah Higgins joined the part by winning the women’s Invitation shearing event.

One of the few northern triumphs on a busy last day was that of Te Kuiti woolhandler Keryn Herbert who won the North Island Open Woolhandling Circuit final, to claim a place in next season’s New Zealand transtasman team with Smith, Moore and Henare, although the team selection depends on availability.

North Canterbury-based Southland shearer Troy Pyper in his leading performance as New Zealand broke a five-match transtasman series losing streak to beat Ausrtralia at the 60th Golden Shears in Masterton tonight.
PHOTO/Pete Nikolaison, Golden Shears.

Rowland Smith and judge Ken McPherson after finishing the 60 Golden Shears Open shearing final and winning the glamour event for a 7th time.
PHOTO/Pete Nikolaison, Golden Shears.

Marlborough shearer wins the PGG Wrighrson National Circuit final at the 60th Golden Shears in Masterton tonight.
PHOTO/Pete Nikolaison, Golden Shears.

Golden Shears Open woolhandling title No 8 coming-up for Central Otago-based Joel Henare, from Gisborne.
PHOTO/Pete Nikolaison.

New “Goldies” champ – This is for my mum

A new Golden Shears champion has dedicated her win today to the memory of her mum, who died in a road tragedy.

Te Anna Phillips, of Taumarunui, said after winning the Junior woolhandling final she had wanted to make mother Sunnie Hughes proud, she was sure she had done, and had she been among the crowd in Masterton’s War Memorial Stadium, she would have been “screaming” the house down.

“My mum was my everything,” she said. “She still is. My inspiration, my hero. All I’ve ever wanted to do was make my mum proud. That’s what brought me to the Goldies.”

Her mum died after a crash in which the car in which she was a passenger hit a pole in Taumarunui on July 24, 2015.

Phillips, now 22, started competing a year or so later, with just her home show in Taumarunui.

She had her first win at Aria last year, but hit the track big-time in the 2019-2020 season with sister Vinniye.

They dominated the competitions in the North Island, Te Anna Phillips winning at Gisborne and Hastings in October and Rotorua, Dannevirke, Marton, Aria and Tamarunui in the last six weeks, to be strongly favoured for a victory in one of three traditional Golden Shears title events on the third morning of the four-day 60th celebration in Masterton.

Vinniye had had three wins but did not reach the Masterton final.

The other triumphs included a Welsh quinella in the Junior shearing final, won by Rhayader teenager Ellis Rees, who turned 19 last Saturday. The runner-up was more-favoured Corwen shearer Sam Jones, who had won six finals during the New Zealand summer, including major titles at Marton, Balclutha and Gore since the start of February.

The Intermediate shearing final was won 21-year-old Cullum Pritchard, of Pongaroa, a globetrotting shearer who had not been a frequent competitor and had not won this season, unlike brother Leam who had four wins but missed a place in the final.

A former star of the Intermediate grade returned to the stadium to win the Over 76 Evergreens final – with shearing titles 53 years apart.

 Hugh McCarroll, of Tauranga, an MNZM recipient for his service to shearing and agriculture, is 80 and had won the Intermediate title in 1967, at the age of 27.

Also in his event was 86-year-old Southland veteran Ian “Snow” Harrison, who was 6th, just as he was in the founding Open championship final in 1961.

All three Evergreens winners have been competition judges and New Zealand team managers, with 66-75yrs Evergreens final won by Peter McCabe, also of Tauranga, and the 55-65years final by current New Zealand transtasman team manager Dave Brooker, of Rangiora.

The Evergreens woolhandling event was won by Rose Puha, of Kimbolton, also a woolhandling competition judge.

Hawke’s Bay’s shear share of the gold at the Goldies

Hawke’s Bay competitors pulled off a cleansweep of all three titles decided on the opening day of the 60th Golden Shears in Masterton yesterday (Wednesday).

Wairoa College pupil Ryka Swann, 14, won the Novice shearing final, and Senior grade shearer Laura Bradley, of Papatawa, between Woodville and Dannevirke, reverted to throwing the fleeces rather than shearing them and won the Novice woolhandling title.

Earlier, in the first final of the championships, farm training cadets Connor McIntyre, from Pongaroa, and Zane Rogers, from Gisborne, retained the Student Shearing Challenge title for Pukemiro Station, just east of Dannevirke.

McIntyre had been in the team when the small training unit won the event for the first time last year.

Swann’s win, in a record Novice field of 68 shearers, was his fourth of the 2019-2020 season, with earlier Novice final wins at the Royal Show’s Great Raihania Shears in Hastings in October, the Central Hawke’s Bay A and P Show in Waipukurau in November, and his home Wairoa show in January.

