National Shears Titles At Stake In Southland

Seven national shearing and woolhandling titles are on the line at the Northern Southland Community Shears which will be held on Friday in a woolshed near Lumsden.

The Shears stage the New Zealand Longwool Shearing and Woolhandling Championships, with titles in Open, Senior, Intermediate and Junior shearing and Open, Senior and Junior woolhandling.

They take place at the Selbie family’s Lowther Downs, 874 Five Rivers-Lumsden Highway, starting with the woolhandling, for which competitor reporting will be at 7am, and will be run under vaccine passport requirements of the Government’s Covid-19 Protection Framework.

Committee chairman Jamie (Doc) Findlay says the Open heats will be held first and all woolhandling is intended to be completed by lunchtime, including finals.

Reporting time for the shearing is 12.30pm with the Junior heats first on the board.

Advance entries can be notified by contacting Megan Shirley, mob. 0275702509 or email megankshirley@yahoo.co.nz

Findlay says about 850 sheep have been drafted for the competitions, but it’s difficult to calculate the likely entry numbers, especially with this season’s cancellation of the Winton show the following day and the hotel speedshear competitions which have in the past added to the appeal of the competitions in Southland on the third weekend of each January.

His committee’s approach is that it is vital to stage the Shears, hopefully with increased entries after dwindling numbers in some grades have put the Shears at risk of cancellation in recent years.

“It’s essential to keep going,” he said. “To stop might make it difficult to get going again.”

Both the Otago Shears at Telford Farm, Balclutha, on February 12, and the Southern Shears in Gore, on February 18-19, are going ahead with the competitions in the south mutually supportive in making shearing sports available in the south.

“We do it for shearing,” Findlay said. “We love it.”

Both Shearing Sports New Zealand chairman Sir David Fagan and New Zealand Shearing Contractors Association New Zealand chairman Mark Barrowcliffe have urged contractors throughout the country to encourage and enable to staff to compete if at all possible.

Barrowcliffe said he knows it is difficult for the contractors at the busiest times of the year. “I know what they’re facing,” he said.

But on the other side of the equation is that the shearing and woolhandling competitions throughout the country have an established role in supporting quality performance in the workplace, and thus play a big part in the protection of New Zealand’s reputation for a quality wool clip.

The Northern Southland Community Shears is the fourth Shearing Sports New Zealand national title show of the summer, following the New Zealand Merino Shears in Alexandra and the Waimate Spring Shears in October, and the Canterbury Shears in November.

The Open shearing titles have been shared, with Nathan Stratford, of Invercargill, winning the Merino title, Cheviot-based Troy Pyper, from Invercargill, winning the Winter Combs title and Leon Samuels, also from Invercargill, the Spring Shears final, both at Waimate, and Marlborough shearer and contractor Angus Moore winning the New Zealand Corriedales championship at Christchurch.

Among those wanting to join the list will be Mataura shearer Brett Robert, now 28 and who has been shearing at the Northern Southland Community Shears every year since he was 13. He won the Junior final in 2010, the Intermediate final in 2011, the Senior final in 2014 and the Open final two years ago.

By contrast, Joel Henare, from Gisborne, won the Open woolhandling titles at all three shows.

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