Top shearers and woolhandlers ranked for October
South Island competitors are at the top of six of the eight Shearing Sports New Zealand rankings leaderboards at the end
of the first month of the new season.
October saw the first eight of the 61 shows being held during the season. Of the shows in October, 5 were in the South
Island and 3 in the North Island.
The rankings are based on points for placings in finals, with a maximum 12pts for the winner of an A-grade competition,
8pts for B-grade and 6pts for C-grade, the events being graded according to prize values.
To make the leaderboards at the end of the first month, competitors have to have reached at least two finals, and where
ranking points are tied, competitors are separated on the basis of best individual placing.
Rankings have been compiled each season since 1994, the top competitors being recognised annually with presentations at
the New Zealand championships in Te Kuiti.
The biggest performance so far this season has come from South Otago woolhandler Monica Potae, who has been a finalist
in all four shows she has contested – one in the South Island and three in the North Island. It
included winning the Great Raihania Shears Open woolhandling final at the Royal New Zealand Show in Hastings.
It was only last January that Potae won her first Open title, in a season in which she had earlier competed with a leg
in plaster mending a netball injury.
She tops the Open woolhandling leaderboard ahead of last season’s top-ranked competitor and World champion Joel Henare
who has won both shows he’s contested in New Zealand, but who was missing last weekend when he was in Australia
competing for New Zealand, and winning the Bendigo Shears Open final.
The Open shearing rankings are headed by Southland shearer Nathan Stratford, who has reached three finals in the South
Island and won two. Fellow Southland shearer Troy Pyper, runner-up at Alexandra and Waimate and now moved to Hawke’s
Bay, is next, followed by defending rankings champion and Hawke’s Bay shearer Rowland Smith who has won both shows he
contested in the North Island before also heading for the transtasman tests in Australia.
The Senior shearing rankings are headed by Vahni Stringer, of Ranfurly, who has also contested four finals, opening with
a win at the NZ Merino Championships in Alexandra. The Intermediate leader is Daniel Seed, from Woodville and who has
won two finals, and the Junior leader is Darcy Tong, based in the South Island but from Taihape.
Former New Zealand representative Mike McConnell, of Timaru heads the blade shearing rankings, being the only competitor
to have shorn more than one final in the three blades competitions to date.
Ebony Turipa, of Gore, heads the Senior woolhandling rankings by a point from Angela Stevens, of Napier, in what is
already almost a re-run of the 2016-2017 season when they were only just pipped for Senior rankings honours by Taihape
woolhandler Jamie McLean, now in her first season in Open-class.
The Junior woolhandling rankings are lead by Alexandra-based Linda Duncan with two good A-grade show performances,
winning at the Merino championships in Alexandra and the following week being runner-up on the crossbreeds wools of the
Waimate Spring Shears.
Shearing Sports New Zealand rankings leaders at the end of October were:
Shearing:
Open: Nathan Stratford (Invercargill) 30pts, 1; Troy Pyper (Winton) 22pts, 2; Rowland Smith (Hastings) 20pts, 3; Paerata
Abraham (Masterton) 16pts, 4; Murray Henderson (Halcomb) 14pts, 5.
Senior: Vahni Stringer (Ranfurly) 31pts, 1; Tegwyn Bradley (Woodville) 26pts, 2; Linton Palmer (Dipton) 23pts, 3; Ricci
Stevens (Napier) 15pts, 4; Mitchell Murray (Amberley) 15pts, 5.
Intermediate: Daniel Seed (Woodville) 27pts, 1; Liam Norrie (Cheviot) 21pts, 2; Jesse Barclay (Gore) 17pts, 3; Duncan
Higgins (Havelock) 15pts, 4; Carmen Smith (Pongaroa) 12pts, 5.
Junior: Darcy Tong (Taihape) 25pts, 1; Paora Moanaroa (Eketahuna) 20pts, 2; Jonathon Painter (Palmerston North) 17pts,
3; Brook Hamerton (Ruawaia/Hastings) 17pts, 4; Keith Swann (Wairoa) 17pts, 5.
Woolhandling:
Open: Monica Potae (Milton) 32pts, 1; Joel Henare 24pts, 2; Pagan Karauria (Alexandra) 19pts, 3; Sheree Alabaster
(Taihape) 14pts, 4; Maryanne Baty (Gisborne) 13pts, 5.
Senior: Ebony Turipa (Gore) 24pts, 1; Angela Stevens (Napier) 23pts, 2; Ash Boyce (Dannevirke) 15pts, 3; Tawhai Cannell
(Gisborne) 14pts, 4.
Junior: Linda Duncan (Alexandra) 23pts, 1; Tyler Hira (Onewhero) 19pts, 2; Autumn Waihape (Mataura) 19pts, 3; Summer
Pritchard (Pongaroa) 13pts, 4; Cortez Ostler (Dannevirke) 9pts, 5.
ENDS