Revenge for black shirts in transtasman woolhandling

The New Zealand woolhandling team has regathered some claim to trannstasman supremacy with a narrow win over Australia at the Golden Shears in Masterton.

Beaten by Australa during the Australian national shearing and woolhandling championships in West Australian shearing town Katanning in October, Pagan Rimene, of Alexandra, and Ngaio Hanson, of Eketahuna, were determined to make amends on Friday night and beat Australian pair Alexander Schoff, of Queensland, and Tasmanian national side newcomer Tiffany Collins by 4.48pts in the unique penalties-based system in which the lower score wins.

New Zealand has now won 37 of the 49 tests between the two nations since transtasman woolhandling matches began in 1998.

It was a good day for Rimene, who led the eight qualifiers for Saturday afternoon’s Golden Shears Open woolhandling semifinals, still on track for a crack at winning the most-coveted title for the first time, in the evening.

But warm TAB favourite Joel Henare, from Gisborne, remained also on track, qualifying in second place in pursuit of an 11th consecutive win in the event.

Meanwhile, Leon Samuels, who last year became the first South Island shearer to win the Golden Shears Open shearing title since 1989, is out of the race to defend the crown after being eliminated in Friday night’s Top 30 Quarterfinal Shootout.

Samuels was vying for TAB favouritism with eight-times winner and Hawke’s Bay shearer Rowland Smith, who missed last year’s even because of injury.

Smith reasserted his authority to head the 12 qualifying for the Saturday-afternoon semi-finals, but Samuels had a shear to forget in the last of the five six-man quarterfinal heats, missing the cut by more than two points and finishing in 20th place.

Four-times winner John Kirkpatrick was another to miss the cut, by just 0.117pts behind 12th qualifier Mark Grainger, of Te Kuiti.

Northland shearer Toa Henderson, striving to reach the final for the first time, qualified in second place while 2024 New Zealand Shears Te Kuiti Open champion David Buick, of Pongaroa, qualified in third place among a 12 including five from the South Island.

In other features of the second day, Laura Bradley won the women’s invitation shearing event and was also top qualifier for Saturday’s Senior final, and successful shearer and woolhandler Ricci Stevens,of Napier, ended 20 years of Goodger whanau domination of the men’s woolpressing title by beating 14-times winner Jeremy Goodger, of Masterton, in this year’s final

The New Zealand team of Ngaio Hanson and Pagan Rimere at work on the table in their trannstasman woolhandling test wi over Australia at the Golden Shears in Masterto on Friday night.
Photo / Pete Nikolaison

Former Golden Shears Junior woolhandling champion Ricci Stevens, of Napier, breaks the Goodger whanau domination of Golden Shears men's woolhandling by beating 14-times winner Jeremy Goodger, of Masterton, in 2025 final.
Photo / Pete Nikolaison

Angela Stevens in the Open Woolhandling Top 20 quarterfinals, qualifying in the eight for the semifinnals.
Photo / Pete Nikolaison.

Laura Bradley retaining the Golde Shears Invitation women;s shearing title, onn what she reckoned was her best-ever day at the Golde Shears. She was also top qualifier for Saturday's Senior shearig title. Photo / Pete Nikolaison. 

What is winning and losing between friends?

Most of the published Golden Shears photos are taken by Pete Nikolaison, a former newspaper photographer who grew up in Masterton, now runs a commercial phototographic business and who first photographed the Golden Shears about 50 years, following in the footsteps of his father, who had also photographed the Golden Shears each year.

Every now and then comes up an image that he says is exactly why he loves the Golden Shears – it reflects the camaraderie and the passion that is unique to the industry and the sport. This is one of them – Bruce Grace (left) and Kyle Rhodes during Thursday night’s speedshear, but could you pick who won the head to head between these two.

Big local win in Golden Shears speedshear

The top guns were blasted aside as Masterton shearer Chris Dickson won the Open Speedshear closing the first night of the 2025 Golden Shears in Masterton last night.

