Big wins for the top guns heading to World Championships in Masterton

The Shearing Sports New Zealand team had a big boost going into this week’s Golden Shears World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships when four of the six members won titles in the major weekend showdowns before heading to Masterton.

Rowland Smith (red ribbon) and Gavin Mutch (blue ribbon), big winners in the 2026 Golden Shears World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships build-up, pictured when first and second in the machine shearing final in Ireland in 2014.

With modern-day record entries at five shows, the big wins went to machine shearers Toa Henderson in the Taumarunui Shears Open final on Friday and 2014 champion Rowland Smith at the Pahiatua Shears on Sunday, 2019 blade shearing champion Allan Oldfield at the Kaikoura A and P Show on Saturday, and 2012 and 2017 woolhandling champion Joel Henare at the Wairarapa Pre-Shears Woolhandling Championships on Sunday at Mikimiki, north of Masterton.

Hawke’s Bay-based Scotland team member and 2012 shearing champion Gavin Mutch also fired his warning shot by beating both Henderson and Smith, in the fastest of the weekend’s three 20-sheep finals at the Apiti Show, north of Feilding, on Saturday, although just third to the finish.

And King Country-based Cook Islands woolhandling representative Keryn Herbert, who as a New Zealand representative won a World teams title in 2010, won the Open woolhandling title at Apiti.

Smith and Mutch reached all three of the six-man Open shearing finals, Smith also finishing fourth at Taumarunui and runner-up at Apiti, and Mutch runner-up at Taumarunui and fourth at Pahiatua.

It was the Apiti final that provided the fireworks, with Henderson and Mutch waging a fierce battle for the lead, from which the sting was taken a bit when Mutch copped a struggler, and a kick.

Southland shearer Leon Samuels, off the pace early, rocketed back, and won the race, finishing the 20 sheep in 15min 6.2sec, beating Henderson by 2.5 seconds, with Mutch finishing in 15m 26.6s, but holding onto enough quality to claim the win overall.

Henderson had been first-off in the Taumarunui final, shearing the 20 in 16m 1.02s, and beating Mutch by 26 seconds, while Samuels also claimed line honours at Pahiatua, finishing first off the board in 16min 7sec and pipping Mutch by five seconds.

The Open woolhandling finals were also shared, with Te Anna Phillips successfully defending her home title at Taumarunui, before the wins by Herbert and Henare over the rest of the weekend, Henare having missed the first two of the shows.

Blades shearer Allan Oldfield proved a dab hand also with the handpiece in Kaikoura, adding the Senior machine shearing title to his blades title.

There were huge numbers of competitors, peaking with 185 shearers and 71 woolhandlers at Apiti, with 81 open, Senior and Junior woolhandlers at the Pre-Shears event on Sunday, while the 65 competitors at Kaikoura, including 26 blades shearers, was the biggest entry at any competition across the top of the South Island in more than 30 years.

While the teams at the World championships on Wednesday-Saturday are restricted to teams of no more than two machine shearers, two woolhandlers, and two blades shearers, many more are in New Zealand following their teams and working throughout the country, and 12 countries were represented among placegetters in finals at the weekend.