Golden Shears - Winner
Darren Bryant, 18, of Levin, on his way to winning the Golden Shears Novice shearing final on the first day of the 56th
Golden Shears international shearing and woolhandling championships in Masterton today(Thursday).
Teenaged Levin shearer Darren Bryant did something father and shearing mentor Donald Bryant couldn’t when he won a
Golden Shears title in Masterton today.
The 18-year-old, who works on a stud farm near Levin, won the Golden Shears Novice Shearing final with remarkably
superior display of quality shearing and ultimately by a huge margin of more than 11 points from runner-up Joseph
Gordon, whose brother David won the Novice final in 2010, two years after sister Cushla.
Bryant’s father shore in in two Golden Shears finals, in the Junior grade in 1989 and as a Senior in 1995, but had to
settle for sixth on both occasions..
He later headed the organisation of the Horowhenua show’s shearing championships, where the now 18-year-lod Bryant got
his first glimpse of shearing as a sport.
It was also where he had the first of now four Novice final wins, but despite the buildup hadn’t rated his chances after
finish the six-shearer final of two-sheep each.
“I thought I was too rough outside,” he said, having expected to be hit with the penalties in the pen-judging
afterwards.
As it happened, having been third to finish, he had the second-best pen points, but the 2.5 penalty points he incurred
on the shearing board were markedly better than his fellow competitors, only one of whom had less than 10.
Result of the 2016 Golden Shears Novicie Shearing Championship final on the first day of the 56th Golden Shears in
Masterton today (Thursday):
Novice final (2 sheep): Darren Bryant (Levin) 8min 11.522sec, 36.076pts, 1; Joseph Gordon (Masterton) 8min 26.383sec,
46.319pts, 2; Sarah Jane Reid (Taihape) 9min 36.7sec, 46.835pts, 3; Leam Pritchard (Pongaroa) 9min 34.95sec, 49.748pts,
4; Mark Baxter (Pongaroa) 8min 8.136sec, 52.407pts, 5; Nathan Handy (Whangamata) 7min 42.221sec, 59.611pts, 6.
ENDS