Buoyed Stratford ready for shears champs breakthrough

Buoyed Stratford ready for shears champs breakthrough

Invercargill shearer Nathan Stratford will be looking for a major breakthrough for South Island shearing when he tackles the Open competition at the Otago Shearing and Woolhandling Championships in Balclutha tomorrow (Friday) and Saturday.

With domination by mainly by Te Kuiti legend David Fagan and Napier gun John Kirkpatrick, no South Island shearer has won the competition’s Open title in the 21st Century.

Stratford has missed the final in the last two years, but reached four of the previous eight showdowns, with best placings of third in 2004 and 2007.

But a whiff of a breakthrough came when he won another North Island dominated event four weeks ago, the national longwool title in Lumsden.

He says he’s buoyed by that success, and keen for another battle with Kirkpatrick with whom he will also be shearing for New Zealand against Wales on Saturday in the second Elders Primary Wool Shearing Series test..

He was missing from the first test a fortnight ago in Rotorua, where his place was taken by Hastings shearer Rowland Smith, winner of the Otago title last year.

During the week, Stratford helped "expert" the gear during a World Record day by Kirkpatrick and three other shearers in a woolshed near Mossburn, Northern Southland.

The event in Balclutha is also the first in an unofficial Grand Slam dating back to the 1970s when it was won for the first time by 1977 World Champion Roger Cox.

The Slam also includes in successive weeks the Southern Shears in Gore, and in the North Island the Pahiatua Shears and the Golden Shears.

Up to 200 shearers and woolhandlers are expected for the two-day championships in Balclutha, featuring four shearing classes and three woolhandling classes, including the New Zealand Woolhandler of the Year event won by Gisborne woolhandler Joel Henare last year for a fifth time, a fortnight before he won the World title in Masterton.

ENDS

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