Frenchman caps overseas ambush of weekend shears

Frenchman caps overseas ambush of weekend shears

French shearer Loic Jauberthie beame possibly the first from his country to win a shearing competition in New Zealand as four shearers topped the podium in a unique two days in New Zealand shearing last weekend.

Jauberthie, currently working for a shearing gang in Central Hawke’s Bay, won the Junior title at the Horowhenua A and P Show in Levin on Sunday.

At the same show, the Intermediate title was won by Welsh shearer Alun Jones, while the previous day Japanese shearer Shun Oishi won the tiny Golden Bay show’s intermediate title at Takaka, beating Enkhnasan Chuluunbaatar, fron Bulgan Province in Mongolia, and Tom Lewis, from Bathurst, NSW, won the Intermediate final at the Tauranga A and P Show.

While Jauberthie is in his first season in New Zealand and expects to head back to the Northern Hemisphere in the next few weeks, both Oishi and Chuluunbaatar live mainly in New Zealand, the latter having moved here with Kiwi wife Zoe to settle in New Zealand about two years ago.

Despite being from a family of nomadic herders ion a country with a sheep population estimated to be about 14 million, the shearer known as “Nasa” did not learn to shear until after he arrived in New Zealand and is capable of over 200 sheep a day, says employer and Golden Bay contractor Nick Nalder.

While there were just 22 shearers across four classes at the Golden Bay show, there were five nationalities, including American Weston Hyllstead, from Iowa..
Another feature of the Horowhenua show was the Open final win by Napier shearer John Kirkpatrick, having just flown back to the North Island after winning the Northern Southland Community Shears longwool title at Castle Riock, near Lumsden, on Friday, and finishing second in the centennial Winton A and P Show’s crossbred lambshearing final on Saturday.

With his Winton placing leaving him just a placing short of repeating a unique treble of wins he recorded at the three shows within three days in 2009, Kirkpatrick’s win on Sunday was a significant triumph over Hastings shearer Rowland Smith, who had won at Wairoa on Saturday and who will shear for New Zealand in the first Elders Primary Wool Shearing Series test against Wal;es, at the Rotorua A and P Show at Ngongotaha.

ENDS

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