Golden Shears 50th Birthday Starts with a Bang

The standing of New Zealand’s top shearers is being rewarded with a top prize in the presentation of a Hyundai Santa Fe for the winner of the PGG Wrightson National Shearing Round at the 50th anniversary Golden Shears in March.

The prize, worth over $60,000, was announced at the launching of the anniversary season in Masterton, home of the Golden Shears since its euphoric first international shearing and woolhandling championships in 1961.

The PGG Wrightson National Shearing Round, incorporating the McSkimming Memorial Triple Crown which was first contested at the 13th Golden Shears in 1973, links five competitions on five different wool types throughout the country, starting with New Zealand finewool merino championships in Alexandra this week.

Mavis Mullins, a Dannevirke businesswoman who last year became the first woman president of the Golden Shears International Shearing Championship Society, said: “Innovative and creative thinking by the PGG Wrightson Regional Manager, Duncan Fletcher, and Emma Ryan from Hyundai, has been the catalyst for this initiative.”

“This has launched our 50th birthday celebrations with a real bang, and is a real sign of the esteem in which the hard workers and competitors in our industry and sport are held.”

PGG Wrightson competition chair Philip Morrison said the Hyundai Santa Fe will be seen at Alexandra, the compulsory opening round for PGG Wrightson National entrants on the way to finding 12 qualifiers for the final stages, the semi-finals and a final at the Golden Shears on March 3-6.

The other qualifying rounds are at Waimate next week, the Christchurch show in November, the national lamb shearing championships at Raglan in January and the Pahiatua Shears at the end of February.
ENDS

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