The Scotland and New Zealand teams after the Joe Te Kapa Memorial test match, with Emily Te Kapa (centre), a New Zealand and Scotland shearer and daughter of the late Joe Te Kapa. Photo / Supplied
The Scotland and New Zealand teams after the Joe Te Kapa Memorial test match, with Emily Te Kapa (centre), a New Zealand and Scotland shearer and daughter of the late Joe Te Kapa. Photo / Supplied
A small loch-side village became not only a test match venue but also a “Wairarapa of the north”, as the Wools of New Zealand Shearing Sports New Zealand team and supporters invaded the Lochearnhead Shears in Scotland on Saturday.
Unfortunately, it didn’t bring the most desired result of a test match win for team members, and Masterton brothers-in-law Paerata Abraham and David Gordon, who were competing as internationals together for the first time.
The pair were beaten by World Championships third-placegetters, Scots pair Calum Shaw and Hamish Mitchell.
New Zealand team manager Ronny King, of Pahiatua, was impressed by the tour start for Abraham, who shore two transtasman test matches for New Zealand in 2019 and 2020, and Gordon, who was representing New Zealand for the first time.
They were beaten by just two points, the difference being mainly the superior quality of Shaw, who six days earlier was third behind Welsh shearers Gwion Evans and Richard Jones in the World Championships final at the Royal Highland Show.
The one-off Joe Te Kapa Memorial match against Scotland was the first of five tests for the pair, as the formerly annual New Zealand team UK tours resume following three years of cancellations because of the global pandemic.
Paerata Abraham, of Masterton, shearing in the first test of the Wools of New Zealand Shearing Sports New Zealand team UK tour. Scotland won the match at the Lochearnhead Shears on Saturday. Photo / Supplied
However, the Shears did bring a win for another Gordon family member - David’s brother, Adam - who led the support group as Shearing Sports New Zealand No 1-ranked senior shearer.
Adam won the Lochearnhead Shears’ Scottish Blackface senior championship final, emulating David’s win in the event in 2019.
There was further Wairarapa success, with Marika Braddick, of Eketahuna, and sister of World Championships New Zealand team member Ngaio Hanson, finishing fourth in the open woolhandling final, which was won by new World Champion and Lochearnhead local Rosie Keenan.
Also in the frame was Te Kuiti shearer Jack Fagan, who was runner-up in the Shears’ open final, won by Shaw.
New Zealand last won a test at Lochearnhead in 2016, the first such victory for a Kiwi pair since 2003.
The trophy was presented by Te Kapa’s daughter, Emily, who was fourth in the senior final and who shears mainly in New Zealand.
The tour continues with a test against England at the Great Yorkshire Show on July 12 and finishes with three tests against Wales, the first at Cothi on July 22 against the Welsh 2023 New Zealand tour development team of Gethin Lewis and Dylan Jones.
Masterton shearer Adam Gordon on his way to winning the Lochearnhead Shears Scottish Blackface Senior Shearing Championship final in Scotland on Saturday. His brother David Gordon, won the title in 2019. Photo / Supplied
The other tests, at the Royal Welsh Show on July 26, and the Corwen Shears on July 29 will be against a new Welsh team decided during the Royal Welsh Show.
On the last tour in 2019, Rowland Smith and David Buick won a four-test series 3-1, New Zealand’s first shearing series win in Wales for eight years.
