Masterton shearer Paerata Abraham, seen here in his biggest win, the National Shearing Circuit final in Masterton in 2019.
Masterton shearer Paerata Abraham, seen here in his biggest win, the National Shearing Circuit final in Masterton in 2019.
It was a big weekend for Masterton shearer Paerata Abraham, who had two title wins – 24 hours and over 1000km apart - after scoring just three show-shearing open-finals in more than a decade of trying.
On Saturday, Abraham won the New Zealand Crossbred Lambs final at the Winton A&P Show in Southland, beating defending champion and speed shear rival Jack Fagan by just over a point.
Then on Sunday, he won the Royal New Zealand Horowhenua AP & I Show’s final in Levin, by just under a point from Welsh shearer, and 2023 UK tour test match rival, Gethin Lewis.
While amassing a range of speed shear wins over the years, including another in Southland on Thursday, Abraham’s only previous open show wins were at the Mayfield A and P Show in Canterbury in 2018, and in the premier multi-wools events - the PGG Wrightson National Shearing Circuit final at the Golden Shears in 2019 - and the New Zealand Shears Circuit final in Te Kuiti last year.
The latest wins came on the biggest weekend of the season, comprising six of the 59 shows on the Shearing Sports New Zealand calendar - notable for the return to the prize list of two world champions, the emergence of main shear arrivals from the UK, and a competitor list totalling over 300 competitors nationwide, including more than 200 shearers.
Cam Ferguson, 2010 Golden Shears Open and World Shearing Champion, now of Otane, was third in the Horowhenua Shears open final, a day after reaching the semifinals at the Wairoa Shears in Northern Hawke’s Bay, where he also won a Friday-night speed shear.
Ferguson has had only a handful of competitions since finishing third in the 2019 World Championships final in France.
He last won a final in New Zealand at Mayfield almost eight years ago but is buoyed by the chance to follow his children to the shows.
This includes 11-year-old Izzy, who shore in the novice grades at the weekend - after honing his style and skills in teddy bear-mimicry on the lounge floor at home.
Former world shearing champion Cam Ferguson watches over 11-year-old son Izzy, competing in the novice grade at the Wairoa Shears on Saturday.
On Friday, current New Zealand representative Nathan Stratford, of Invercargill, won the New Zealand Full Wool Open Shearing title for a seventh time, during the championships at the Northern Southland Community Shears in a woolshed near Lumsden.
Gisborne’s Joel Henare won the open woolhandling title for the ninth time, taking him to a career tally of 137 open woolhandling wins.
The Wairoa Shears was held in the Kauhouroa woolshed near Frasertown on Saturday - as the Wairoa showgrounds are still out of action after the damage caused by Cyclone Gabrielle and other weather events.
The Shears had its fastest 20-sheep open final, in what became a match race between Scotland international and former World Champion Gavin Mutch, who farms near Dannevirke, and world nine-hour lamb shearing record-holder, and 2019 World Championships England representative, Stuart Connor, who moved to Hawke’s Bay late last year.
Connor sheared the 20 well-wooled second-shear sheep in 15min 55sec – less than 48 seconds a sheep, caught, shorn and dispatched.
However, the five seconds by which he beat Mutch off the board was not enough in the final count, as Mutch successfully defended a title he won last year in a quality points count after a rare dead-heat on total points.
The open woolhandling final at the Royal Show was won by Napier woolhandler Jasmin Tipoki.
About a quarter of the 78 shearers at Wairoa were from overseas, with success for Irish shearers Paddy Dunne, of Wicklow, and Kevin Noone, of Donegal, who won the junior and novice finals respectively.
At Levin on Sunday, Luke Parkhouse, of Devon, England, won the intermediate final, and Elis Jones, from Wales, won the junior event.
Meanwhile, Northland shearer Toa Henderson, of Kaiwaka, won the Kaikohe Show’s open final on Saturday, signalling he’ll be a contender heading south to A-grade competition at the Taihape A&P Show next Saturday, and Travers Baigent, of Wakefield, won the Golden Bay show’s open final at Takaka.
Shearing and woolhandling results from the weekend
Friday, January 19
Northern Southland Community Shears’ NZ Full Wool Shearing and Woolhandling Championships
Open final (12 sheep): Travers Baigent (Wakefield) 16min 21.19sec, 74.64pts, 1; Chris Jones (Renwick) 20min 19.94sec, 79.5pts, 2; Nick Nalder (Takaka) 17min 59.97sec,91.75pts, 3.
Senior final (10 sheep): Michael Johnstone (-)16min 10.28sec, 55.81pts, 1; Hamish Barker (Nelson) 15min 7.1sec, 59.36pts, 2.