With former winners Jack Fagan, of Te Kuiti, and fellow Masterton shearer Paerata Abraham eliminated along the way - with a combined total of well over 100 speedshear wins between them - Dickson shore the first of the crutched and bellied sheep in the final in just 14.726 seconds.

Welsh shearer and regular workmate Llyr Jones did his best to snatch the $800 purse, but fell just short with a time of 14.91s, while Southland shearer Brett Roberts I 16.804s.

Fagan, who won the World’s richest speedshear prize of over $20,000 three weeks ago, was fourth, based on placings in the semi-finals.

It was just the fourth Open-class speedshear win for Dickson the other three having all been in 2023, but they were in strong company at Matiere, Halcombe and the Southern Field Days at Waimumu, near Gore.

But it wasn’t his target for the week, with his mind quickly turning to the Golden Shears Open championship and the Friday afternoon heats where more than 90 shearers six sheep each with the goal of reaching the top 30 for the quarterfinal shootout on Friday night.

Having ended his Senior career with three wins and a New Zealand Shears third placing in 2021, his dream of making the top 30 has been thwarted thus far by two years of Covid cancellations and being absent last year at a wedding.

Meanwhile Gore shearer Brodie Horrell, shearing first off in the Senior speedshear final did all that was needed to protect New Zealand’s honour in the face of challenges from two English shearers when he shore his final sheep in 20.79s just over half a second separated the three, with Jack Hutchinson, from County Durham, shearing 20.611s for second place, while Callum Bosley, from Cornwall, was third with a time of 20.635s.

The championships continued today also with the Senior shearing and Open and Senior woolhandling heats with the transtasman woolhandling test match the feature of the night programme.

Chris Dickson winning the Open Speedshear on the first night of the 2025 Golden Shears in Masterton.
Photo / Pete Nikolaison.

Brodie Horrell gets his sheep away in winning the 2025 Golden Shears Speedshear title in Masterton.
Photo / Pete Nikolaison

Young guns in charge on Goldies opening day

An 18-year-old has waited for a return to the old home town to claim the first individual title of the 63rd Golden Shears – her first win in competition.

Char Taylor, based in Cheviot and learning the craft in the woolsheds of North Canterbury, won the Novice woolhandling final today (Thursday), the first day of the three-day championships.

The daughter of woolhandler Kelly Paku (from Masterton) and shearer Johnny Taylor, it was just her third competition and she had to overcome most the lack of familiarity with the environment around her, competing in front of a crowd of at least 400 people in a venue built in the late 1950s as a sports stadium.

“I was nervous,” she said. “It’s so different from working in the woolsheds.”

The runner-up was Riria (Lydia) Moanaroa, of Eketahuna, third was Autumn Amoroa, of Whakatane, and fourth was Piata Eruera, of Eketahuna.

Taylor was in charge throughout, being top qualifier in the heats and then the semi-finals, among a field which started with 24 young woolhandlers, including entrants from England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Mongolia.

The Novice shearing final was won by 15-year-old FAHS Feilding High School student Hnter Wigglesworth, who first shore on the farm of parents Aaron and Hayley Wiglesworth, near Marton.

He’s followed the competitions throughout the season, finishing second at the Taranaki Shears in November third at the Rangitikei Shearing Sports, and scored his first win at the Pahiatua Shears last Sunday.

First to finish the final of two sheep each was Angus Monk, of Masterton, shearing 4m 48.388s, but had to settle for third place behind Wigglesworth and runner-up Ben Solomann, from Taupo.

The first event of any sort decided at the championships was the Student Shearing Challenge, with teams from farm or shearing training courses, won by Bradley Anderson and Jordan Miles, of Smedley Station in Central Hawke’s Bay. Wigglesworth partnered with schoolmate Cody Hall for FAHS to take second place.

With shearing in the veins, Char Taylor on her way to winning the Golden Shears Novice woolhandling final in Masterton today (Thursday). Photo / Pete Nikolaison.

All smiles, but just one winner, Hunter Wigglesworth, aged just 15, steps forward to claim the Golden Shears Novice shearing title, amid the acclaim of his fellow finalists. Photo / Pete Nikolaison.

