Veteran hangs up his shears

On behalf of Shearing Sports New Zealand

March 4, 2010. 5.30pm

Veteran hangs up his shears

The sole surviving shearer from the first Golden Shear open final in 1961 was back on the board in Masterton today almost as happy to finish as he was to start on his big night 50 years ago.

Southlander Ian Harrison, 76, shore in the last heat of the 50th anniversary veterans event, holding a candle for the mainland as six-times winner Snow Quinn, from Alexandra, decided against competing, although happy to watch from the stadium floor.

Among those competing in the event limited to those over 55 years, was three-times winner and National MP Colin King, and 1984 champion and Shearing Sports New Zealand chairman John Fagan.

Harrison, who had outlived orriginal champion Ivan Bowen and other shearing legends Godfrey Bowen, Bing Macdonald, Mac Potae and Australia Kevin Sarre, still shears occasionally, making an annual pilgrimage to Stewart Island. Aged 76 he came to Masterton without having shorn a sheep since the Edendale Crank-up in January, and shore a few in a shed near masterton this morning to ensure he was on song.

Having not shorn in competition since his last appearance at the Golden Shears in 1965, he looked surprisingly fresh after shearing two sheep in 4min 10.711sec, and just as surprisingly not remarkably slower than his 1961 final, in which shore 20 sheep in 32min 19.2sec, one of the slowest times in the history of the open final, for which icon David Fagan holds the record at 15min 27.4sec, shorn at the age of 41 in 2004.

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