He was second to finish the two sheep in the six-shearer all-male final, which he shore in 6min 18.352sec. But he had easily the best quality points to beat runner-up Michael Buick, of Pongaroa, by 4.835pts, with fastest finalist McIntyre (5min 26.354sec) missing the quality needed to claim the winning ribbon.

The Wairoa teen’s win also threw-out the challenge to brother Keith and father Paul as they launched their bids today in the Intermediate and Senior heats respectively. Keith Swann was up to the mark in his Thursday morning heats, and qualified comfortably for his grade’s semi-finals.

The titles are among 26 to be decided by the time the championships end with the open shearing final on Saturday night.

Swann is at one end of the vast age range which includes the 86-year-old sole-survivor of the inaugural 1961 Open final, Southlander Ian “Snow” Harrison, who arrived in Masterton late on Wednesday to prepare for his shear today in the Over 76 Evergreens event.

Bradley’s victory was her first as a woolhandler, but she already has an impressive record as a shearer, being No 1-ranked Junior nationally, male or female, in 2014-2015, and repeating the success in the Intermediate grade in 2016-2017.

Earlier this season she shore a personal best daily tally of 451 lambs, running out of sheep about 10 minutes before the end of what was to have been an 8hr day.

Uniquely, two of the four in her woolhandling final were from overseas, with second place going to Robyn Kraus, from Germany, and third to Grace Teate, who had earlier in the season won Novice finals on successive days at Dannevirke and Marton.

Golden Shears Novice shearing finalists await the final points in instant prizegiving after their ig night in Masterton Wednesday, Second from right is eventual winner Ryuka Swann, of Wairoa.
PHOTO/Peter Nikolaison, Golden Shears.

Wairoa College pupil Ryka Swann, 14, with the prized ribbon and acclamation as Golden Shears Novice shearing champion for 2020.
PHOTO/Pete Nikolaison, Golden Shears.

The 2020 Golden Shears Novice woolhandling final lineup from left, Paewai Mullins representative and stadium commentator Tuma Mullins, winner Laura Bradley, runner-up Robyn Kraus, third-placed Grace Teate, and Shontaye Walker, fourth.
PHOTO/Pete Nikolaison

Student Challenge winners Connor McIntyre and Zane Rogers pictured second and third from left after winning the title for Pukemiro Staton at the 60th Golden Shears, of Wednesday.
PHOTO/Pete Nikolaison, Golden Shears.

Champions confirmed as favourites at the TAB

Reigning Golden Shears champions Rowland Smith and Joel Henare have predictably opened as hot favourites to regain their titles at the 60th annual shearing and woolhandling championships in Masterton.

The TAB opened books today on the first of four days of the premier shearing and woolhandling championships, with Hawke’s Bay shearer  Smith soon quoted as possibly the hottest-ever Golden Shears TAB favourite, at just $1.16 to win the Open shearing final on Saturday night.

Equal second favourites Aaron Haynes, David Buick, John Kirkpatrick and Nathan Stratford were each quoted at $8.

Henare, who announced his retirement last year but was soon back in action, was quoted at $1.35 to win his eighth consecutive Golden Shears Open woolhandling title, also on Saturday night.  Second favourites and 2019 World champions Sheree Alabaster and Pagan Karauria were each quoted at $5

Eight-times New Zealand Shears champion and Taihape school teacher Alabaster is striving to win her first Golden Shears title, after reaching the four-handler final seven times since 2005 and being runner-up on four occasions.

The TAB is also offering favourite-versus-the field options on both events, and also Friday night’s transtasman woolhandling test and the shearing match between New Zealand and Australia on Saturday night.

Odds are at  https://www.tab.co.nz/sport/29/shearing/matches  

Southern Hawke’s Bay students claim first Golden Shears title

Southern Hawke’s Bay agricultural training facility Pukemiro Station has retained its claim to top student shearing honours with victory in the first event decided at the 60th Golden Shears in Masterton.

The team of Connor McIntyre and Zane Rogers won the Golden Shears Life Members Student Shearing Challenge, which attracted five teams to the six-stand board  where 26 championships will be decided by the time the Shears finish with its glamour Open shearing final on Satiurday night.

It was a second triumph for McIntyre, who was in the Pukemiro team when it won the first challenge 12 months ago

Pukemiro finished the two-sheep relay 49 seconds after fastest team Smedley Station but got home comfortably with the better quality.

Based just east of Dannevirke, Pukemiro won by more than 5pts from Rathkeale College, based just north of Masterton, while the team from Smedley, near Tikokino in Central Hawke’s Bay, had to settle for third place.

