Gavin Mutch wins big at US National Sheep Shearing Championships

Gavin Mutch winning the Wairoa A and P Show open shearing final on January 21. Nine days later, he won the US national title in Rapid City, South Dakota. Photo / SSNZ

Kiwi shearer Gavin Mutch wasn’t intending to compete in the US National Sheep Shearing Championships - he was there to teach.

But he still won it anyway.

The expatriate Scotsman, 2012 World Shearing Champion and Southern Hawke’s Bay farmer landed in Rapid City, South Dakota, on Monday.

Mutch was a long way from home - “7672 miles” (about 12346 km) from the Dannevirke farm he has been managing since moving from Whangamomona, Taranaki, about three years ago.

Arriving with just a pair of mocassins in his kit, Mutch would have been happy just helping out - training and encouraging younger shearers.

He said he was also content to judge blades and beginners shearing in the pens “out the back”.

However, it was not to be.

“They expected me to compete,” he said, after the appearance on All-American Sheep Day at the Black Hills Stock Show, an event which attracted 331,000 people last year.

Borrowing a handpiece, combs and cutters, he ended the day winning a four-man final, over 12 sheep each, by more than 9pts from five-times US champion Alex Moser.

Mutch was in charge from the start, finishing the first sheep while Moser and fellow finalists Nolan Abel and Kurtis Mooney, were still on the long blow and yet to start the last side.

He maintained the margin to finish the 12 sheep in 16min 40sec, almost a minute but not quite a full sheep ahead of Moser, who finished in 17min 38sec.

Mutch’s success wasn’t hampered by an often-troubling shoulder injury, which in November saw him retiring midway through the Central Hawke’s Bay show final in Waipukurau.

Mutch, who also had the better quality points, said he wasn’t particularly worried about his shoulder on the day.

“It’s workable. It was only a 12-sheep final, so it wasn’t too bad.”

He flew to the US the day after beating 2014 World Champion and multiple Golden Shears winner Rowland Smith in a 20-sheep final at the Wairoa A and P Show on January 21.

Mutch is no stranger to international success.

Winning mainly in Scotland and New Zealand, he’s also won in England, Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland, France, Norway, Australia, Canada, and now the US, to make it 11 countries.

He wondered what would be next.

Mutch was raised on a farm near Huntly, Aberdeenshire in Scotland, where he helped with the shearing from about the age of 10.

After completing an agricultural course, he came to New Zealand at the age of 17, soon making an impact and becoming Shearing Sports New Zealand’s No 1-ranked senior shearer for the 2001-2002 season.

The 43-year-old father-of-four’s wins include the 2012 World Championship individual title in Masterton, the teams’ title with compatriot Hamish Mitchell in Ireland two years later, and in 2015 back in Masterton becoming the only overseas shearer to win the Golden Shears open final.

He’s represented Scotland in seven World Championships, in six countries, from 2005 to 2019.

On his current US trip, he’s taught at shearing schools in Canada and South Dakota, and is now in Montana for another school, before flying to Oregon for two more.

His absence abroad means he misses the Dannevirke show, Saturday’s Rangitikei Shearing Sports North Island championships in Marton, and the Aria Sports in King Country on Waitangi Day.

However, Mutch returns to New Zealand on February 12, in time to tackle the buildup to the Golden Shears in Masterton on March 2-4 and the New Zealand Shears in Te Kuiti on March 30-April 1.