South Canterbury farmer Tony Dobbs has become the first person in the world to win 100 open blade-shearing finals.
The win came on the second and last night of the 43rd Waimate Shears New Zealand Spring championships, in which he first competed in 1979.
He won the intermediate blades final there two years later, and in 1985, had the first of his now 13 wins in the open event – two more than the championships' next most successful competitor, legendary machine shearer Sir David Fagan, who was on-hand to witness Dobbs' triumph, hailed with a standing ovation.
Three days before the event the 58-year-old Dobbs, who farms near Fairlie, said he had barely shorn any sheep with the blades since he won a world teams title, with fellow South Canterbury shearer Allan Oldfield in France in July 2019.
Dobbs doubted whether he had had anything like the right sort of preparation to win the first event of the season.
But he was certainly in the right form for the six man showdown of four sheep each.
He finished third-off in just under 15mins, beating individual runner-up and reigning individual world champion Oldfield, (on both time and in the final count), with a winning margin of 1.645pts.
Jubilant Tony Dobbs after winning his 100th blade shearing title on Saturday night in Waimate. Photo / Jills Angus Burney
Third was Mike McConnell, of Waikari, who was the 2019 Waimate winner, 2019-2020 No 1-ranked blade shearer and 2012 world championships representative.
The other big winner of the night was veteran Hawke's Bay gun and 2017 world champion John Kirkpatrick, who won the open machine-shearing final.
Third to finish, (18 seconds after first-man-off Troy Pyper), and with just 40 seconds separating the first five off the board, all averaging under a minute a sheep for the 16 across the board, Kirkpatrick had the best quality points overall to beat win by 2.3265pts from Mataura shearer and runner-up Brett Roberts, who headed a three-man Southland attack, with Leon Samuels, of Invercargill third, and Pyper, of Invercargill but now based in Amberley, fourth.
It was Kirkpatrick's first win on the long wool of the Waimate Shears - despite now having 189 wins to his name in open class machine shearing in 26 years, second worldwide behind only to Fagan's tally of more than 640.
Meanwhile, Pagan Karauria, of Alexandra, successfully defended the open woolhandling title she won for the first time last year, but had to settle for third in a South Island Circuit final in which Kelly MacDonald, of Lake Hawea, secured her first A-grade woolhandling title, to go with a Junior shearing title she won at Waimate six years ago.
Alexandra woolhandler Karauria again got her season off to a good start when she successfully defended the Waimate Shears open woolhandling final.
Going into the four-table full wool showdown as top qualifier from the semi-finals, it was Karauria's third winning start to a season in a row, with victory by 10pts over runner-up and No 1-ranked 2019-2020 open woolhandler Keryn Herbert, of Te Kuiti, who had been top qualifier among the 17 in the heats.
It was Karauria's 33rd individual open win, including a French All-Nations championship last year in France where she also claimed a world teams title.
Hawke's Bay shearer John Kirkpatrick after his open machine shearing final win - his first win at Waimate despite having won 189 finals. Photo / Jills Angus Burney
She missed a chance to make it a double when only third in the South Island Circuit final, for which she was the top qualifier, going for a fourth win in the event.
The final provided a first A-grade title win for Kelly MacDonald, with a previous best result at the top level being second-placing to world champion Joel Henare, at Lumsden in 2018.
Now employed as administrator with Elite Wool Industry Training, she had won three times at Cheviot, and had won at Waimate in the past, in the junior shearing final in 2014.
A particular feature of the two-day championships, which attracted about 170 shearers and woolhandlers was an all-female, six-shearers novice shearing final, the first in New Zealand, other than events run specifically for women. It was won by Emma Martin, of Gore.
Chris Malcolm, of Winton, won the senior shearing final, his first win in the grade after three seasons of trying.
Adam Gordon, of Masterton, (2019-2020 junior No-1 ranked shearer) won his first intermediate competition.
Finally, newcomer Reuben King, of North Canterbury, won the junior final.
Reigning Golden Shears senior champion and Southland woolhandler Amber Poihipi won both senior woolhandling finals, and the junior titles were shared, with newcomer Kirwyn Kora-Rogers, from Feilding, winning the Waimate Shears title and Heaven Little the Circuit final.
Results from the 53rd Waimate Shears NZ Spring Shearing and Woolhandling Championships on Friday-Saturday, October 9-10, 2020:
