Hopes For Shearing Champs Amid Chrischurch Show Cancellation

Organisers of major national shearing competition the New Zealand Corriedale Shearing and Woolhandling Championships hope it will go ahead despite the cancellation of the 2024 New Zealand Agricultural Show, formerly the Canterbury A and P Show.

The show was to have been held on November 13-15. the basis of Christchurch’s Show Week attractions, and its cancellation was announced on Tuesday, coming as a surprise to championships committee chairman Dave Brooker, whose event’s Open shearing championship is one of five legs of the PGG Wrightson Vetmed National Shearing Circuit.

It also stages the final of the Donaghys Canterbury Shearing Circuit.

Brooker says it’s unlikely any decisions will be made on the competition in the next 2-3 weeks, which sees the annual meeting of the competition organisation and the South Island committeee of Shearing Sports New Zealand, and a meeting of the national circuit committee.

Show organisers said in a statement yesterday some show drawcards such as livestock and judging competitions will still be held this year, and Brooker highlighted that the Corriedale shears, established almost 60 years ago, has never had a cancellation.

During the Covid era, the 2020 event was held at Marble Point Station, near Hanmer Springs, and the following year it was still held in Christchurch, despite the cancellation of the show.

The Marble Point event was widely regarded as a "fantastic" success, and the following year in Christchurch it triumphed in being one of the few events being held, but Brooker says there is a wide range of factors that need to be considered before decisions are made.

The cancellation comes as Shearing Sports New Zealand develops a calendar for the 2024-2025 season, expected to include close to 60 events nationwide from October to Easter next year, driven by the fact that more than two thirds of the dates are driven by the timing of the A and P shows of which they are a part.

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