Golden Shears Student Challenge winners Bradley Anderson and Jordan Miles, of Smedley Station Farm Cadet Training, Central Hawke's Bay. Photo / Pete Nikolaison.

Golden moment for young hopes as Golden Shears start in Masterton

The 63rd Golden Shears has started with record numbers of entries in lower grades for the three-day championships in Masterton’s War Memorial Stadium, despite a sheep-population decline of about 70 per cent over the last 40 years.

By late Wednesday, the Novice and Junior shearing and woolhandling events had had a combined total of 217 entries, which compares with 190 in the same four events last year.

Gisborne teenager Jodeisha Kirkpatrick in the Junior woolhandliung heats on the opening mornning of the the 63rd Golden Shears in Masterton today (Thursday). Photo / Pete Nikolaison.

The biggest entries are in the shearing with 74 in the Novice grade and 72 Juniors, while in the Novice grade 25 have been listed in the Novice event and 47 in the Junior grade, among them Gisborne teenager Jodiesha Kirkpatrick having two goes at a “Goldies”, title, having had seven wins in shearing this season, and four in woolhandling.

They comprise about 44 per cent of the 496 entries in the nine Golden Shears shearing and woolhandling championships among the 23 events to be decided by Saturday night.

Other events, including Golden Shears wool pressing titles, transtasmqn shearing and woolhandling test matches, the PGG Wrightson Vetmed National Shearing Championship, the North Island Open woolhandling circuit final, the traditional Maori-Pakeha teams event, speed shears and a Teddy Bear Shear, where children use wood handpiece models put into practice what they’ve learnt watching mum and dad in the woolsheds, take entries to about 600.

In 1991 book “Last Side to Glory”, focused on the 18 shearers who had won the Open title in the first 30 years, author Des Williams records shearing entries across all grades peaked at 586 shearers in 1980, the staging of the second World Championships.

The biggest without the World Championships was 540 two years later, without woolhandling or novice grades, at a time when the sheep population was over 70 million, which compares with a 23.6 million estimate in June last year, down 4.3 per cent in just 12 months.

Woolhandling was not introduced to the Golden Shears schedule until 1985, and the Novice shearing grade was first held in 1998.

Former World champion Tom Wilson, managing director of “user-pays, self-funded” South-Island-based Elite Wool Industry Training Ltd, which was established in 2016, has seen the numbers grow at the wool-face, with courses now put to 350-500 people each year.

The company also has working relationships with Australian wool industry agencies and has spread its cover to the UK, a big factor in the statistics that show more than 50 competitors in the Intermediate shearing and Novice and Junior grades on the opening day are from overseas - Australia, Scotland, England, Ireland, Wales, the US and South Africa all represented.

Wilson says most of those will have been on the courses, which are tailored for all grades, including Open class competitors wanting to touch-up their skills before hitting the Golden Shears Stage, but the growth is in the teenagers at or emerging from high school.

“I think a lot of it has to do with the enthusiasm of the younger ones these days,” he says. “They can see the numbers of shearers coming over here and enjoying themselves, having a good time, and getting some good training, and they can see the opportunities to travel.”

The Golden Shears has an event for farm-based agricultural training programmes, at least three schools have had their own shearing competitions, and the Hawke’s Bay A and P Show’s Great Raihania Shears has a high schools students event that started in 2013.

Timekeepers ready, competitors, get set, Go.

The 63rd Golden Shears are under way in Masterton War Memorial Stadium, where the championship ertr first held in 1961.

First off the mark were such people as stadium commentators Tuma Mullins, a shearer and real estate agent, and Rowena Duncum, a broadcast journalist, while up in the “green room” of Noise Productions’ live-streaming, which spellcheck just called love-streaming.

Perhaps that’s what some people will need, because there are some long days ahead, roughly speaking 7.30am to 10pm each day, at least.

First off the Novice woolhandling and the pressing, livestream via www.goldenshears.co.nz