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World Champs major earner for region

The 2017 World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships, held in Invercargill in February, was widely heralded as the best event in the competition's 40-year history. Now, independent analysis has backed that up, revealing a $6.78 million to $7.48 million economic impact to the Southland economy. The economic impact report, commissioned by the event and undertaken by Venture Southland, has revealed that international visitors to New Zealand for the event stayed an average of 31.3 days in New ...

Smith shines at Golden Shears

Northland-raised Hawke's Bay shearer Rowland Smith has tonight completed an amazing reply to his omission from the New Zealand World Championships team with a clean-sweep of the major events on the final night of the 57th Golden Shears in Masterton The 30-year-old 2014 World champion was the man of the night as he won his fourth Golden Shears Open title, his first PGG Wrightson National Championship all-breeds title and led New Zealand to victory over Australia in a Trans-Tasman test, the first...

Full Golden Shears Results

RESULTS from the 57th Golden Shears Shearing and Woolhandliung Championships in Masterton, NZ, on March 2-4, 2017: International: Lister Shearing Transtasman Shearing Test (12 sheep – 6 merinos, 3 long wools, 3 lambs): New Zealand 225.3534pts (R owland Smith 17min 45.072sec, 73.67pts; Nathan Stratford 18min 1.987sec, 75.016pts; Tony Coster 17min 50.029sec, 76.667pts) beat Australia 237.969pts (Jason Wingfield 15min 51.416sec, 75.071pts; Shannon Warnest 16min 58.816sec, 78.357pts; Daniel McInt...

Puha takes second Golden Shears title

Manawatu teenager Connor Puha has won his second Golden Shears title in a controversial aftermath to the Intermediate shearing final in Masterton today. The 18-year-old Puha, who won the Novice final in 2014 and fourth in the Junior final in both 2015 and last year, was initially placed third in the presentation after today's final, when the winning ribbon was presented to Winton shearer Brandon Maguire Ratima. A mistake in the information on which calculations was based was noticed almost imm...

Shearer Stevens wins Woolhandling

It wasn't so much the title he wanted but it'll do for Napier shearer Ricci Stevens after he won the Junior woolhandling title at the 57th Golden Shears in Masterton today. The New Zealand Junior shearing champion in 2015, a Golden Shears Intermediate finalist last year and a consistent performer in his first season of Senior shearing, Stevens had been among the favourites for the Golden Shears Senior championship but was eliminated in its heats. Showing versatility across the skills of the wo...

South Island hope for Golden Shears finals

Invercargill shearer Nathan Stratford has loomed as a big hope of claiming the South Island's first win in the Golden Shears Open final for the first time in 28 years. Stratford was the top qualifier in this afternoon's semi-finals, combining both quality and speed to possibly the best effect in his 20-year Open-class career in which the biggest highlight came only last month when he and Napier shearer John Kirkpatrick won the World teams title in ILT Stadium Southland. Known usually to rely o...

Dream comes true for Alexander

It was a bit more than a dream come true for Taranaki shearer Darren Alexander as he won the Golden Shears Senior shearing title, emulating the win by father Lloyd Alexander in 1988. At one stage headed for a climb-up to the Open-class, in which his father also shore a Golden Shears final, the 23-year-old, Alexander held back still a couple of wins short of automatic promotion to shear one more season in the class. But he came to wonder if his last throw of the dice might be good enough as the...

Nine years worth the wait for McLean

A bit of pining for home was behind the success of Taihape's Jamie McLean as she won her second Golden Shears woolhandling title in Masterton today. There were nine years between the two successes, the 2008 win in the Junior final and today's Senior victory. The 27-year-old McLean had in the meantime been living in the South Island working for Pleasant Point contractor and former top Open-class shearer Adrian Cox, until she turned home to the Central North Island for her late nan's unveiling i...

