A shear boost for CHB show next week

The Gizzy crew of "No 1 supporter" Kiana Williams, Richmond Ngarangione, Tee Te Maipi, Tira Ngarangione and Te Ua Wilcox. Photo / Supplied

Next week, Central Hawke's Bay is likely to have one of its biggest shearing and woolhandling championships entries, including at least 20 vying for places at a world championship next year.

The show will be staged in Waipukurau next Friday and Saturday (November 11-12), with over 130 shearers and woolhandlers expected, establishing the Shears as the biggest of Hawke's Bay's shearing sports A&P Show championships this summer.

The Open woolhandling championship is the fourth of eight rounds in a nationwide series to find two members of the Shearing Sports New Zealand team, which also includes machine and blade shearers, for the 2023 Golden Shears World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships at the Royal Highland Show in Scotland on June 22-25.

The prospect of a big entry was highlighted at the Hawke's Bay A&P Show when 119 shearers and woolhandlers competed last month, the largest number of which were the 30 in the Open woolhandling championship - a rare occasion where the number of Open woolhandlers exceeded Open shearers.

Shearing Sports New Zealand chairman Sir David Fagan was pleased with indications of continued growth amid the rebound from the uncertainties of the pandemic, which stopped the events last year.

Entries at the Wairarapa A&P show last weekend highlighted the new keenness, with five young competitors making a round-trip of over 900 kilometres from Gisborne, and claiming three of the seven Junior-to-Open titles.

Among them was shearer Richmond Ngarangione, who could be going for a third win in a row after winning at the Hawke's Bay and Wairarapa Shows, as did Junior shearer Cheyden Winiana, of Nuhaka, and Napier-based Te Whetu Brown, from Wairarapa.

The Open shearing, the usual glamour event, is expected to include some of those who will be also be gunning for places at the world championships when their chances come at the Golden Shears in Masterton in March and the New Zealand Shears in Te Kuiti in April.

Some may be at Waipukurau after competing at the New Zealand Corriedale championships in Christchurch next Friday.

Hawke's Bay currently has four competing former world shearing champions who could be starters, although entries won't be known until the day.

CHB's own Cam Ferguson, world champion in 2010, competed at Gisborne on October 15, expressing hopes of getting into trim to make a bid for a place at the world championships for a fourth time. 2014 champion Rowland Smith, of Maraekakaho, won the Great Raianhia Shears Open final in Hastings, and Scotland international Gavin Mutch, who won the world title in 2012 and manages a farm between Dannevirke and Ormondville, has had two wins this season.

The presence of the top-line competitors will be a boost for the show, which will this year be without its regular dog trials and will also be missing some of its amusements.

There will be two days of full-on equestrian events, and the farm fencing, which is also likely to feature world-class competition in the form of Hawke's Bay father-and-son Shane and Tony Bouskill, winners at the Hawke's Bay show and also both world champions.

It also has the usual animal classes, including sheep, following the high quality of the Hawke's Bay show, where the Supreme Champion Sheep of the show was the Supreme Champion Dorset Down of Alice Anderson.

The CHB show involves a considerable degree of public participation, including a tug o' war, a mechanical bull ride, terrier racing, and a dog show.