Blade legend still as sharp as his shears

Former world champion blade shearer Peter Casserly proves to Adam Thomson, of Invercargill, that his blades are sharp enough to shave with. Photo by Stephen Jaquiery.
Former world champion blade shearer Peter Casserly proves to Adam Thomson, of Invercargill, that his blades are sharp enough to shave with. Photo by Stephen Jaquiery.
He might be a former world champion, but Peter Casserly admitted to still having a few ''jitters'' before stepping on the board at the World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships in Invercargill yesterday.

Mr Casserly (69), a legendary blade-shearer and all-round hard-case, was competing in the Southland All Nations, the forerunner to the world championships.

''Hopefully I don't have a heart attack,'' he quipped, before donning his singlet and moccasins in ILT Stadium Southland, which has been transformed into a massive shearing shed for the week.

Mr Casserly, from Omarama, was entered in the competition by his nephew, Shane Casserly, who was competing in the same event.

Age, he reckoned, was no barrier.

''I forget my age and live my life. Old age is no place for sissies. I had a drink of concrete this morning, so I've hardened up.

''I'm looking forward to it, just the buzz of it all, the atmosphere ... the world champs in the South Island. [I've] just got to be part of it,'' he said.

Winning the world blade-shearing title in Masterton in 1980 was as good as the day Mr Casserly got married - or had his first child.

He was third in the All Nations in Ireland in 1998 and has won a host of other titles in New Zealand, although he had not shorn in a show in New Zealand since 1995. His biggest highlight was winning the Golden Shears in Christchurch in 1975.

He still also holds a blade-shearing record he set in 1976, after shearing 353 sheep in a nine-hour day in Mid Canterbury.

Mr Casserly hit the headlines in Cromwell back in 2004 when, on national television, he rid hermit sheep Shrek of his whopping 27kg fleece. He has also shorn for Prince Charles during a visit to Moutere Station.

The most unusual place he had shorn a sheep was on the pool table of the Omarama Hotel during a rodeo fundraiser event.

Mr Casserly recalled the hey-day of blade shearing in New Zealand when there used to be between 250 and 300 blade-shearers. Now there were 30.

But, Mr Casserly liked the quietness in the woolshed, without any machines going, and listening to country music.

In the lead-up to this week's competition, he had shorn a few practice sheep, quit drinking alcohol for two days and fortified himself with a ''good shearer's breakfast'' of steak, sausages, tomatoes and bacon.

Mr Casserly, who is semi-retired, usually shears a couple of hundred sheep around Omarama each year. He shears his own 60 sheep.

Asked his chances in the All Nations, he said he was ''quietly confident'', saying ''I'll win without boasting and be humble in defeat''.

''Everyone that goes in a show is quietly confident. Everybody gets nervous ... I still get the jitters. You've got to be fit and focused,'' he said.

After competing in the heats yesterday, where he encountered the best two sheep he had ever shorn, Mr Casserly was happy.

His time was slow but he had made a very neat job. That job was enough to see him progress to the semifinal.

The first of the world championship events are this afternoon, with heats in the first of three preliminary rounds of the glamour event, the machine shearing.

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