More cancellations for beleaguered shearing calendar

Photo / File

The New Zealand shearing sports season has been set back on its heels by further cancellations which may mean a national championship marking its 50th year could be decided in a woolshed without any spectators.

Among cancellations confirmed today is the Mackenzie Shears national lamb shearing and woolhandling championships, scheduled for Easter Monday; and the Otago Shears, scheduled to be held at Telford Farm, Balclutha on February 12.

The event was being considered as an option for the finals of the PGG Wrightson Vetmed National Shearing Circuit.

Almost two thirds of the Shearing Sports New Zealand 2021-2022 season calendar of 59 shows throughout the country has been cancelled as New Zealand tries to shut out the global pandemic.

While championship rounds at Alexandra (finewool Merino), Waimate (crossbred longwool) and Christchurch (Corriedale) were held in October-November, the remaining shows in the circuit have all been cancelled, prompting the search for options to decide the outcome.

This includes the Rangitikei Sports Shears (lambs), which were to have been shorn this Saturday), and the Pahiatua Shears (second-shear) and Golden Shears (semi-finals and final), which were both also cancelled last year.

Southland shearer Leon Samuels in April 2021 in Te Kuiti, where he won both the national shearing circuit and the New Zealand Shears Circuit. Photo / SSNZ

Circuit committee chairman Warren White said one option had been to stage the finals at the New Zealand Shears in Te Kuiti, where the showdown was eventually shorn last year.

Current hopes are for both the lambs and second-shear rounds to be staged at the Apiti Shears, north of Feilding, which is still scheduled to be held on February 26.

White said consideration was now being given to staging the finals in a woolshed in March.

"There are more than 20 shearers, there are sponsors, and, being the 50th year there is the history we have to consider," he said.

"That all makes us very determined to do all we can to make sure the PGG Wrightson Vetmed National Shearing Circuit still has a final in 2022."

Meetings are being held this week to consider what has become Plan C.

At stake is the McSkimming Memorial Triple Crown, presented in memory of finewool shearing legend Fred McSkimming and on which the series was founded, with just three rounds, in 1972-1973.

It has been decided at the Golden Shears annually since the first presentation in March 1973, apart from last year.

The Circuit has become second only in prestige to the Golden Shears Open title - the winners of the two events becoming automatic selections in the New Zealand transtasman series each summer.

PGG Wrightson has been the major sponsor since 2003.