Northland shearer Toa Henderson won the Golden Shears open title in Masterton on Saturday. Photo / Pete Nikolaison
Northland shearer Toa Henderson won the Golden Shears open title in Masterton on Saturday. Photo / Pete Nikolaison
The miles have paid off for most-driven Northland shearer Toa Henderson who on Saturday night became the first first-time Golden Shears open finalist to win shearing’s glamour prize in 15 years.
Henderson won with remarkable comfort in a final that started wide open after the elimination of defending champion Leon Samuels, eight-times winner Rowland Smith, four-times winner John Kirkpatrick and 2015 victor Gavin Mutch in the quarter-finals and semifinals.
Henderson is notorious for his trips from tiny Kaiwaka to shearing competitions around the country, including one-day lower North Island excursions of six or seven hours each way, often sharing the wheel with father Mike.
He was the fastest on the night, shearing the 20 sheep in 16m 15.779s on Stand 1, 8s quicker than eight-time finalist and local Wairarapa hope David Buick at the other end of the board, ultimately the runner-up as Henderson won by 2.13pts.
Third was Riverton shearer Casey Bailey, runner-up in his first Golden Shears open final last year, and on Saturday scoring the best quality points in finishing the best of the four southern hopes who filled the remaining stands.
Marlborough shearer Angus Moore, the 2007 senior champion and since three times the winner of the National Shearing Circuit, was fourth in what was his second Golden Shears open final, and Southland veteran Nathan Stratford was fifth in the final for a 12th time.
Mataura shearer Brett Roberts was sixth in his first time in the final, 11 years after graduating to open class following his 2014 senior win in Masterton.
While those awaiting the final result were still conjecturing about any finalists claiming the title after the sheep were away on the truck, Henderson was sure of such a triumph one day.
“I’ve been dreaming of this since I was this high,” he said, hovering his hand near toddler height.
He said he had had visions of “holding this trophy” and of the moment the whanau and other supporters from the North belted into Ngāti Whātua haka Ko te Puru.
“I used to dream of this moment,” he said.
“To come off first and hold the trophy means more to me than anything,” he said.
“My wife, Phoebe, my family, and everyone back in Kaiwaka knows what it means.”
Toa Henderson is swamped by whānau and friends after winning the 2025 Golden Shears open shearing final. Photo / Shearing Sports New Zealand
Henderson had gone close to winning a Golden Shears title before, in the senior grade in 2008, when beaten only by brother Tane Henderson.
He shore for several years in Australia before returning to start the campaign with a win at the Warkworth A&P Show in March 2019.
He had three wins the following season, including venturing south to win at Āpiti seven days before the 2020 Golden Shears, before starting to venture further afield with three wins in 11 finals in the 2020-21 season.
He was the No 1-ranked open shearer last season, with 11 wins in 16 finals.
He also won the Otago Shears and Southern Shears finals in February and has now had 37 open final wins in New Zealand.
Woolhandling
Gisborne's Toa Henderson won the Golden Shears open woolhandling final for the 11th time. Photo / Pete Nikolaison
Meanwhile, two-time world individual woolhandling champion Joel Henare claimed his 11th consecutive Golden Shears open woolhandling title, beating 2023-24 New Zealand representative Tia Potae, 2019 world championships representative Pagan Rimene, and 2024 senior winner and now first-year open woolhandler Vinniye Phillips.
Masterton figured among the major titles, with Paerata Abraham winning the PGG Wrightson Vetmed National Shearing Circuit final for a second time, claiming a place in the 2025-26 New Zealand team with Henderson, and Eketāhuna‘s Ngaio Hanson, who retained her place by finishing second in the North Island Woolhandling Circuit open final on Saturday afternoon.
Circuit winner Keryn Hebert is ineligible, now representing the Cook Islands on the international scene.
International
The Australian shearing team of Daniel McIntyre, Nathan Meaney and Jamie Boohman beat the New Zealand team of Leon Samuels, Jack Fagan and Chris Vickers in the transtasman shearing test, having also won by a big margin at Katanning, Western Australia, in October.
A New Zealand team of Rimene and Hanson had won the woolhandling test on Friday night.
Senior shearing champion Bruce Grace, of Waitoa, at the Golden Shears. Photo / Pete Nikolaison
Young Wairoa shearers Bruce Grace and Ryka Swann saved some face for Hawke’s Bay after the region’s rare absence from the open final, by winning the senior and intermediate shearing finals respectively.
Grace, 21, works for four-times open champion John Kirkpatrick and had all season challenged for senior honours with Laura Bradley, of Papatawa between Dannevirke and Woodville, and Ōamaru shearer John Cherrington, the trio having collectively won 21 of the finals throughout the country.
