Rare Aussie win in NZ merino champs

MEDIA RELEASE Updates, plus results - pics available on request)

On behalf of Shearing Sports New Zealand October 3, 2010

Rare Aussie win in NZ merino champs

An Australian shearer with his back supported by a sling has upset the Kiwi guns to win the first title of the New Zealand shearing season.

Damien Boyle, from Broomehill in West Australia, won the New Zealand Merino Open Championship in Alexandra last night, winning a six-man final in which the runner-up was veteran Kiwi finewool shearing exponent, Rakaia shearer and 2000 and 2004 winner Grant Smith, who was recently accorded Master Shearer status by Shearing Sports New Zealand.

But there was still a major Kiwi success, with hometown girl Taiwha Nelson scoring what she regarded as the biggest triumph of her career by winning the Open woolhandling title - her third win in the event, and her fifth consecutive Alexandra final since giving-up working in the woolsheds five years ago to raise a family.

Another hometown favourite, Charlie O'Neill, was third in the shearing final and defending champion Nathan Stratford, of Invercargill, was fourth. Boyle, who was top-qualifier for the semi-finals but last-man-in to the final, had spent years trying to pick-off New Zealand's top finewool shearing prize, first reaching the final at Alexandra in 1998 and being runner-up at least twice, including last year. Just a fortnight ago, he won the latest of a string of titles at the Royal Perth Show. The last Australian to win the title at Alexandra was Ian Wratten, of Armidale, NSW, in 1991.

Shearing Sports New Zealand chairman and former shearing champion John Fagan, said the win was good for the sport.

It was also the first time he could recall an Open-class final being won by a shearer using a supporting sling.

"He'd been in alot of events all day, and I think he was starting to feel the effects," Mr Fagan said. "He had a marvellous shear. All day he had been qualifying on quality, but in the final he lifted his pace as well. He's the sort of guy if you don't beat on time, you're gone."

The logic of Boyle's self-preservation was shown in the times shearers spent bent over their merinos - about two minutes a sheep compared with less than a minute a sheep in the smaller mainly crossbred sheep of other contests throughout the country.

Smith was first finished taking 23min 0.58sec, Boyle was fourth 54 seconds later, and Stratford was last off.

The championships are the only merino event on this season's Shearing Sports New Zealand calendar of 60 shows, ending in late April. The Open shearing heats being a compulsory first round in the PGG Wrightson National, in which competitors accrue points at shows on five different wool-types, aiming to make the semi-finals and final to be shorn at the Golden Shears in Masterton in March.

O'Neill's brother, Colin, headed the qualifiers, and second-to-top was veteran Mossburn contractor Mana Te Whata, a 1981 Golden shears junior champion who won six Alexandra titles from 1987 to 1995.

The leading North Islander was Te Kuiti shearing icon and eight-times series winner David Fagan, who turns 49 later this month. New World champion and Hawke's Bay shearer Cam Ferguson, who had been shearing merinos in Central Otago for over a month since returning from his triumph in Wales, failed to qualify for the weekend's quarterfinals of 24 shearers, but still secured the vital one series point for taking part.

Nelson had to overcome a couple of the World's best in her final, going one-better than last year when she was runner-up. Gisborne teenager Joel Henare, the No 1 ranked woolhandler in New Zealand last summer and reigning New Zealand Open champion, was second, and former World champion and third was reigning Golden Shears champion Joanne Kumeroa, of Wanganui.

Nelson's only preparation was a short time at Earnscleugh the previous day, schooling a first-time junior competitor. "Otherwise," she said, "I haven't been in a shed for years."

RESULTS of the 49th New Zealandfinewool merino shearing and woolhandling championships in Alexandra on Friday and Saturday (October 1-2): SHEARING Open final (12 sheep): Damien Boyle (Broomehill, West Australia) 23min 54.7sec, 112.235pts, 1; Grant Smith (Rakaia) 23min 0.58sec, 116.696pts, 2; Charlie O’Neill (Alexandra) 3; Nathan Stratford (Invercargill) 24min 52.8sec, 121.14pts, 4; Mana Te Whata (Mossburn) 23min 25sec, 125.083pts, 5; Chris Vickers (Palmerston) 24min 16.67sec, 129.5pts, 6. Senior final (4 sheep): Jock O’Neill (Alexandra) 15min 53.95sec, 94.298pts, 1; Tipene Te Whata (Tautoro, Far North) 15min 18.22sec, 95.911pts, 2; Gerard Scobie (-) 16min 48.39sec, 112.42pts, 3; Aaron Hope (Bendigo, Victoria) 16min 40.5sec, 112.825pts, 4; Cain Kahukura (Omakau) 15min 20.88sec, 119.244pts, 5; Philip Rangiwai (Mataura) 17min 39.84sec, 123.992pts, 6. WOOLHANDLING Open final: Taiwha Nelson (Alexandra) 315.818pts, 1; Joel Henare (Gisborne) 321.388pts, 2; Joanne Kumeroa (Whanganui) 342.7pts, 3; Amy-Lee Ruki (Invercargill) 373.932pts, 4. Senior final: Shani Graham (Masterton) 231.968pts, 1; Stacey Collier (-) 249.644pts, 2; Maryanne Baty (Wairoa) 283.614pts, 3; Kohai Martin (Masterton) 295.626pts, 4. Junior final: Denise Murray (Alexandra) 181.888pts, 1; Bertran Ngarangione (Gisborne) 299.7pts, 2; Natasha Waikato (Tuatapere) 339.162pts, 3; Kara Power (Alexandra) 339.786pts, 4.

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