Buick And Thomson Added to NS Shearing And Woolhandling Team

Buick And Thomson Added to NS Shearing And Woolhandling Team

Wairarapa shearer David Buick and Christchurch blade shearer Brian Thomson have been added to the New Zealand shearing and woolhandling team to compete in a transtasman test in Australia next weekend.

Buick, a Pongaroa farmer and shearing contractor last month won the Australian Romney Shears crossbred title in Warrnamnbool, Vic., replaces Waipawa shearer Cam Ferguson who became unavailable for the trip to Central NSW where shearing, bladeshearing and woolhandling tests will be held in the 140-year-old Errowanbang woolshed, about 70km south of Bathhurst.

He joins Nathan Stratford, of Invercargill, and Colin “Mouse” O’Neill, of Alexandra, in the machine shearing team.

Thomson was selected after finishing second in the New Zealand Corriedale Championships blade shearing final in Christchurch yesterday, and joins event winner and 2014 World Championships teammate Tony Dobbs, of Fairlie, to make-up a two-man blade shearing team.

The woolhandling team comprises Keryn Herbert, of Te Awamutu, and Veronica “Ronnie” Goss, formerly of Kimbolton and now farming in the Mangamahu Valley, near Whanganui.

The teams, managed by Ken Payne, of Balclutha, fly to Australia on Thursday, and the tests will be held during the three-day Australian National Championships.

The shearing test will mark the 40th anniversary of the first of the annual home-and-away transtasman tests, held in Euroa, Vic. The home machine shearing and woolhandling tests will be held at the Golden Shears in Masterton in March.

Travelling with the team will be shearing judge Peter Vujcich, of Napier, and woolhandling judge Vanessa Te Whata, of Mossburn.

ENDS

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