Big celebrations for Southern Shears in Gore this week

Big celebrations for Southern Shears in Gore this week

Some of the shearing greats of the past will mingle with the rising stars of today at the 50th anniversary Southern Shears in Goreon Friday and Saturday.

Among then will be 53-year-old David Fagan, favoured to claim the shearers Open title for a 12th time in what is expected to be his last competiton in the South Island where he started 32 years of Open class domination by winning the Otago and Southern Shears Open finals double in 1983.

Fagan, who has announced he will retire from competition shearing at the season-ending New Zealand championships in home-town Te Kuiti on April 9-11, is on track to repeat the southern double before he departs, after winning the Otago Shears title last Saturday for the first time since 2004. But he hasn’t won the Southern Shears final since 2001.

By the end of this weekend he will have completed seven competition trips to the South Island since the start of October, scoring wins also at the New Zealand Spring Shears in Waimate, the Winton show’s national Crossbred Lambshearing Championship, and the inaugural New Zealand Rural Games speedshear in Queenstown on February 8.

The TAB already has him as a $3 favourite to win a 17th Golden Shears Open title next month, although it’s six years since he last won the iconic Masterton event.

The celebrations in Gore open with a 50th anniversary dinner on Thursday night, with some of those attending having to step up for the championships starting with woolhandling heats from 9am the next day.

Woolhandling will be contested in three classes, the opening day culminating in a speedshear starting at 7pm.

Shearing will be held in five classes on Saturday, starting from 7.30am with the novice heats of one sheep each for competitors who have not shorn more than 70 in a day.

The programme also includes an Elders Primary Wool Shearing Series test between New Zealand and Wales, and the South Island Open Shearer of the Year final.

Cash prizes total almost $15,000, including $1000 for each of the two Open shearing finals and the Open woolhandling final, $600 for the Senior shearing final, and $400 for the Senior woolhandling final.

Shears secretary Lani Arnott said entries remain open for all events, but, while entries will be taken on the day, it’s important for competitors to advise early to help ensure organisers get the sheep numbers right.

Other events surrounding the celebrations are a hotel speedshear at the Longford Tavern on Thursday night, and a shearing course on Friday run by trainer Chas Tohiariki and two-times Southern Shears open champion Dion King, of Hastings.

ENDS

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