Rowland Smith, of Maraekakaho, Hawke's Bay, winning the Taihape Shears open final on Saturday, his second win in a week after a near year-long lay-off. Photo / SSNZ
Rowland Smith, of Maraekakaho, Hawke's Bay, winning the Taihape Shears open final on Saturday, his second win in a week after a near year-long lay-off. Photo / SSNZ
Former world champion Hawke’s Bay shearer Rowland Smith has bounced back from almost a year away from the competition scene to win his second final in a week, as he prepares for a near year-long New Zealand team selection series, ahead of the 2026 World Championships.
The 38-year-old, who is 2m tall, further marked his line in the sand when he won A-grade show, the Taihape Shears’ open final on Saturday for the 10th time.
Again Smith scored the best quality points to preserve the title’s reputation for being won only by the best, with world champions winning the Taihape final in 23 of the past 25 years.
But he was just third to finish the six-man final over 20 sheep each, almost 19 seconds after first-man-off, defending champion and Northland shearer Toa Henderson, the No 1-ranked open shearer last season and who had also won the previous weekend.
All three are entered in the World Championships selection series which starts at the Southern Shears in Gore on February 15 and ends at the Rangitikei Shearing Sports in Marton on January 31 next year.
Smith was 0.79pts behind Henderson, in being the second qualifier from the heats, which had 49 shearers and headed the 18 semi-finalists to be the top qualifier for the final, where he had the best pen and total quality points.
Masterton shearer Paerata Abraham had possibly his best result in an A-grade strong wool ewes final in finishing third, and Hawke’s Bay-based former Taihape shearer Axle Reid had a particularly pleasing outcome in scoring the best board points in finishing fifth in his first Taihape open final in 19 years of trying.
Taumarunui shearer Taelor Tarrant had a breakthrough first senior win, after being the top qualifier for the seven-sheep final in which he was first to finish, 26 seconds clear of second-man-off Blake Mitchell, of Patea.
Hawke’s Bay shearer Rowland Smith has bounced-back from almost a year away from the competition scene. Photo / SSNZ
Form competitors Laura Bradley, of Papatawa, and Bruce Grace, from Wairoa, missed out on places in the final.
Shearers from overseas again made their presence felt, with Irish shearer Adam Killeen and Scotsman Lewis Mackay first and second respectively in the intermediate final, and Sion Griffiths, from Wales, winning the junior final.
The novice event was won by Jairus Hiroti, from Raetihi.
Taumarunui's Vinniye Phillips, the 2024 Golden Shears senior woolhandling champion, after her first open competition win, at the Taihape Shears. Photo / SSNZ
The first three in the open woolhandling final were all chasing their first win in the top grade, honours going to Vinniye Phillips, of Taumarunui, who won the 2024 Golden Shears senior title on the way to becoming the No 1-ranked senior woolhandler nationwide last season.
Ngaio Hanson, of Eketahuna, was second, and third was versatile Napier competitor Ricci Stevens, who also reached the open shearing semifinals.
All three beat defending champion and eight-times winner Keryn Herbert, of Te Kuiti, who was fourth, while Phillips’ sister, Te Anna, was fifth.
Young Irish shearer Adam Killeen, from County Mayo, led the way for UK shearers by winning the intermediate shearing final at the Taihape Shears. Photo / SSNZ
Nohokainga Maraki, of Flaxmere, scored her second senior woolhandling title of the season, having won the season’s first North Island title at Gisborne in October, Bradley landed a junior woolhandling title to go with five senior shearing titles already claimed this season, and the novice woolhandling was won by Caitlin Murphy, of Pongaroa.
The shears, continuing despite the recess of the Taihape A&P Show, attracted over 210 competitors, the biggest number in a one-day show this season, comprising 159 shearers and 55 entries in the woolhandling, with 1140 sheep shorn during the day.
Tapawera Shears
Meanwhile, there were just 21 competitors at the shearing-only Tapawera Shears near Wakefield, south of Nelson, where North Otago farmer Justin Meikle and teenage son Tye scored their fourth double-act triumph of the season.
They won the open and junior events respectively, a repeat of results earlier in the season at the Ellesmere, Marlborough and Duvauchelle A&P shows.
At 58, Justin Meikle sheared his 20-sheep final in 19m 4.76s, the fourth time in his four wins that he has gone under a minute a sheep.
Floyd Haare, from Southland but based in the Tasman area, was 17 seconds quicker but Meikle’s quality carried him to victory by 2.32pts and denied Haare a repeat of a win he had a week earlier at Takaka.
When it came to quality Meikle didn’t have it all his own way, being beaten by his 16-year-old son in the show’s clean shear.
Oamaru shearer John Cherrington won the senior event, his fourth win of the season and backing up immediately from a win at the New Zealand Crossbred Lambs Championships in Southland a week earlier.
The intermediate final was won by Dylan Hamlin, of Bainham, while third place-getter Kimberley Whalon (nee Maclean) beat three others in a women’s clean shear.
There have now been 23 shows, with 31 scheduled for the remainder of the season, starting with the Dannevirke A&P Show’s Shearing and Woolhandling Championships on Friday, and on Saturday the Rangitikei Shearing Sports Shearing and Woolhandling Championships at Marton, including the fourth round of the PGG Wrightson Vetmed National Shearing Circuit, and the Inangahua A& P Show’s Reefton Shears, including the first round of the World Championships New Zealand team selection blade shearing.
Results from the Taihape Shears
Saturday, January 25, 2025
Shearing:
Open final (20 sheep): Rowland Smith (Maraekakaho) 16m 8.25s, 54.8625pts, 1; David Buick (Pongaroa) 16m 24.75s, 55.9875pts, 2; Paerata Abraham (Masterton) 15m 59.32s, 57.116pts, 3; Mark Grainger (Te Kuiti) 16m 47.31s, 58.4655pts, 4; Axle Reid (Taihape/Waipukurau) 17m 40.31s, 60.0155pts, 5; Toa Henderson (Kaiwaka) 15m 49.62s, 62.431pts, 6.
