International flavour on the Golden Shears podium

The international impact on the 2026 Golden Shears in Masterton arrived-big time nearing the end of the first of the four days on Wednesday when three lower grade titles on were won by competitors from the Northern Hemisphere – even before the drawcard World Championships had begun.

The triumphant visitors were Joseph Scahill, of Westport, Mayo, Ireland, and Welsh youngster Steffan George, from Aberystwyth, who won the Golden Shears Intermediate and Junior shearing finals respectively, and Isabelle Joiner, from Calgary, Canada, winner of the Novice woolhandling title, all entered as inndividuals and ot members of national teams set to start their campaigns of Thursday.

In other finals on the first night, Napier Boys’ High School pupil Sam Lawson won the Novice shearing title, the Junior woolhandling title was won by Leah Taimanu, from Nuhaka, and in the Senior woolhandling final 25-year-old Lucy Elers, of Mataura, claimed the first South Island win by successfully defending a title she won last year, after winning the Junior title 12 months earlier.

It was particularly close for George, who won by just 0.144 points from runner-up ad regular Junior finalist Sean Dunne, of Wicklow, Ireland.

The most ebullient was 24-year-old Joiner, who came to New Zealand nine months ago, having never heard of Golden Shears and on a mission to “immerse” herself in the industry as part of university study ambitions, specialising in natural fibres.

She googled “wool jobs” in New Zealand and arrived last May to start working in the South Island, and by October was competing, at Alexandra and Waimate, and finishing fifth on both occasions.

Heading home next week and hoping to return later in the year, she is the second Golden Shears woolhandling champion from the Northern Hemisphere, after 2015 novice winner Claire Wilson (Scotland), and the second Canadian to win in either woolhandling or shearing at the Golden Shears, with Fiona Nettleton having won the Junior shearing title in 1988.

Scahill had been in good form in regional competitions leading-up to the Shears, and became only the second from the Republic of Ireland to win a Golden Shears title in Masterton where the Golden Shears is in its 64th year. The first was David Kingston, of Cork, in the Junior shearing final in 1998.

Scahill, 21, won by 0.401 points from runner-up Tamati Dennison, of Kurow.

Earlier, the Novice shearing had its own part in some history-making, with three girls among the six finalists, and one of the other three being the first Mongolian shearer to make a Golden Shears final, in Tsenden-Ish Jargalsaikhan, from Sukhbaatar.

The title was won by Napier Boys’ High School pupil Sam Lawson, a farmers’ son from Ongaonga, making it a double for the day after featuring in his school’s first Golden Shears Student Challenge victory.

He won by almost five points from runner-up Ngahuia Salmond, of Te Kuiti, heading the female trio who finished second, third and fourth.

Elers, the daughter of Cook Islands World Championships representative Tina Elers, heads to work in Australia next week and will miss the New Zealand championships in Te Kuiti next month

Of her success on Masterton’s War Memorial Stadium stage, she said: “It’s the big one, the fun one.”

Of her first time at the Golden Shears, Joiner said: “I had never heard of it. My friend said ‘Izzy you want to have the full New Zealand experience, right? You have to come to Golden Shears… Actually, it’s cheaper to just compete, I’ll sign you up to compete!’

The second day on Thursday started with heats of the Golden Shears Open woolhandling championship, with the first round of World championships blade shearing, woolhandling and machine shearing during the day.

Late in the day there will also be a Teddy Bear Shear for children, done with mock-up handpieces and teddy bears doubling as sheep, an event all about the shearing blows the kids will have picked up from watching their dads and mums.

The annual Golden Shears Speed Shears will take place during the evening.

Tsenden-Ish Jargalsaikhan, from Sukhbaatar, Mongolia, the first from Mongolia to reach a major shearing final, picture in the Novice final on the first night of the 64th Goldenn Shears in Masterton.

Isabelle Joiner, winner of the Golden Shears Novice woolhandling title, the first Canadian winner at the Golden Shears in 38 years, and who when arriving in New Zealand nine months ago had never heard of the World-famous shearing and woolhanndlingchampionships.