The Golden Shears and world shearing and woolhandling championships which came to a noisy conclusion in the War Memorial Stadium in Masterton on Saturday night were a huge success.
The weather gods did everything they could to test the patience of organisers of an event attracting competitors from 25 nations.
But apart from making a din on the tin roof the gale force winds and heavy rain had little effect on what was happening inside.
If anything it only added to the excitement, especially on Saturday night when a full house of about 1500 people, including Prime Minister John Key and Governor General Sir Jerry Mateparae, thoroughly exercised their vocal chords as a series of high profile finals were staged.
No doubt most of the crowd were anticipating a Kiwi blitz in the machine shearing and woolhandling world championship deciders but a Taranaki-based Scotsman in Gavin Mutch proved to be the party pooper.