Baty earns NZ team spot with North Island win

The World champion New Zealand woolhandling team of Gisborne's Joel Henare and Mayryanne Baty has been kept intact for next season's Transtasman series after Baty's win today in the North Island Open woolhandling circuit final it the Golden Shears in Masterton. It was only the third individual win of her Open-class career, but the most important, ranking alongside the World Championships New Zealand team selection final second placing in November which led to the pair's success at the champions...

Ferguson wins with help from Ferguson

Shearing at the Golden Shears was one of the last things on the mind of farmer Mark Ferguson as he started to the feel the grip of a tough Hawke's Bay summer a while before Christmas. But it all changed when he met former World and Golden Shears Open champion and Waipawa shearer Cam Ferguson (no relation), and this afternoon he became another Ferguson to don a winning ribbon at the Golden Shears by winning the Junior final, a father-of-two aged 43 with some of his opposition less than half his ...

French ambassador shears in celebration

A new career-path could be beckoning for French Ambassador to New Zealand Florence Jeanblanc-Risler who wants to compete for her country when it hosts the World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships in two years' time. She put in her first-ever blows with the hot steel of a shearing handpiece at the Golden Shears in Masterton today ahead of her country hosting the next World Championships in Le Dorat, Central France, on July 1-6, 2019. She managed a few blows down the last side and across t...

Another Fagan win at Golden Shears

Things might be looking up for shearing prodigy Jack Fagan to emulate some of the feats of father Sir David Fagan following a win today in historic Golden Shears event the YFC Blue Ribbon Championship. It was the first time in eight years of Golden Shearing that the 25-year-old from Te Kuiti has had a winner's cheque and a victory speech, but he joins an impressive list of winners. A member North King Country YFC, Fagan was today making his sixth bid for the Blue Ribbon, which dates back to th...

Saturday Golden Shears Update

A total of seven finals and two Open Semifinals will be contested during this afternoon's session at Golden Shears. Here are the names to watch in today's penultimate session in Masterton. OPEN SHEARING SEMIFINALS: Semifinalists have been confirmed to shear in the last event in today's afternoon session. World Champion Johnny Kirkpatrick will not be among them after his shock elimination last night. The 12 men with a chance to lift the prestigious trophy tonight are: Dion King (Flaxmere/A...

Kiwis too good for Australia in woolhandling test

Two crack kiwi woolhandlers have drawn first blood in the Masterton leg of the twin Trans-Tasman shearing and woolhandling series by winning the woolhandling test against Australia at the Golden Shears in Masterton last night. In the 20th year since a woolhandling test was added to the annual home-and-away shearing sports rivalry in 1998, New Zealand was always going to be tough to beat, with defending Golden Shears Open champion and 2012 and 2017 World champion Joel Henare, of Gisborne partne...

World Champ eliminated at Golden Shears

There was a boil-over at the Golden Shears in Masterton last night with new World Champion shearer John Kirkpatrick failing to reach the glamour Golden Shears Open final for only the second time in 20 years. It was an early quarterfinals elimination for the 46-year-old four-times Golden Shears Open champion, who first shore in the "Goldies" final in 1997, having won the Intermediate final in 1993 and Senior final a year later. Fifth in each of his first two finals, he has been no further bac...

Up and Downs at Golden Speedshear

Home-town Golden Shears hope Paerata Abraham made-up for demise by disqualification in the Southland All Nations Championships Speedshear three weeks ago via winning by the same method in the Golden Shears Speedshear Open-class final in Masterton tonight. Abraham was clearly beaten to the button in the final by Mataura shearer Brett Roberts, who shore his final sheep in 25.549sec, the winner until quality judges a few seconds later ruled the sheep out of the contest. Easing off after thinking ...

Shepherd's Delight in Novice Shearing Final

Farm shepherd Mark Baxter had a handy sort of role model to get him on the way in father and former YFC national Young Farmer of the Year Shaun. But it took fiance Samantha Pritchard to really show him the way which led to a win today in the Golden Shears Novice Shearing final at the end of the first day of the 57th annual shearing and woolhandling championships in Masterton. The 23-year-old, whose father and mother Tracie farm Wairakau Station, between Pongaroa and the coast south of Dannevi...

