Ngaio Hanson, who on Friday won an open woolhandling final for the first time, seen here seven days earlier when placed second for the ninth time in three seasons. Photo / SSNZ
Ngaio Hanson, who on Friday won an open woolhandling final for the first time, seen here seven days earlier when placed second for the ninth time in three seasons. Photo / SSNZ
But it reached another level on Friday when she won the Danevirke A&P Show’s open final.
It was Hanson’s first open final win after years of trying, including nine second-placings in the last three seasons.
Those placings had rich rewards though, as a second placing in a world championships selection final at the Golden Shears in 2023 got her to Scotland later in the year, and her transtasman series position came after she was second in the North Island Woolhandling Circuit open final in March.
Preparing for a new world championships selection series, starting in Gore at the end of this week, there was a clear indication something big was about to happen last week when Hanson was runner-up at Taihape to another first-time open woolhandling final winner in Vinniye Phillips, of Taumarunui.
“Yup finally got it,” she said on Saturday as she was preparing for competition again, at the Rangitīkei Shearing Sports in Marton, where ultimately she missed out on a place in the six for the final, in which Phillips was again the winner.
Hanson’s win came at the show where sister Emaraina Braddick scored her first open woolhandling win in 2016, while another sister, Ana Braddick, joined the list of winners in the family when she claimed the Taihape A&P Show title last year.
Brother Hemi Braddick won his first open shearing title in 2022, after eight years of trying; while yet another sister, Marika, was third in both finals at the weekend.
It came during a big weekend in the lower North Island, in which 175 shearers and woolhandlers competed at Dannevirke, most then heading to Marton where the entries totalled 228, including 166 shearers.
The numbers now pose questions for organisers wondering how to handle even greater numbers next year, with hundreds of competitors from overseas gathering to either compete in or support the 2022 World Championships in Masterton.
Meanwhile, other leading Kiwi hopes for the New Zealand selection series (to decide two machine shearers, two blade shearers and two woolhandlers), were in winning form at Dannevirke and Marton.
Invercargill shearer, and 2017 world teams title winner Nathan Stratford, won a four-man final at Dannevirke, by three points from Reuben Alabaster of Taihape.
Stratford’s trademark quality more than compensated for finishing over two minutes after first-man-off Clay Harris, of Piopio, who sheared his 20 sheep in 14min 45sec.
The open shearing final at the Rangitīkei Shearing Sports. Winner David Buick (left), runner-up Toa Henderson, Axle Reid (sixth), David Gordon (third), Digger Balme (fifth), and Nathan Stratford (fourth). Photo / SSNZ
Buick won by 0.393pts from defending champion and Northland shearer Toa Henderson, who had won their race for time honours by just over seven seconds in shearing the 20 in 15m 12.81s.
Hawke’s Bay shearer and 2014 World Champion Rowland Smith was second to top qualifier from the heats to the semifinal at Dannevirke but missed a place in the final as he did also on Saturday at Marton.
There was yet another big effort from Central Hawke’s Bay shearer Axle Reid, originally from Taihape, in being comfortably the top qualifier for the Marton final - although he had to settle for sixth place in the end.
While shearers from overseas were kept away from the other winning red ribbons after a succession of wins and other top placings in the last fortnight, there was more success for the southern hopes with Dre Roberts, of Mataura, winning the senior shearing final at Marton, after failing to make the semifinals in the senior event at Dannevirke 24 hours earlier, won by Daniel Seed, of Pahīatua.
Southland shearer Dre Roberts sends his last sheep away in winning the senior shearing final at the Rangitīkei Shearing Sports in Marton on Saturday. Photo / SSNZ
The senior woolhandling finals were also shared, with Tatijana Keefe, of Raupunga, winning at Dannevirke, and Amy Bell, of Weber, winning at Marton.
Elsewhere on Saturday, Dane Phillips won the North Kaipara A&P Show open final at Paparoa for a second time in three years, while in the South Island, Paul Hodges travelled back from working in the North Island to dominate the lambs at the Inangahua A&P Show’s Reefton Shears to win its open final for a second time.
Hodges previously won the event in 2018 when he was in his second season in the open class.
Also at Reefton 2019 world blade teams champions Tony Dobbs, of Fairlie, and Hutt Valley-based Allan Oldfield, from Geraldine, got their bids for places at the world championships by finishing first and second respectively, in the first round of a selection series which ends in Christchurch in November.
The shearing sports season continues with the Aria Waitangi Day Sports on Saturday, with three competitions, including the long-established A grade show the Otago Shears Shearing and Woolhandling Championships at Carterhope Estate, Te Houka, south of Balclutha.
The other two competitions on Saturday are shearing-only events at the Northern Wairoa Arapohue and Te Puke A&P shows.
The New Zealand team machine shearing and woolhandling selection series starts at the Southern Shears in Gore on February 14-15.
Shearing and woolhandling results
Dannevirke A&P Show Shearing and Woolhandling Championships
Open final (18 sheep): Dane Phillips (Kaiwaka) 16m 1s, 58.17pts, 1; Neville Osborne (Dargaville) 15m 35s, 55.86pts, 2; Phil Wedd (Silverdale) 58.17pts, 3. Also: Barry Jones (Pukekohe) 4.
