New Zealand trifecta at Royal Ulster Show
New Zealand trifecta at Royal Ulster Show
Canterbury shearer Tony Dobbs has made a successful start to his bid to regain the World title he won 22 years ago by triumphing in the Royal Ulster blades shearing final at the Balmoral Show in Northern Ireland.
Dobbs, set for the 16th Golden Shears
World Championships next week in the coastal Republic of
Ireland town of Gorey, led a Kiwi trifecta in his first
competition since arriving in the UK to start
practice-shearing in Wales.
Second was non team member
Phil Oldfield, of Geraldine, and third was Dobbs’ World
Championships teammate, Brian Thomson, of West
Melton.
Based in Fairlie, Dobbs took-up competing
seriously again at the start of the New Zealand summer, when
he won the New Zealand Corriedale bladeshearing title at the
Canterbury Show, 18 years after he had last shorn in the
event.
No New Zealander has won the World blades shearing
title since Dobbs won at the Royal Bath and West Show in
England in 1992.
Woolhandling team members Joel Henare and Ronnie Goss are in action in the Royal Ulster championships tonight New Zealand time, and machine shearers Rowland Smith and John Kirkpatrick will be in action tomorrow.
The shearers compete again at the weekend at the Connacht Spring Show, before heading south for the World Championships which open with the Irish All-Nations championship heats next Thursday.
ENDS