Brett Roberts pictured at the Waimate Spring Shears last month. Photo / Doug Laing
Brett Roberts pictured at the Waimate Spring Shears last month. Photo / Doug Laing
Mataura shearer Brett Roberts became the seventh different winner in the first eight open finals of the 2019-2020 New Zealand shearing sports season when he won the Ashburton A and P Show's open final on Saturday.
He was also the fifth different winner in five finals in the South Island, and the fourth from Southland.
Roberts averaged under a minute a sheep and less than a penalty per sheep on the shearing board, finishing the 16 sheep in 14 min 53, with judges on the shearing board putting just 10 strikes against his name.
It gave him a comfortable win by more than two points over runner-up and fellow Southland shearer Ringakaha Paewai, who had won at Rangiora seven days earlier.
It was Roberts' seventh open win graduating to the top class soon after winning the Golden Shears senior title in 2014, but his first of the new season in which he had been fourth on the fine wool of the New Zealand Merino Championship at Alexandra and the strong wool of the Spring Shears in Waimate.
Geraldine shearer Allan Oldfield pictured shearing for New Zealand against Australia at Waimate last month. Photo / Doug Laing
Earlier this year he won Open A grade titles at Lumsden in January and Balclutha in February before finishing third in the PGG Wrightson National final at the Golden Shears in March.
Winton shearer Brandon Maguire Ratima, the 2018 Golden Shears and New Zealand Championships intermediate winner scored his second senior win, with a comfortable margin of three points over runner-up Mitchell Murray, of Gore.
It was much closer in Saturday's intermediate final in which Cody Davidson, of Hakatere, won by just 0.06 points from Ellesmere and Rangiora winner Brayden Clifford, of Gore.
Saving his best for the local show, it was the first win for Davidson who, like Clifford, has shorn in all four Intermediate finals in the South Island this season.
The junior final was also a home-show win for young Ashburton shearer Chase Rattray, winning by more than eight ppoints from runner-up Alice Watson, of Blenheim, a week after winning the Rangiora Junior final by over five points.
New World champion blade shearer Allan Oldfield, of Geraldine, had his first win since his big triumph in France four months ago when he downed World teams champion teammate Tony Dobbs, of Fairlie, further delaying Dobbs' 100th win in an open blade shearing career spanning more than 35 years.
It was the first defeat of the season for 2012 World championships team member Mike O'Connell, who was third.
The South Island season continues next Saturday with the Marlborough A and P Show in Blenheim and the Pleasant Point Gymkhana Shears, ahead of the New Zealand Corriedale shearing and woolhandling championships Canterbury's New Zealand Agricultural Show in Christchurch on November 14-15.
Results from the Ashburton A and P Show Shears on Saturday, November 2, 2019:
Open final (16 sheep): Brett Roberts (Mataura) 14min 53.35sec, 49.04pts, 1; Ringakaha Paewai (Gore) 15min 34.63sec, 51.48pts, 2; Ant Frew (Pleasant Point) 16min 30.21sec, 54.76pts, 3; Lyall Windleburn (Rangiora) 15min 32.85sec, 56.89pts, 4; Grant Smith (Rakaia) 17min 1.31sec, 58.32pts, 5.
