Something To Celebrate At Taihape Shears

A small group of shearers is today crutching more than 1000 sheep near Taihape in preparation for the Saturday’s 60th Taihape A and P Show Shears, one of the biggest shearing and woolhandling competitions in New Zealand each year.

About 150 shearers and woolhandlers are expected, about as big an entry as at any one-day competition among the 60 shows on the Shearing Sports New Zealand calendar, the longest of which are the three-day Golden Shears on March 2-4 in Masterton and the New Zealand Shears in Te Kuiti on March 20-April 1, the Alexandra’s NZ Merino championships, the Waimate Spring Shears and Christchurch’s national Corriedales championships, which were each held over two days in October and November, and the Southern Shears in Gore on February 17-18.

Taihape Shears convenor and Taihape shearing contractor Stu Munro said that allowing the sheep put-up by farmer Graham Maher are regarded by many as some of the best for competition.

By the end of the crutching it will be the best of the best, with time needed during the day for not only the crutching but also drafting sheep to make sure the very best are available for the glamour Open finals.

While strong fields are expected, the Open shearing will be missing two of those who won last weekend.

Former World and Golden Shears champion Gavin Mutch, winner at Taihape in 2021 and who won at the Wairarapa A and P Show, is in the US for three weeks, and Jack Fagan, who won the national crossbred lambs final at Winton, is in Australia for a wedding.

Another not competing this weekend, with just one other competition, at Tapawera, south of Nelson, is Mataura shearer Brett Roberts, out with a hand injury suffered in the lambs final, for which he had been top qualifier just a day after winning the national fullwool title near Lumsden.

He had surgery and said later it had gone well and hoped to be back competing within three weeks.

The Taihape Shears, which start on Saturday at 8.30am with shearing and woolhandling from Novice to Open grades, were first held in 1962, less than 12 months after the first Golden Shears, and the marking of 60 years was to have been held last year, when the show had to be cancelled because of pandemic restrictions.

The first competition was held on a stage mounted on 44-gallon drums, and the first Open shearing final was won by Bing MacDonald, who won the Golden Shears Open final four weeks later. Over the years it’s featured most of New Zealand’s top shearers, including late local heroes Ray Alabaster and Colin Bosher, and multiple World champion Sir David Fagan, while the woolhandling featured such competitors as World champions Joanne Kumeroa, Alabaster’s daughter and current committee member Sheree Alabaster, Joel Henare, and Keryn Herbert, who won the last final in 2021.

But like many rural competitions there’s a small committee doing all the hard work beforehand, but a sizeable force on the day with mainly-local shed crew and judging officials from across the Central North Island.

The longest-running competition still being held in New Zealand is thought to be the Aria Sports on Waitangi Day and first held in 1956, the Hawke’s Bay A and P staged what is thought to have been the World’s first machine-shearing competition in 1902, and a blade shearing competition near Waipukurau in 1868 is thought to have been one of the first blade shearing competitions in New Zealand.

© Scoop Media