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Berkelaar off to the Goldies, with Kaikoura ribbon in kit

Berkelaar off to the Goldies, with Kaikoura ribbon in kit

Canterbury-based Australian shearer Abraham Berkelaar scored a morale-boosting win ahead of the biggest shearing challenge of his career when he won the Kaikoura A and P Show’s Open final yesterday.

Berkelaar(pictured shearing at Fairlie last year), had his first Open win in New Zealand at Reefton on Waitangi Day and with a second victory is now heading for the Golden Shears in Masterton this week.

He hopes to also compete at the New Zealand championships in Te Kuiti later in the month – depending on the timing of the birth of he and “Kiwi” wife Heidi’s first child.

Now 34, Berkelaar started shearing 13 years ago, and made quick progress winning intermediate titles at the Australian lambshearing championship in Katanning in 2003 and the Royal Perth Show in 2004, before bypassing Senior and leaping straight to Open class and winning a final at the Colac Otway Perendale Shears in Western Victoria.

But in 2007 he hung-up the handpiece and started a plumbing apprenticeship, and he had also done some roofing before deciding to take up shearing again in 2013.

Working for Canterbury contractor Barry Pullin, as does his wife, a former schoolteacher, Berkelaar started to make a real mark in New Zealand competition when he was second in the Canterbury Circuit final in November, just 0.25pts behind winner and New Zealand transtasman series team member and 2015 first-time Golden Shears Open finalist Troy Pyper, of Invercargill.

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He works in Canterbury for contractor Barry Pullin, as does his wife, a former schoolteacher.

Berkelaar won yesterday despite being last to finish the three-man final, just over a minute after first-man-off and Pleasant Point shearer Eli Cummings, who shore the eight sheep in 10min 2.38sec. Berkelaar made-up the time deficit of three points - and some – with markedly the better quality, and beat Cummings by almost a point.

Entries at Kaikoura were light, with just six in the Open heats, among 18 across the four grades.

It will be much different in Masterton, where the three-day 56th Golden Shears start on Thursday.

Berkelaar will be one of more than 60 shearers in the Open championship heats the next day, each with the dream of winning a place in the Top 30 quarterfinal “Shootout” on Friday night, and ultimately a place in the six for Saturday night’s final 24 hours later..

Results from the Kaikoura Shears on Saturday, February 27, 2016:

Open final (8 sheep): Abraham Berkelaar (Rolleston and Australia) 11min 0.63sec, 46.16pts, 1; Eli Cummings (Pleasant Point) 10min 2.38sec, 47.12pts, 2; Delwyn Henricksen (Waipara) 10min 32.34sec, 48.24pts, 3.

Senior final (6 sheep): Stefan van Oorschot (Te Akau) 6min 48.9sec, 27.95pts, 1; Bryce Hepi (Kaikoura) 6min 48.94sec, 58.61pts, 2.

Intermediate final (4 sheep): Alex Drake (Renwick) 8min 29.19sec, 35.46pts, 1; Duncan Higgins (Havelock) 9min 32.38sec, 49.87pts, 2; Kelly Macdonald (Cheviot) 9min 47.28sec, 54.11pts, 3.

Junior final (2 sheep): Sarah Higgins (Havelock) 6min 34.78sec, 35.24pts, 1; Barbara Evans (Whanganui) 11min 11.6sec, 90.08pts, 2.

ENDS

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