The crowd enjoys the French All Nations Championship events on Day 3 of the 18th World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships. Photo / Doug Laing
The crowd enjoys the French All Nations Championship events on Day 3 of the 18th World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships. Photo / Doug Laing
The Allflex New Zealand Shearing and Woolhandling team has dominated the last day of the 18th World Championships today by winning three of the six titles in France.
Pride of place went to Canterbury blade shearers Allan Oldfield and Tony Dobbs who scored a double, causing a boilover by beating previous regular champions South Africa in the teams final.
Oldfield and Dobbs then went on to finish first and fourth respectively in the individual championship, with Oldfield beating defending champion Mayenseke Shweni.
Blades team winners Tony Dobbs (left) and individual champion Allan Oldfield. Photo / Doug Laing
Dobbs had previously won the individual title at the 1988 World Championships in Masterton.
Oldfield's win followed a rapid rise, having until three years and two months ago having never won an event.
Taught by father Phil Oldfield, who was third in the 2017 championships, and by Dobbs in a shearing school in 2010, he has won a unique grand slam of four major UK show titles since 2016.
While the trip was the first time he had represented New Zealand at shearing, he had been a national Under 20 representative in axe sports.
Oldfield plans to shear in the UK till the Royal Welsh Show.
Pagan Karauria after winning the French All Nations Open woolhandling final. Photo / Doug Laing
The other triumph was in the teams woolhandling final where Sheree Alabaster, of Taihape, and Pagan Karauria, of Alexandra, maintained New Zealand's stranglehold on the title, from the victory by Joel Henare and Maryanne Baty in Invercargill two years ago.
The New Zealand national anthem was thus played after each of the first three presentations in the lengthy closing ceremony and prizegiving.
Karauria was third in the individual final won by Aled Jones, of Wales, and Alabaster was fourth.
It was however only the third time in the 18 championships since the first in 1977 that New Zealand did not win either of the two machine shearing titles.
The lineup after the French All Nations Open machine shearing final: from left Richard Jones (Wales) 1, Rowland Smith (New Zealand) 2, Gavin Mutch (Scotland) 3, Jack Fagan (New Zealand) 4, Ivan Scott (Ireland) 5, Cam Ferguson (New Zealand) 6. Photo / Doug Laing
Hawke's Bay shearers Rowland Smith and Cam Ferguson were third in the teams event won by Scottish shearers Gavin Mutch and Calum Shaw, and were second and third in the individual event won by Richard Jones, of Wales.
But it was a particularly close call in the individual event, after Smith and Ferguson were the first two to finish the 20-sheep contest, 10 seconds apart, with Northland-raised Smith clocking 14min 32sec.
Jones was over a sheep in arrears but pulled back crucial points in pen judging and beat Smith to the title by just 0.15pts.
Smith and Ferguson are scheduled for one test against England and four against Wales over the next three weeks.
Machine shearing individual runner-up Rowland Smith, with brother Matt Smith, as pen boy. Photo / Doug Laing
The teams event was a big moment for Scotland which will host the next championships at the 20th anniversary Royal Highland Show in Edinburgh in 2022.
New Zealand team manager Ken Payne, of Balclutha, said those who work in the woolsheds in New Zealand are used to tough conditions, but the conditions of the competition in France tested them further.
"Although New Zealand had won four titles in Invercargill two years ago, there were no foregone conclusions about this trip," he said.
Listen to Rowena Duncum's recap of the World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships below:
"We always knew the different sheep breeds and types of wool would be a challenge, then there was the heatwave across Europe – about which we heard plenty while we were in Scotland for the Lochearnhead Shears beforehand."
"There were long days, up at 6am and not home before 10pm, and I think everyone had difficulty sleeping because of the heat," he said.
He said all of the members were physically drained and exhausted early in the week, but it would have been no different for most of the other teams.
"In many ways this was the ultimate test, which is what a World Championships is supposed to be about," he said.
"Once the team switched onto competition mode and the adrenalin took over New Zealand became a formidable opponent across all events, and the performances seemed to get better as things went along."
Results from the 18th Golden Shears World Shearing and Woolhanding Championships in Le Dorat, France, on Thursday-Sunday July 4-7, 2019:
Machine shearing Individual final (20 sheep): Richard Jones (Wales) 15min 30sec, 57.8pts, 1; Rowland Smith (New Zealand) 14min 32sec, 57.95pts, 2; Cam Ferguson (New Zealand) 14min 48sec, 59.8pts, 3; Ivan Scott (Ireland) 15min 26sec, 60pts, 4; Calum Shaw (Scotland) 15min 15sec, 60.9pts, 5; Jack Robinson (Northern Ireland) 17min, 63.65pts, 6.
Teams final (20 sheep): Scotland (Gavin Mutch/Calum Shaw) 14min 36sec, 56.7pts, 1; Wales (Alun Lloyd Jones/Richard Jones) 16min 57sec, 58.25pts, 2; New Zealand (Cam Ferguson/Rowland Smith) 16min 13sec, 61.8pts, 3; England (Adam Berry/Stuart Connor) 16min 42sec, 62.55pts, 4; Northern Ireland (Jack Robinson/Ivan Scott) 16min 53sec, 69pts, 5; France (Loic Leygonie/Thimoleon Resneau) 19min 30sec, 69.6pts, 6.
