Big field means sheep shortage

Paul Avery is helping to run the competition. Photo / File

Former world shearing champion Paul Avery had to keep a close eye on the numbers as a startling increase in competitors threatened to throw his home Stratford A&P Show Shears out of kilter on Saturday.

Now helping run the competition, Avery went light on sheep numbers after an unexpected decline entries last year had him sending 150 sheep back to the farmer unshorn.

"I didn't want to have to do that again," said Avery, who won his world title in Norway five years ago.

The folly was apparent from the start of the day on Saturday with more than 60 shearers entering across the five grades, and competitors were soon being told they had to be on the mark in their heats, because there wouldn't be enough sheep to hold semifinals.

The only semifinals held were in the Open class, in which the cloth was cut by limiting the three-man final to 15 sheep.

Despite the extra pressure in the "caravan" control room, and having done little or no shearing recently, the 46-year-old Toko cattle farmer defended the Stratford title he won last year, but failed to reach the semifinals, and was ninth in the Open field of 12, which included four world champions.

"I thought I'd done pretty well," he said.

"But the judges didn't think so."

But he was in good company, another to miss out being reigning world champion, Scotsman and Taranaki farmer Gavin Mutch.

The honours went to former multiple world champion and Te Kuiti shearer David Fagan who, at 52, hadn't won a Stratford show title since 1994.

Having figured in a dramatic double victory in Wales in July, in a test match and in winning the Corwen Open final, the weekend victory - his 621st in 32 years of open-class shearing - was a performance full of foreboding for the world championship qualifying rounds later in the season.

It became a match race with Waipawa shearer and 2010 world champion Cam Ferguson, who won the race by four seconds as both finished their 15 hoggets in under 12-and-a-half minutes.

Fagan's marginally better quality gave him the winner's ribbon by 0.2 points, with a four-point margin to the only other finalist, Feilding shearer Murray Henderson.

Shearers thought that while the sheep numbers were just enough, they were the best competition shearing hoggets in awhile, and it was a tough competition in which to reach the final.

"It was always going to be a privilege to be in the top three in that one," said Fagan, who while scoring just his first show-final win this season has won five single-sheep Speedshear events, most with a prize of at least $1000.

Levin shearer Michael Rolston and Dannevirke-based Poverty Bay shearer Catherine Mullooly maintained their winning form from the Central Hawke's Bay show a fortnight ago by claiming Saturday's Senior and Intermediate titles respectively, while Neil Bryant, of Levin, won his first Junior title.

The only remaining North Island competition before Christmas is the Royal Manawatu Show at Feilding on December 8.

Results from the Stratford A&P Show Shears on Saturday, November 23, 2013:

Open final (15 sheep): David Fagan (Te Kuiti) 12min 28sec, 49.133pts, 1; 1; Cam Ferguson (Waipawa) 12min 24sec, 49.333pts, 2; Murray Henderson (Feilding) 13min 16sec, 53.466pts, 3.

Senior final (10 sheep): Michael Rolston (Levin) 11min 28sec, 47.9pts, 1; Ethan Pankhurst (Masterton and Fairlie) 12min 23sec, 52.45pts, 2; Gavin Kelly (Taihape) 13min 19sec, 62.49pts, 3.

Intermediate final (5 sheep): Catherine Mullooly (Matawai and Dannevirke) 8min 45sec, 37.25ptsd, 1; Darren Alexander (Whangamomona) 7min 32sec, 37.4pts, 2; Lloyd Rees (Wales) 8min 41sec, 8min 41sec, 39.85pts, 3.

Junior final (3 sheep): Neil Bryant (Levin) 5min 58sec, 31.233pts, 1; Leah Iremonger (Matau) 5min 58sec, 33.566pts, 2; Trevor Holland (-) 6min 23sec, 40..488pts, 3.

Novice final (1 sheep): Harris Tohengaroa (Aria) 3min 50sec, 27.5pts, 1; Richard Tohengaroa (Aria) 2min 22sec, 38.1pts, 2; Luke Fleming (Stratford) 3min 4sec, 49.2pts, 3.