Keeping it in the Family

It was family all the way as Team Hicks from Marton and Team Wolland from Pahiatua shaped-up in one heat of the Pairs Woolpressing competition on the first day of the 57th Golden Shears in Masterton today. Competing together for the first time were 61-year-old John Hicks and 29-year-old schoolteacher-son Jono Hicks, while the opposition was Christine Wolland, 38, and son Tyrone Oliver a second year pupil at Makoura College in Masterton who turns 15 next week. Among the reasons neither team had...

Student Loan to thank for Golden Shears' victory

Gisborne woolhandler Aromia Ngarangione only wanted to pay off the student loan. But the EIT graduate's return to fulltime work in woolsheds, after three years studying contemporary art, had an even better reward when she won the Golden Shears Novice woolhandling title in Masterton today. She was pictured in the final, the first event decided on the opening day of the three-day 57th Golden Shears. It was the first time the 24-year-old had competed in a woolhandling competition, something s...

57th Golden Shears underway

The best shearers, woolhandlers and pressers have started gathering in Masterton for the 57th Golden Shears International Shearing Championships. The three-day Golden Shears started this morning, with more than 20 events to be decided, including the glamour Golden Shears Open shearing and woolhandling titles on Saturday night and Trans-Tasman woolhandling and shearing tests on Friday and Saturday nights respectively. The event will feature a quintet of newly-crowned World champions, including ...

Smith opens has hot favourite with TAB

Hawke's Bay shearer Rowland Smith has been rated such a hot favourite to successfully defend the Golden Shears Open title that the TAB has also opened a pool excluding him from the options. The pools are among eight relating to five events which will be decided at the 57th annual shearing and woolhandling championships starting in Masterton today and finishing with four the five betting event finals on Saturday night. Smith, the 2014 World Champion, is sitting on a string of nine consecutive...

Fagan back to where it began

Shearing legend Sir David Fagan today heads to Masterton's Golden Shears for a 42nd year in a row as keen as ever about the big event, despite industry and sports concerns about a drop in the number of entries. Sir David first travelled from King Country to the shears as a schoolboy in 1976 to support older brother John. Despite having at the time, he reckons, barely known what a shearing handpiece looked like, it was only eight years later that he was runner-up in his brother's only Golden ...

Hard work pays for Golden Shears hopeful

One of the many tireless workers and competitors during the World Shearing and Woolhandling Championship in Invercargill earlier this month has been rewarded with a big win on the eve of the 57th Golden Shears. The three-day Golden Shears start in Masterton today (Thursday), Alexandra woolhandler Pagan Karauria heading north with the dream of winning Golden Shears Open title for the first time on Saturday night. She got an early shot in the arm tyesterday when she beat World Champion and def...

Smith hottest of favourites for Golden Shears title

Reigning Golden Shears champion Rowland Smith is expected to go into his defence of the title as possibly the hottest favourite to win the glamour event after completing a rare winning treble over the weekend. Smith won the Open finals at the Taumarunui Shears on Friday, the Apiti Sports on Saturday and the Pahiatua Shears on Sunday, just a week after completing a career century of wins with another weekend treble – the South Island Shearer of the Year and Southern Shears Open titles in Gore ...

Smith brings up 100 in Pukekohe

Northland-raised Hawke's Bay shearing champion Rowland Smith became possibly only the fourth person to win 100 Open-class shearing titles with three victories about 24hours and 1700km apart during the weekend. He raised the century at the Counties Shears in Pukekohe yesterday (Sunday), a few hours after arriving from Gore, in Southland, where on Saturday he won the South Island Shearer of the Year final and the Southern Shears Open final on Saturday. It was a repeat of a unique treble he al...