Results from the Wairarapa A and P Show Shears

The Gizzy crew, from left, "No 1 supporter" Kiana Williams, Richmond Ngarangione, Tee Te Maipi, Tira Ngarangione and Te Ua Wilcox. Photo / Supplied

There were signs of “the bug” when almost 70 shearers and woolhandlers competed on Saturday, as the Wairarapa A and P Show cranked back into action after two years of cancellations.

A total of 38 competitors across five classes of shearing from open to novice and 29 across four classes of woolhandling, also from open to novice took part.

Those catching the competition bug included a small crew of younger competitors, who made a 450km-plus trip from Gisborne to Carterton.

Woolhandler Tira Ngarangione, and shearers Te Ua Wilcox, Richmond Ngarangione and Tee Te Maipi, were keen to branch out after good performances at their home show, which opened the shearing sports season a fortnight ago in the North Island. They also performed well at the Hawke’s Bay show’s Great Raihania Shears.

The crew went home with three wins.

Wilcox claimed his first senior shearing title, after placings at both earlier shows, while Ngarangione added the intermediate title to the one he won in Hastings. Te Maipi came fourth in the senior shearing final and Ngarangione won the senior woolhandling final - after being runner-up at both Gisborne and Hastings.

It was a particularly important trip for Ngarangione, who’d previously confined her competition to Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay.

She said she wanted to get points in the North Island Woolhandling Circuit, and the win gave her the maximum of 12 points for the day. This effectively confirmed the crew will hit the road again for her next round at the Central Hawke’s Bay A and P Show in Waipukurau on November 12.

It was nearly an all-Wairarapa day in the open shearing and woolhandling finals, with the only outsider being Southern Hawke’s Bay farmer and Scotland international Gavin Mutch.

He reckoned it was 23 years since he last shore at the Wairarapa Show, but he made it a good one, with victory over Masterton shearers David Gordon, Matene Mason and Hemi Braddick.

It was Mutch’s second win of the season, having won the Waimate Spring Shears open title on October 8. He has competed at five of the eight shows on the calendar so far.

Now 40, the 2012 World and 2015 Golden Shears champion has quickly overcome any disappointment from missing out on a place in the Scotland team. It would have been Mutch’s seventh World Championships, in Scotland next June.

However, he will compete at the Canterbury Shears on November 11, chasing a second New Zealand Corriedales title and more points in his race for all-breeds honours in the PGG Wrightson Vetmed National Shearing Circuit.

Although he said he wasn’t counting, Mutch estimated he’d now won over 90 open titles.

Meanwhile, Cushla Abraham, of Masterton, beat Eketahuna sisters Ngaio Hanson and Marika Braddick in the open woolhandling final, having already won the New Zealand Shears Merino title, and one of two New Zealand team berths, for a transtasman woolhandling test in Bendigo, Victoria, on November 24.

Although Abraham had a busy day, helping with results and live streaming the competitions through her family operation Shedtalk, she still managed to go within a pip of returning to the shearing board’s winning circle, when beaten by just 0.05pts in the intermediate shearing final.

Nuhaka shearer Cheyden Winiana was another who made the best of a long trip by scoring his second junior shearing win in a row, and Napier-based Te Whetu Brown, from Wairoa, completed a similar double by winning the junior woolhandling title.

The novice shearing was won by Rosie Rooderkirk, of Masterton, and the novice woolhandling was won by Emma Buick, daughter of New Zealand representative and Pongaroa shearer David Buck who has had to retire from shearing after being seriously injured in a farm accident.

Results from the Wairarapa A and P Show Shears at Clareville, Carterton, on Saturday, October 29, 2022

Shearing:

Open final (15 sheep): Gavin Mutch (Scotland/Dannevirke) 12min 59sec, 50.4833pts, 1; David Gordon (Masterton) 13min 41sec, 52.65pts, 2; Matene Mason (Masterton) 14min 35sec, 55.2833pts, 3; Hemi Braddick (Eketahuna) 13min 19sec, 56.15pts, 4.

Senior final (8 sheep): Te Ua Wilcox (Gisborne) 10min 13sec, 38.15pts, 1; Danial Biggs (Mangamahu) 10min 6sec, 42.175pts, 2; Joseph Gordon (Masterton) 9min 54sec, 43.835pts, 3; Tee Te Maipi (Gisborne) 10min 32sec, 45.225pts, 4.

Intermediate final (5 sheep): Richmond Ngarangione (Gisborne) 8min 46sec, 42.3pts, 1; Bruce Grace (Napier) 6min 38sec, 42.7pts, 2; Cushla Abraham (Masterton) 9min 7sec, 42.95pts, 3; Michael Buick (Pongaroa) 8min 51sec, 43.155pts, 4.

Junior final (4 sheep): Cheyden Winiana (Nuhaka) 8min 54sec, 41.2pts, 1; Wiomio Paewhenua (Masterton) 8min 34sec, 47.2pts, 2; Emma Kendrick (Feilding) 10min 44sec, 48.7pts, 3; Jake Goldsbury (-) 7min 28sec, 48.9pts, 4.

Novice (1 sheep): Rosie Rooderkirk (Masterton) 5min 8sec, 32.4pts, 1; Kaitlyn Dawson (-) 5min 1sec, 45.05pts, 2; Lochie Cameron (-) 5min 44sec, 49.2pts, 3.

Woolhandling:

Open final: Cushla Abraham (Masterton) 222.88pts, 1; Ngaio Hanson (Eketahuna) 226.54pts, 2; Marika Braddick (Eketahuna) 329.66pts, 3.

Senior final: Tira Ngarangione (Gisborne) 118.53pts, 1; Samantha Baxter (Pongaroa) 125.82pts, 2; Rochelle Axford (Marton) 141.59pts, 3.

Junior final: Te Whetu Brown (Wairoa) 115.75pts, 1; Elma Brown 120.07pts, 2; Waiari Puna (Napier) 141.31pts, 3.

Novice: Emma Buick (Pongaroa) 127.97pts, 1; Manahi Fox (Masterton) 143.22pts, 2; Andrew Hemi (-) 162.72pts, 3.