The 2024 New Zealand Shears Open Champion’s treble comprised his second national full wool ewes title at the Northern Southland Community Shears near Lumsden on Friday, a fourth Southland Shears New Zealand crossbred lamb shearing championship at the Winton A and P Show on Saturday, and a return to the North Island to win the Horowhenua Open Championship in Levin on Sunday.
The last time the treble was achieved was in 2016 by 2014 World Champion Rowland Smith, who on Saturday won the Wairoa Shears open final at Kauhouroa Station, north of Frasertown, by just 0.15 points from 2012 World Champion and Hawke’s Bay-based Scotsman Gavin Mutch.
All were 20-sheep finals, the winners preparing for a 2026 World Championships New Zealand selection series, that spans eight competitions from the Southern Shears in Gore next month to the Rangitīkei Shearing Sports in February 2026.
Third leading contender and 2023-2024 season national No. 1-ranked open shearer Toa Henderson stayed in the north to win Saturday’s Kaikohe Show open final. In the sixth competition of the busiest weekend on the Shearing Sports New Zealand calendar, Tasman-based former Southland shearer Floyd Haare won the Golden Bay A and P Show’s open final in Takaka.
Two-time World Champion Joel Henare and Foonie Waihape, both originally from Gisborne but based in the South Island, won the two national open woolhandling titles, at Lumsden and Winton respectively.
Southern Hawke’s Bay shearer Laura Bradley added to the success of the invasion from the north by winning the Lumsden senior shearing final.
Bradley is thought to be the first woman to win the title in its 43 years and extends a record which will next season see the young mother and farmer become the first woman promoted to open class based on competition results.
On the lambs the next day she was third, beaten by Waikato shearer John Cherrington and Southlander Chris Malcolm.
The pride of the South in its own competitions thus rested largely on an 18-year-old who had never been in a shearing competition before but came out of the weekend with two national junior shearing titles.
Paddy Hudson, who grew up on a Hokonui sheep farm, started shearing about a year ago and succumbed to coercion from mates who told him competing would make him a better shearer.
He then won the Lumsden and Winton junior shearing finals, in both events relegating to second place 16-year-old Ōamaru shearer Tye Meikle, currently the No. 1-ranked junior this season with wins as far afield as Canterbury and Northland.
A feature of the weekend was the emergence of shearers from abroad in New Zealand for the main shear, including German shearer Julian Karl, who won the intermediate shearing final at Winton, after finishing second to Gore shearer Jet Schimanski at Lumsden 24 hours earlier.
At the Wairoa event, the first three in the novice event were from the United Kingdom, with a win to Mary Lucas Ridge, from Somerset, England, while local Cody Mackinder successfully repelled the challenge from the three UK shearers on the other stands in his senior final.
In Levin, Irish shearers Paddy Dunne and Adam Killeen won the intermediate and junior shearing finals respectively, while, as well as Ireland and Germany, Wales, England, Scotland, France, Czech Republic, Norway, the United States, and Australia had competitors in finals during the weekend.
In the other national title events in Southland, Marilyn Harrison, from Balclutha, won both junior woolhandling finals, and the senior titles were shared, with Lucy Elers, of Mataura, winning at Lumsden, and runner-up Tre Ratana Sciascia, from Taihape, claiming the honours at Winton.
There were several speed shears during the weekend, with Mutch winning at the Wairoa Shears on Friday night and the next night at the new YMP Sports Speed Shear at Paroa Station, near Raupunga, before heading home to help at Rotorua shearer Jamie Skiffington’s world record attempt near Dannevirke.
In Southland, Paerata Abraham, of Masterton, won the open speed shear at Winton’s Middle Pub, and the Otautau Taven speedshear on Saturday was won by Jack Fagan, of Te Kuiti.
The only competitions next weekend are the A-grade Taihape Shearing and Woolhandling Championships in the North Island and the shearing-only Tapawera Shears south of Nelson in the South Island, both on Saturday.
Weekend shearing and woolhandling results
Lumsden
Results from the Northern Southland Community Shears New Zealand Full Wool Shearing and Woolhandling Championships at Selbies’ Woolshed, Lumsden, on Friday, January 17, 2025:
Open final: Joel Henare (Gisborne) 109.044pts, 1; Nova Kumeroa (Mataura) 121.288pts, 2; Heaven Little (Balclutha) 184.182pts, 3; Tina Elers (Mataura) 4; Taiwha Nelson (Alexandra) 5.
Results from the Southland Shears New Zealand Crossbred Lambs Shearing and Woolhandling Championships at the Winton A and P Show on Saturday, January 18, 2025:
Shearing:
Open final (20 lambs): David Buick (Pongaroa) 17m 32.17s, 57.8085pts, 1; Jack Fagan (Te Kuiti) 17m 34.34s, 59.567pts, 2; Leon Samuels (Roxburgh) 18m 5.59s, 60.0295pts, 3; John Kirkpatrick (Pakipaki) 18m 20.32s, 60.966pts, 4; Corey Palmer (Dipton) 18m 43.65s, 5; Casey Bailey (Riverton) 18m 25.75s, 62.9375pts, 6.
Senior final (10 sheep): John Cherrington (Ngāruawāhia) 11m 31.34s, 42.467pts, 1; Chris Malcolm (Winton) 11m 4.6s, 42.73pts, 2; Laura Bradley (Papatawa) 12m 28.66s, 43.833pts, 3; James Wilson (Winton) 13m 34.75s, 47.1375pts, 4; Richard Lancaster (England) 13m 28.91s, 47.8455pts, 5; Corentin Plancon (Grenoble, France) 12m 15.41s, 49.8705pts, 6.