Gavin Mutch (foreground) forges ahead of fellow former World Champion John Kirkpatrick to win the Great Raihania Shears open shearing final at the Hawke's Bay A and P Show. Photo / Shearing Sports NZ
Gavin Mutch (foreground) forges ahead of fellow former World Champion John Kirkpatrick to win the Great Raihania Shears open shearing final at the Hawke's Bay A and P Show. Photo / Shearing Sports NZ
It looked a bit painful, but nothing was too much for Dannevirke farmer Gavin Mutch as he added the Great Raihania Shears to a string of open titles at the Hawke’s Bay A and P Show in Hastings on Friday.
Buckling his left leg as he got ready for the start of the four-man final, over 20 sheep each, Scotland international Mutch held it together to outpace the opposition and beat fellow former World and Golden Shears champion John Kirkpatrick by 1min 46sec – and with a healthy advantage in the shearing-board penalties count, Mutch won the showdown by a clear three points.
Third was Brook Hamerton, of Hastings, and fourth was Lionel Taumata, of Gore.
The Great Raihania Shears is named after Rimitiriu Raihania, who in 1902 won a Hawke’s Bay show title believed to have been the first machine-shearing competition in the world.
In his 26th season in New Zealand since arriving in 1999 to win 12 finals and become the No 1-ranked junior in his first summer Downunder in 1999-2000, Mutch had only reached a final at the Hawke’s Bay show since the competition was revived in 2004.
Friday’s win was Mutch’s 28th open competition in New Zealand, but there have been some big wins in the 2012 World Championship and the 2015 Golden Shears Open.
Other national title events include the national lamb shearing championships at Raglan in 2007, the New Zealand Corriedale Championships in Christchurch in 2020, the Waimate Spring Shears in 2022, and the prominent A-grade title the Taihape A and P Show open in 2021.
He’s also shorn in 10 Golden Shears open finals, four New Zealand Shears open finals, and finals of the National Shearing Circuit, in which he is currently hunting down a qualifying top 12 position in eighth place with 10 points after two rounds.
Laura Bradley, of Papatawa, also in Southern Hawke’s Bay, moved a step closer to becoming the first woman to be promoted to open class based on wins in senior competition when she won the senior final over eight sheep each.
Bradley won four senior finals last summer and Friday’s effort included beating Bruce Grace, from Wairoa, who had started the season with a national senior title at Waimate and a Gisborne show title in the previous fortnight, and John Cherrington, of Huntly, who had won at the Ellesmere A and P Show in Canterbury the previous Saturday.
Jasmin Tipoki, of Napier, had the biggest of her three wins in open woolhandling, crowning a day of successes for Napier-based family shearing operation Puna Shearing, with partner Paraki Puna winning the open shearing plate, and workmate Te Whetu Brown winning the senior woolhandling final.
Ngaira Puha (left) and Jasmin Tipoki in Friday's battle for the Great Raihania Shears open woolhandling crown. Tipoki won the title and Puha, the defending champion, was third. Photo / Shearing Sports NZ
It was a close call for Tipoki, a former No 1-ranked senior, who won by less than three points from 2022-2024 New Zealand representative Cushla Abraham, of Masterton.
Third place went to defending Great Raihania Shears open champion Ngaira Puha, of Kimbolton, and fourth to Marika Braddick, of Eketāhuna.
Blake Mitchell, of Patea, won the intermediate shearing final, and George Peacock, of Waipukurau, won the junior final, with Gisborne’s Jodiesha Kirkpatrick the runner-up.
Kirkpatrick also won the junior woolhandling final, all but repeating a unique double she had claimed at her home show on October 19.
The competitions attracted 116 entries, comprising 76 in the shearing events and 40 in woolhandling.
There were 25 in the open shearing and 16 in the open woolhandling.
On Thursday, Napier Boys High School’s first XV rugby lock George Prouting won the 12th Hawke’s Bay Show Secondary Schools Challenge, which attracted 25 teenagers and is the only event of its type in New Zealand.
The competition included tuition from former World Champion and multiple Golden Shears open champion Rowland Smith and training guru Pete Chilcott.
With the Manawatu A and P Show Shears cancelled, the next competition in the North Island is the Wairarapa Spring Shears Shearing and Woolhandling Championships at the Wairarapa A and P Show, at Clareville, Carterton, next Sunday.
With the Northern A and P Show’s Rangiora Shears cancelled at the weekend, the next competition in the South Island is the Ashburton A and P show next Saturday.
Results from the Great Raihania Shears
Hawke’s Bay A and P Show, Hastings, on Friday, October 25, 2024.
