Dobbs clear-cut winner in blades shears

November 3, 2014

Dobbs clear-cut winner in blades shears

Fairlie farmer Tony Dobbs’ commitment to the ancient craft he says he would hate to see lost has been rewarded again with a win in the blade shearing event at the Ashburton A and P Show.

Having come out of retirement last season after a competition break of more than 20 years, it was Dobbs fifth New Zealand win in a row, and he cruised home by 11 points from 2014 World Championships teammate Brian Thomson, of West Melton.

He started the sequence with a treble at the end of last summer, winning at Sefton, Oxford and his home Mackenzie A and P Highland at Easter, and started the new campaign with victory in the New Zealand Spring Shears at Waimate last month.

Between times he was third in the World Championships in Ireland in May, stopped only by two South Africans from reclaiming a title he won in Masterton in 1988.

In Waimate he and Thomson also beat Australians John Dalla and Ken French in a trans-Tasman test, and Dobbs and one other shearer to be chosen in Christchurch next week will represent New Zealand in another test during the Australian national shearing and wool-handling championships in the remote 140-year-old Errowanbang woolshed in Central NSW on November 21-23.

Former New Zealand machine-shearing representatives Tony Coster and Grant Smith, both of Rakaia, were first and second in the open machines shearing final on Saturday, with third place going to Southland shearer Leon Samuels who led a keen race for time honours by shearing 15 sheep in 14min 41.48sec, regarded as a quick time on the sheep used for the contest.

Taranaki shearer and agricultural student and 2014 New Zealand intermediate champion Darren Alexander won his first senior final by beating local area hope Corey Smith, of Rakaia.

The intermediate event saw a return to winning form by Corey White, who had won three shows earlier in his hometown of Waimate, while Emily Te Kapa, who lives in Scotland, won her second junior title, with a margin of more than five points from now regular rival Kelly Macdonald, of Lake Hawea. It was the third time this season they’ve formed an all-female quinella.

ENDS

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