Iona College pupils Rosie Bates and Anna Rasmussen put their school on the map, the Havelock North girls school fielding the challenge’s first all-female team and finished in fifth place.

The student challenge prizegiving lineup with Golden Shears life member Murray Tomlin at left, ext to him winners Connor McIntyre and Zane Rogers.
PHOTO/PETE NIKOLAISON Golden Shears

Abraham scrapes into national circuit semi-finals

Masterton shearer Paerata Abraham has scraped-in with a chance to defend the PGG Wrightson National Circuit title during the 60th Golden Shears which start in Masterton tomorrow (Wednesday).

Abraham won the title, New Zealand transtasman series team selection and a year's free use of an Hyundai Santa Fe in the final on the last night of the 2019 Golden Shears.

But the chance of a repeat looked remote as he sat well off the pace and outside qualifying bracket of 12 heading into Sunday’s second-shear fifth and final preliminary round at the Pahiatua Shears.

After the first four rounds at Alexandra (merino), Waimate (longwool), Christchurch (corriedales) and Marton (lambs), he needed last round top-2 performance among the 25 series entrants, wotth either 12 or 11pts.

But it also needed an off-day for 12th and 13th placed shearers Leon Samuels, of Invercargill, and Ethan Pankhurst, of Masterton, each of whom managed just a single point on the day and were eliminated.

Abraham said he’d done his arithmetic and while the odds looked steep he knew he could do it, if the other tailenders weren’t able to get the necessary points in the last round, which was compulsory for those wanting to make the cut-off.

Paerata is one of four former winners of the multi-wools titles among the 12 for the semi-finals which will be shorn on Saturday morning, with the top six qualifying for the final on Saturday night.

They are 2010 winner Angus Moore, two-times winner John Kirkpatrick (2013 and 2018), and 2014 winner and top qualifier and Invercargill shearer Nathan Stratford. Also among the chosen dozen is Jack Fagan, the son of nine-times circuit winner Sir David Fagan.

There are also two other Wairarapa shearers in David Buick, of Pongaroa, and Hemi Braddick, of Eketahuna.

The circuit is in its 48th year, incorporating the McSkimming Memorial Triple Crown which was introduced to the Golden Shears programme in 1973.

Qualifying points for the PGG Wrightson National Shearing Circuit semi-finals: Nathan Stratford (Invercargill) 49pts, 1; Brett Roberts (Mataura) 38pts, 2; Jack Fagan (Te Kuiti) 32pts, 3; John Kirkpatrick (Pakipaki) 31pts, 4; Ant Frew (Pleasant Point) 30pts, 5; Aaron Haynes (Feilding) 30pts, 6; Troy Pyper (Invercargill/Amberley) 27pts, 7; David Buick (Pongaroa) 26pts, 8; Hemi Braddick (Eketahuna) 25pts, 9; Angus Moore (Ward) 20pts, 10; Paerata Abraham (Masterton) and Ringakaha Paewai (Gore) 18pts, 11 equal.

Paerata Abraham shearing last year's final

The Hyundai Santa Fe driven by Paerata Abraham for the last year since winning the 2019 PGG Wrightson National Circuit final

Young and old of 60th Golden Shears

The 60th Golden Shears in Masterton this week have an age range of three-quarters of a century spanning its oldest and youngest competitors.

Thought to be the oldest will be sole-surviving foundation-year Open shearing finalist Ian “Snow” Harrison, of Invercargill, aged 86 and one of six in the 76-years-plus Evergreens event.

He is pictured at the 50th Golden Shers in 2010.

At the other end of the scale, and from the other end of the country, will be one of the youngest, Novice shearer Hamuera Henderson, just turned 13 and from Kaiwaka, in Northland.

They were among a large entry of close to 480 shearers, woolhandlers and pressers who have entered the four-day championships which started just after midday today and finish on Saturday.

Held in Masterton’s War Memorial Stadium each year since the first Golden Shears in 1961, the championships this year comprise 26 events, with the biggest entries in the Open shearing, the Saturday-night final of which has flagpoled the championships since the inaugural year.

Organisers made a late decision to accept more than the original limit as entries in the glamour event soared past 80 last week, the highest for many years.

Meanwhile, the Novice grade, which was added to the programme in 1998, had a record 69 entries, with the young Henderson up against a vast array of newcomers including four professional vocation women who originally learnt to shear just for a Women in Wool Farmstrong fundraiser at the Royal New Zealand Show in Hastings in October.

Harrison had never been to Masterton before the Golden Shears, which were for many years often referred to as “The Shears” but which now are most-commonly affectionately referred-to as “The Goldies.”

