Kiwi shearers win second 'test' gold

A second historic Tri-Nations shearing event in Alexandra on Saturday night saw both machine and blade shearers on the board at once - something organisers believe had never before been seen in the world.

In teams of four, with two machine shearers and two blade shearers, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa battled it out in relay form, shearing 12 sheep per team at Molyneux Stadium.

The scores were almost as close as they were after the Friday night Tri-Nations test, with New Zealand again taking gold with 145 points.

South Africa secured silver with 151 points, leaving bronze for Australia on 155 points.

On Friday night, New Zealand won gold, Australia silver and South Africa bronze in the machine shearing Tri-Nations event. The blade shearing gold was won by South Africa, and silver by New Zealand.

South African team manager Hendrick Botha said it was a "once-in-a-lifetime experience" and an "honour to be part of it".

New Zealand team manager Gavin Rowland, of Christchurch, said the team had performed "exceptionally well" and it was "very beneficial" for the blade shearers to gauge where they were at before the world championships next year.

The final night of the 50th New Zealand Merino Shearing and Woolhandling Championships also included the open machine shearing, the open woolhandling and the blade shearing competitions.

Reigning champion Damien Boyle, of Perth, Australia, took top honours in the open machine shearing with 110 points. Colin O'Neill, of Alexandra, was second with 115 and Nathan Stratford, of Invercargill, was third with 119 points.

Joanne Kumeroa, of Whangarei, took the open woolhandling title with 203 points. She also won the Gina Nathan Memorial Trophy for the best quality points over four rounds. Joel Henare was second with 235 points and Ratapu Paikea was third with 317.

The blade shearing title went to Billy Michelle, of Timaru, with 106 points, closely followed by Mayenze Shweni, of South Africa, 0.3 points behind.

Three-time world blade shearing champion Zwelliwi Hans, also of South Africa, was third with 111 points.

Commentator and MC Phil O'Shaughnessy, of Whangarei, said the Alexandra competition "is always rated in the top five in New Zealand.

"The standard of the sheep has been absolutely fantastic, which brings a better standard [of competition], each year the calibre of competitors raises."

New Zealand Merino Shearing society president Graeme Bell said he would have liked more entries, but ended up turning some late entries away because they did not have enough sheep.

- sarah.marquet@odt.co.nz

 

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