Waimarino shears at Raetihi Showgrounds. Photo/ Bevan Conley
Waimarino shears at Raetihi Showgrounds. Photo/ Bevan Conley
International shearing competition returns to New Zealand turf for the first time in three years when the Waimarino Shears kicks off this weekend.
The annual shearing competition draws in competitors from around the world, with the first competition of a series starting in Raetihi this Saturday.
Shearer, farmer and agricultural contractor Rowland Smith will team up with Invercargill gun Leon Samuels, with hopes to topple new Welsh competitors Gethin Lewis and Dylan Wyn Jones in the upcoming match.
Hawke's Bay shearer Rowland Smith wins the Golden Shears open title for the eighth time. Photo / Pete Nikolaison / Golden Shears Media Group
This will be Smith’s first time taking on international competition since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Smith represented New Zealand in 2011, after taking out the New Zealand Shears Open final in Te Kūiti. Samuels also represented the country in November last year, in a transtasman test match in Australia.
Wales have chosen a second-tier team, with Lewis, of Rhayader and Jones, of Llanwrst both having gained experience in New Zealand and other countries.
Lewis shears for Brendan Mahony, a Napier contractor. He has picked up a few titles, winning the finals at the Counties Shears in 2020, an open final in Llysfasi, Wales, he is a Royal Welsh Open finalist and he has shorn in the Golden Shears in Masterton with a best tally of 634 lambs in one day.
Welsh shearer Gethin Lewis in his Counties Shears senior final win on Sunday in Pukekohe, his first win in New Zealand in three years of trying. Photo / Doug Laing SSNZ.
The shearers will be among more than 80 who have entered into Waimarino Shears, with entries closed and defending Open champion Smith now seeking a ninth win in the event since 2012.
Shearing will take place in the five grades from Open to Novice, with at least seven heats in the lower grade starting on the four-stand board in front of the Raetihi A&P Showgrounds grandstand at 8am.
Waimarino Shears is one of three shearing shows throughout the country on Saturday, with others in Warkworth and Methven.
This report was produced under the Public Interest Journalism initiative, funded by NZ on Air
