On behalf of Shearing Sports New Zealand

February 4, 2102

Ten grand for a black singlet

It’s costing more than $10,000 each, but that’s the price New Zealand’s top shearers are paying for the chance to represent their country at the World Championships in Masterton in four weeks’ time.

The estimate was made after Hawke’s Bay-based Northland shearer Rowland Smith won the latest New Zealand team selection series round today (saturday feb 4).

After winning the North Island Open finalat the Rangitikei Shearing Sports in Marton, Smith said air fares, vehicles, accommodation and wages lost while chasing the black singlet is costing competitors at least $10,000 each.

“But nobody’s talked about,” he said. “When everyone entered the series, they did it because they believed they could do it. It’s all for the singlet.”

“There’s no prizemoney, just the uniform,” said Invercargill shearer Nathan Stratford, who leads the series by one point from Napier gun and series favourite John Kirkpatrick, despite missing a place in today’s six-man final.

The series started in Christchurch in November with 22 entrants, with further rounds at Waipukurau, Lumsden, Winton, Taihape and Marton, and the final counter at next week’s Otago Championships in Balclutha.

The top 12 then face a showdown at the Southern Shears in Gore on February 18, the winner and runner-up representing New Zealand in the 15th World shearing and woolhandling championships during the Golden Shears in Masterton on February 29-March 1.

Smith, whose Open-class coming-of-age came last year with second place in the Golden Shears Open final, a New Zealand Open win in Te Kuiti and a national team tour of the UK, won a double at Taihape and the non-series Rotorua Show last weekend.

He was in complete command again today, his winning time of 12min 20.88sec for 15 sheep being almost 40 seconds ahead of second-man-off Kirkpatrick, who had to settle for fourth place when quality penalties were included. .

The judges’ pens gave Smith a winning margin of 3.537pts over 50-year-old King Country icon David Fagan who was third off but made up some leeway with quality, showing he remains right in the hunt for a sixth World individual title.

South Island-bade Marton shearer Jimmy Samuels won the North Island senior final from favourite and Hawke’s Bay-based Jack Robinson, from Northern Ireland, while Napier-based English shearer Dean Nelmes scored the biggest success of his career by winning the intermediate final.

All other events at Marton were called off because of a shortage of dry sheep after wet weather.

Caption: Hawke's Bay-based North Island shearer Rowland Smith wins the North Island Open final at Marton on Saturday, February 4, 2012.

Credit if needed: Doug Laing, Shearing Sports New Zealand

ENDS