Hawke's Bay's centre dog trial champs on historic weekend

Stu McNeill, a top Hawke's Bay sheep dog trialist, pictured with his team in 2017. Now he's tackling the 2021 Taradale and Hawke's Bay centre championships at Crownthorpe. Photo / File

A Hawke's Bay sheepdog trial with a history going back to almost the beginning of the sport in New Zealand is expected to start soon after first light on Friday with the first of more than 400 runs over the next three days.

The Taradale Sheep Dog Club trials at Crownthorpe are marked as the club's 125th trials, dating back to the first, under the founding identity of the Central Hawke's Bay Club, in 1893.

While the first trials are thought to have been held around Wanaka in the late 1860s, the first in the North Island are thought to have been held at Porangahau in 1892.

Club secretary Brenda Duff emphasised it's the 125th "trials", not the anniversary.

"There have been a few cancelled along the way," she said.

The celebrations are being held over three days, the first day as the club's own trials, with about 50 runs expected each day on each of the four courses – long head, short head and yard, zig-zag hunt and straight hunt.

The top five in each class will qualify for the runoffs for the Hawke's Bay Sheep Dog Trial Centre championships on Sunday morning, originally scheduled to have taken place at the Mohaka club trials, which were cancelled last month because of sheep staggers in the target flock.

Most of Hawke's Bay's national and North or South island champions dating back over 30 years are expected to trial, including Bob Bruce, of Te Aute, and Stu McNeill, of Te Pohue, although strong hopes come from other trialists such as Northern Hawke's Bay farmers Tom Manson and Becs Scragg.

Manson picked up wins in both hunts at the Okawa club trials last week, while Scragg has had a top-performing team for much of the season, which started early at Petane in December but has been running almost weekly since the end of January.

Many of the trialists are entered for the North Island championships near Masterton on April 26 and the South Island and national championships week near Gore starting on May 17.

The Island and National championships were cancelled last year because of the Covid-19 crisis.

Taradale club president Grant Magee, who is trialling three dogs this week, after returning from the South Island where he judged at the Greenvale in club in Southland ahead of a stint judging the South Island and NZ Championships on the same course next month, said those at the trial are mainly participants.

But the club and the HB centre welcomes public, with the championships at the club course off Awahuri Rd (via Taihape and Shanley roads) barely 15 minutes from Napier and Hastings.