Cushla Abraham on her way to a stunning win in the New Zealand Merino Shears open woolhandling final. Photo / Barbara Newton.
Cushla Abraham on her way to a stunning win in the New Zealand Merino Shears open woolhandling final. Photo / Barbara Newton.
Masterton woolhandler Cushla Abraham brought both form and a major surprise when she won the New Zealand Merino Championships open woolhandling title at Alexandra on Saturday.
The dominating performance, spearheaded by exceptional fleece quality points in the final, won her a place in the New Zealand team for the post-Covid resumption of transtasman tests in Bendigo, Victoria on October 21.
The black shirt marks a unique double, emulating husband and shearing contracting business partner Paerata Abraham, who shore in the last two pre-Covid tests, after winning the 2019 PGG Wrightson National Shearing Circuit.
It was a determined and consummate triumph from the 33-year-old mum-of-two, who underwent weight-loss surgery to shed 44kg in the last year and overcome diabetes.
The health issues had started to control her life since the birth of her first child 10 years ago.
Her performance landed her the top qualifying spot among the 27 woolhandlers in the heats on Friday.
She repeated the form through the semifinals to Saturday's final, in which she beat the only three other competitors to have won the Shearing Sports New Zealand season's opening major title in the last decade.
The runner-up was the four-times winner and 2019 World Teams champion Pagan Rimene, of Alexandra and 2013 winner Amy Ferguson, of Alexandra, finished third.
Fourth place went to four-time winner, and 2012 and 2017 world champion Joel Henare, from Gisborne.
Abraham finished runner-up to Henare, in her first season of open woolhandling in 2012, while she was pregnant with her first child.
Abraham hadn't reached an Alexandra final since.
She'd had just two open-class wins, at the Rangitikei Shearing Sports in Marton in February 2015 and at her home Wairarapa A and P Show at Clareville, Carterton, in October 2016.
Since then, she'd contested just four finals despite being at almost every competition, also live-streaming events with family operation Shedtalk.
It was as a shearer that Abraham, in pre-married days as Cushla Gordon, first came to light, as the winner of the Golden Shears novice shearing final in 2008 - a title also won by brothers David in 2010 and Adam in 2019.
Third brother Joseph has also been a multiple winner in the lower shearing grades.
Cushla and Paerata will be back in the South Island later in the week, for the Waimate Spring Shears on Friday and Saturday.
They expect to both be in Australia – Paerata in support, just as Cushla was when he was in the team three years ago.
For Cushla it will be the start of a chase for the ultimate goal this season, to win a place in the New Zealand team for the 2023 World Championships in Scotland.
Meanwhile, it was also a big day on Saturday for record-breaking shearer Stacey Te Huia, partly to realise the dream of New Zealand transtasman team selection, which he finally achieved as best Kiwi in the Shears' open shearing final.
Huia, originally from the North Island, has been based in Central Otago now for five years.
He was runner-up to Australian champion Daniel McIntyre, from northeastern New South Wales town Glen Innes.
McIntyre reasserted the Australian dominance of New Zealand's top fine wool merino-shearing event, which was established by West Australia gun Damien Boyle's eight wins between 2010 and 2019.
Third was three-time winner Nathan Stratford, with Leon Samuels in fourth.
They round out the Invercargill shearers with whom Te Huia is expected to compete within the test in Australia later this month, and the return match at the Golden Shears in Masterton on March 4.
Daniel McIntyre reasserts Australia's recent dominance of New Zealand's major fine wool shearing title by winning the New Zealand Merino Shears open final in Alexandra. Photo / Barbara Newtone
Te Huia, now 44, has set shearing records on both sides of the Tasman - most notably the eight-hours solo strong wool record of 603 he shore at Mangapehi, near Bennydale, in 2010, and the still-standing two-stand, nine-hours strong wool ewes record of 1341 he shore two years later with Waikaretu shearer Sam Welch, at Te Hape, also near Bennydale.
Not to mention the nine-hours merino ewes tally of 530 he shore near Dubbo, NSW, in February 2015.
But despite those heights he thought he wasn't handling the pressure of the few competition finals he'd reached, and made the strategic step of switching contractors for part of the season so that he could learn more from Hawke's Bay shearer Ariki Hawkins, working for Stringer Shearing, of Ranfurly.
McIntyre also spearheaded a team from Australia's REDI-e First Nation Australia contingent, mainly the trainers, to a shearing and woolhandling win over a NZ Merino Shears team, comprising top qualifiers from the open and senior grades.
Russell Ratima, from Aria and having established his merinos credentials with a win in the New Zealand Winter Comb senior final in Waimate last year, won Saturday's senior shearing final by just 0.25pts from Mitchell Menzies, of Ranfurly.
The senior woolhandling final was won by Tamara Marshall, of Waikaretu, and the junior final was won by Shakira Matenga, from North Otago.
About 150 competitors took part - more than 20 up on last year's 60th-anniversary celebration.
Society president Lane McSkimming said it was noticeable that the championships had attracted a lot more support from outside the shearing industry and from the wider community level than in recent years.
The Waimate Spring Shears, with crossbred full wool and fine wool winter comb titles at stake, are on Friday next weekend.
After that, competitors - particularly the woolhandlers - head north for the first North Island shearing and woolhandling championships of the season at the Poverty Bay A and P Shows on October 15 and the Hawke's Bay show's Great Raihania Shears six days later.
Results from the New Zealand Merino Shears shearing and woolhandling championships at Alexandra on Friday-Saturday September 30-October 1:
Shearing:
Open final (12 sheep): Daniel McIntyre (Glen Innes, NSW) 23min 32sec, 81.0167pts, 1; Stacey Te Huia (Alexandra) 22min 44.81sec, 90.0738pts, 2; Nathan Stratford (Alexandra) 24min 30.12sec, 90.0893pts, 3; Leon Samuels (Alexandra) 22min 31.63sec, 90.1648pts, 4; Angus Moore (Seddon) 23min 10.31sec, 92.2655pts, 5; Paul Robertson (West Australia) 26min 19.46sec, 108.1397pts, 6.
Junior: Shakira Matenga (North Otago) 184.744pts, 1; Jamie Penfold (-) 190.726pts, 2; Emma Martin (Gore) 200.7pts, 3; Tia Manson Piopio) 204.82pts, 4.
Shearing and woolhandling:
Transtasman (four sheep): REDI-e First Nation Indigenous Australia (Daniel McIntyre, Dom White, Angela Wakely, Kristal Weatherall) 10min 8.13sec, 281.813pts, beat NZ Merino Shears (Angus Moore, Scott Cameron, Cushla Abraham, Tamara Marshall) 10min 4.16sec, 352.216pts.
NZ Merino Shears Teams: The Shilly Team 9min 57.06sec, 248.106pts, 1; Team Peter Lyon 10min 25.06sec, 281.906pts, 2; Yeah Nah 10min 26.97sec, 337.497pts, 3.
