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Southern shearer Leon Samuels capped his biggest season with victory in the national lamb shearing championships open final at the Mackenzie Shears in Fairlie last week.
The win in the last event of the 2022-23 Shearing Sports New Zealand season, by 0.947 points over surprise runner-up Hugh De Lacy, of Rangiora, came just nine days after his historic win in the New Zealand Shears Open final in Te Kuiti claimed him a place in the New Zealand singlet at the Golden Shears World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships in Scotland for four days from June 22.
It was also his ninth win in national title events in four seasons, after victories in the Otago Shears Open and South Island Shearer of the Year finals in 2020, the Otago Shears, the Southern Shears, the New Zealand Shears Circuit, the National Shearing Circuit and Waimate Shears New Zealand Spring Shearing Championships finals in 2021, and the Southern Shears final again, in February.
He has had just four other wins in New Zealand in an Open-class career dating back to 2012.
The win last week came after a six-man final, in which Samuels and Scotsman and Southern Hawke’s Bay farmer and shearer Gavin Mutch headed the race for time honours. Mutch was first by just over five seconds, completing the 19 lambs in 17min 7.25sec.
Third to finish was Te Kuiti shearer Jack Fagan, who won the crossbred lambs title in Winton in January.
De Lacy was next, but better quality points enabled him to claim second place overall.
Invercargill veteran Nathan Stratford completed his 26th season of open-class shearing with the best quality points overall, and claimed fourth place after shearing the 19 in 18min 45.47sec.
North Island shearer Cory Barrowcliffe claimed his third win of the season in the senior final, by less than a point from runner-up Blake Crooks, of Timaru.
The intermediate final was won by Dre Roberts, of Mataura, by 0.0788 points from Emma Martin, of Gore, both stepping up to the intermediate grade after she won the New Zealand Shears Junior final in Te Kuiti on April 1.
Last to finish the six lambs, she had easily the best quality points, but not quite good enough to claim the title.
The junior final was won by Caleb Brooking, of Mataura, who had scored his first win at the Oxford A& P Show nine days earlier, and the novice final was won by Caleb Clark-Fleury, of Waimate.