Bradley had won 10, Cherrington six, and Grace five, but in the 12-sheep final Grace finished first, in 12m 36.551s, carded the best quality points, and beat runner-up Cherrington by more than four points overall, while Bradley was fourth.
Ryka Swann’s win in the intermediate shearing final secured him his second Golden Shears Championship, at the age of just 19.
He won the novice title at 14 in 2020, and his sister Ashlin won last year, aged 15.
Despite being more than two years into a building career Swann continues to do the shearing shows with Ashlin, her twin sister, Shawna, and dad Paul, all travelling from the family farm west of Wairoa.
Swann shore the eight sheep in 9m 58.567s, the only finalist to cut under 10 minutes.
However, it was close in the final count, with victory coming by just 0.458pts from runner-up and 2024 junior winner Kaivah Cooper, a Napier workmate of senior winner Bruce Grace.
Junior shearing
The junior shearing final came down to a two-man South Island head to head, between 16-year-old Ōamaru shearer Tye Meikle, whose 12 wins throughout the season is the most by any shearer or woolhandler in any grade in 2024-25, and Paddy Hudson, of Hokonui, who had to be talked into entering a competition for the first time seven weeks ago.
After beating Meikle in his two outings, Hudson still had to be talked into going to Masterton for the Shears.
Both were beaten to the finish by Irish shearer Joseph Scahill, of County Mayo, who shore the five sheep in 7m 4.961s, but who had to settle for third place as the young southern guns came through with the quality.
Hudson claimed the vaunted red ribbon by just 0.435pts, thwarting Meikle’s bid to win the event his father won in 1993.
The 19-year-old Hudson, who works for Gore contractor Jamie McConnachie, has the distinction of already having won on three classes of wool in national title events – full wool at Lumsden on January 19, lambs 24 hours later at the Winton A&P Show’s national crossbred lambshearing championships, and the second-shear ewes of the Golden Shears.
He also won on second-shear ewes at Āpiti near Feilding, seven days before the Golden Shears.
Southland’s woolhandling honour
Lucy Elers, of Mataura, won the senior woolhandling title at the 2025 Golden Shears. Photo / Pete Nikolaison
The senior and junior woolhandling titles went to Southland-based competitors, headed by the senior win to Mataura teenager Lucy Elers, 12 months after she won the junior title.
Elfers won from three North Island opponents to record her second senior win, having won at Lumsden in January, but it was a close call with victory coming by less than two points from Tatijana Keefe, of Raupunga.
The junior final provided the first career win for Gore-based Jasmine Emery, of Ōamaru, with a comfortable margin from runner-up Grace Croasdale, of Eketāhuna.
Golden Shears International Shearing and Woolhandling Championships results
Regional Challenge (7 sheep – 3 long wool, 4 second-shear): North Island West (Jack Fagan/Taelor Tarrant) 8m 3.11s, 30.726pts, 1; South Island Region 3 (Justin Meikle/John Cherrington) 8m 28.577s, 33.149pts, 2; Central Region 1 (Angus Moore/Timo Hicks) 8m 14.118s, 33.276pts, 3; North Island East (Bruce Grace/Josef Winders) 8m 31.641s, 34.302pts, 4; North Island North (Toa Henderson/Tommy Stevenson) 8m 4.823s, 35.241pts, 5; South Island Region 4 (Brett Roberts/Dre Roberts) 8m 18.193s, 35.765pts, 6.
FMG Best Quality in hearing heats: Junior – Tom Clarkson (Martinborough) 3pts; Intermediate – Owen Martin Jones (Llangollen, Wales) 3.34pts; Senior – John Cherrington (Ōamaru) 3.5pts; Open – Nathan Stratford (Invercargill) 2.8pts. Local: Junior Tom Clarkson (Martinborough) 3pts; Intermediate – Cushla Abraham (Masterton) 7.66pts; Senior – Daniel Seed (Pahiatua) 5.25pts; Open – Hemi Braddick (Eketāhuna) 4.2pts.
Best quality points in shearing finals: Junior – Paddy Hudson (Hokonui) 6.4pts; Intermediate – Kaivah Cooper (Napier) 6.75pts; Senior – Bruce Grace (Wairoa/Napier) 7.24pts; Open – Casey Bailey (Rivertonn) 5.1pts.
R.E.O’Hara Memorial Trophy (best quality points all shearing finals): Casey Bailey.
Les Field Memorial Trophy Best Quality points in woolhandling heats: Junior – Ashley McConnon (Tasmania) 39pts, 1; Senior – Kelly Barrett (Kawhia) 72pts; Open – Monica Potae (Kennedy Bay) 52pts, 3.
