The winning New Zealand team from left to right with their heading dogs; Neil Evans(Captain), Brian Dickison, Pat Coogan(NZSTDA President), Leo Jecentho and Ian Stevenson.
The winning New Zealand team from left to right with their heading dogs; Neil Evans(Captain), Brian Dickison, Pat Coogan(NZSTDA President), Leo Jecentho and Ian Stevenson.
Jecentho and Tess were part of the pawsome team of eight who won back the Wayleggo Cup from the Australians.
Over two days, four of the country’s most talented sheepdogs went paw-to-paw with their Australian counterparts and regained victory by 84.25 points.
Jecentho, of Waingaro, and Tess were selected to take part in the tests after winning the short heading category at the North Island championships in May.
Tess once again came out on top at last weekend’s event and even broke a record: She scored the highest points in the competition with 77.5 points in the first test and 91.5 points in the second test - no other dog reached a score above 90.
Jecentho said he’d been competing in dog trial tests for almost 35 years and it had come from his background in farming.
“I started farming when I was really young and I’ve always liked to have good dogs. I’ve had pig dogs and they were good, and the same with my working dogs because I’m a firm believer that the more [work] you put into them the better rewards you get in the end.
“They perform better and everything gets done a lot smoother”, he said.
Waikato farmer Leo Jecentho and heading dog Tess after winning the Wayleggo Cup at the Trans-Tasman Sheep Dog Trials. Photo / NZ Sheep Dog Trial Association Inc.
Jecentho said he never realised how or when his love for dogs turned into a job.
“I’ve always loved sport; I played a lot of rugby, pig hunting, polo cross, and I love my dogs and always played along with them. As I got older I got more serious with the game but I just didn’t realise when it did get so serious.
“I’m a firm believer that competing like that makes your dogs a lot better and your job a lot easier out on the farm. If you don’t train your dogs properly, it’s a pretty hard job because you go and do a job and it takes you all day when it should only take five minutes”, he said.
Jecentho recently lost his best friend and mentor Merv Cameron, but he is continuing to compete in his memory.
“[Merv] passed away just before the competition in May and the last words he said to me were ‘Go out and win it’. He passed away a few hours later.
“There’s a big hole in my life, we’ve travelled hundreds and hundreds of kilometres together and it’s taken a little while to sort of get over that. It wears off slowly but it is hard”, he said.
Jecentho believed his friend was with him in spirit in Ashburton over the weekend, and he would have been “over the moon” with the win.
Leo Jecentho with the Wayleggo Cup at his home in Ngāruawāhia. Photo / Malisha Kumar
Jecentho said, “Being in a test team representing New Zealand is the biggest challenge I’ve had yet, but I’m so overwhelmed by the win”.
New Zealand has now won the Wayleggo Cup 22 times out of 36 matches since the event’s inaugural launch in 1985.
New Zealand Sheep Dog Trial Association President Pat Coogan said “The cup was hard fought, so obviously great to get the win in the end.”
This year’s New Zealand team was captained by Neil Evans and Tess from Canterbury. Jecentho and Tess were competing alongside them, Brian Dickison and Jake from Southland, Ian Stevenson and Zac from Canterbury. Lloyd Smith and Ted from Otago were starting as a reserve duo.
The trial also wrote history this year as for the first time, they had a female representative, Pip Flower and her dog Flowers Fang, who were competing as part of the Australian team.
Malisha Kumar is a multimedia journalist based in Hamilton. She joined the Waikato Herald in 2023 after working for Radio 1XX in Whakatāne.
