Shearing: New trophy tribute to Beau St George who died in car crash

Waitete Rugby Football Club in Te Kuiti will host the second North Island Speedshear Championships on Friday. Photo / File

The shearing sports will have an unusually-busy post-Christmas resumption this week, particularly in the North Island.

With the competition season having had its annual break through the peak of the year at work in the woolsheds, four days of shearing sports starting on Friday will see two major speedshears, two A and P Show shearing championships and a World Record bid.

The busy weekend opens with the second North Island Speedshear Championships on Friday at Te Kuiti's Waitete Rugby Club, starting at 7pm, with prizes worth more than $6500.

Included is a new memorial trophy commemorating shearer Beau St George who died in a car crash in France last April, just seven weeks before he was to marry his French fiancee.

Beau St George

The trophy will be keenly sought, with a totara base carved locally and blessed by local iwi.

The event also doubles as a fundraiser for the rugby club made most-famous by its history with All Blacks rugby great Sir Colin Meads and for the Te Kuiti Volunteer fire brigade.

The long-standing Te Puna Speedshear, now in its 18th year, will be held on Saturday at the Top Shot Bar, in Te Puna, west of Tauranga, starting at 5.30pm, doubling as a fundraising event in which proceeds will go to Assistance Dog New Zealand to help provide a dog for the autistic son of veteran shearer and longtime event competitor and supporter Digger Balme and wife Cheryl.

The speedshears will each have Open and Senior competitions, with the top prize being $2000 for the respective Open titles.

The first of the shearing championships of 2018 will be at the Peninsula Duvauchelle show near Akaroa on Saturday, starting at 10am, with shearing in the Open, Senior, Intermediate and Junior classes, while a speedshear is also on the programme.

The Tauranga A and P Show's shearing will be held on Sunday, at Tauranga Racecourse, starting at 10am, and also including shearing across the four competition classes.

On Monday the focus turns to Otapawa, east of Eketahuna, where women's eight-hours lamb shearing record holder Kerri-Jo Te Huia will tackle the ultimate goal of a women's nine-hours ewe shearing record.