There were packed houses, with hundreds unable to get in on the last night when crowds were patrolled by local territorial force volunteers, many public peering from through the foyer windows to watch the competition on a small screen in what was possibly the first live televised sport event in New Zealand, that era’s version of CCTV .

But from his home in Southland on the eve of his Wednesday flight to Wellington and a train trip through the Remutaka tunnel to Wairarapa, Harrison’s memory of the first Golden Shears’ six decades was not so much about the event as the journey taken to get there.

“A lot of people today wouldn’t believe it,” he said, relating how he and wife Shirley, who died in 2014, drove to Lyttelton and had their car slung, suspended by ropes from a derrick, aboard the inter-island ferry for the overnight trip to Wellington.

By the end of the week he was the only South Island shearer in the first of the now-famous six-man Golden Shears Open finals shorn over 20 sheep each.

Te Puke shearer Ivan Bowen was first to finish, in 26min 54.9sec and claimed the title by 1.38pts from brother and event favourite Godfrey Bowen, who was near the end of his shearing career career at the time and best-known for developing the Bowen-style which became common throughout the shearing World.

Third was Bing McDonald, of Te Mata, followed by Hawke’s Bay shearer Mac Potae, Australian gun Kevin Sarre, and then Harrison, who was last to finish, in 32min 19.2sec.

Shearing gear, sheep and the athletes have changed much over the years, in which the fastest Open-final time was that of 16-times winner and now “Sir” David Fagan in 2003, taking 15min 27.4sec.

Harrison has ventured back to Masterton several times, most notably when he was one of the centres of attraction shearing in the veterans event at the 50th Golden Shears in 2010.

He says if anyone had suggested then he’d be back in 10 years’ time, and shearing, he would have told them they had “lost their marbles.”

He still shears “one or two” every now and then, including this week with long-time shearing mate and fellow Southland over-76er J.J.Crengle.

Late last year they, again, shore a Stewart Island flock on an excursion Crengle has been making annually, usually with Harrison in tow, for 40 years.

It was Crengle who entered Harrison in another Golden Shears, and Harrison said: “I pretty quickly cut him off my Christmas card list.”

Among other over-76ers competing in this week’s veterans shearing will be 80-year-old Tauranga shearing stalwart Hugh McCarroll, who attended in the first year to watch out of intrigue, and who won the Intermediate final in 1967.

He has spent a lifetime in shearing, helping found national body Shearing Sports New Zealand, from the original base of Golden Shears and then Wool Board leadership. In the 2013 Queen’s Birthday Honours he was awarded the MNZM for services to shearing and agriculture, and he continues as secretary of the World Sheep Shearing Records Society.

Acclaimed Dannevirke businesswoman Mavis Mullins, who pushed for the introduction of woolhandling competition in 1985, who then won the Open woolhandling title twice and who at the time of the 2010 celebration was the Golden Shears International Shearing Championships Society’s first female and non-Wairarapa president, has resisted the temptation to compete again.

But she will have a full-on involvement, taking over fronting the global live-streaming formerly headed by husband Koro Mullins, who died suddenly in September.

The glamour Open finals will each have a hot favourite, with Hawke’s Bay shearer Rowland Smith gunning for a 7th Open shearing title, overtaking the six of 1960s and 1970s star Brian “Snow” Quinn, while Joel Henare, from Gisborne, is unable to resist the urge and continues the comeback from the briefest of retirements to seek an 8th consecutive Golden Shears Open woolhandling title.

The Open shearing championships still has a challenge from King Country gun Digger Balme who has been a competitor at more than half the Golden Shears, including third in the 1986 Senior final, and his first Open final for 5th in 1991, from which all five others had been or were to become Golden Shears Open or World champions.

Other individual events include a rare Golden Shears Bladeshearing title, including new World champion Allan Oldfield, of Geraldine, and commemorating a 1961 bladeshearing event won by Ivan Karaitiana, of Woodend, and a Women’s Invitation event, recognising the rapid increases in the number of women in shearing.

Among the other events are two transtasman events, the woolhandling test match on Friday night and the shearing match 24 hours later.

The Golden Shears continues with its extensive family links, including at least six of hometown whanau the Gordons, plus son-and-brother in law Paerata Abraham, who on Sunday scraped into the top 12 for the PGG Wrightson National Circuit semi-finals and the chance to defend the title he won last year.

Ian "Snow" Harrison, of Invercragill, shearing as a veteran at the age of 76 in the 50th Golden Shears in 2010. He's Back in Masterton this week for another shear, aged 86.
PHOTO/Doug Laing, SSNZ

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