Former World Champions Flash The Blades To Win Right To New Title Bid

18 November 2025

Former World champion blades shearers Allan Oldfield and Tony Dobbs have confirmed their bid to regain the title in Masterton in March after dominating a New Zealand team selection series which ended at the Heartland Ban Canterbury Shears’ New Zealand Corriedale Shearing and Woolhandling Championships in Christchurch on Saturday.

The pair won their title in France in 2019, when Oldfield also won the individual title, but they had to settle for second place behind South African shearers Bonile Rabela and Zwelamakhosi Mbuweni in Scotland in 2023, when New Zealand for the first time failed to win a single shearing or woolhandling title in the history of the championships.

The selection series comprised eight rounds, all in the South Island, starting at Reefton last February, with the pair having already confirmed their silver-ferned black singlets before the series culminated with Oldfield’s third Canterbury Shears’ Golden Blades title, in what became a feature of the Royal A and P Show of New Zealand’s return to the Garden City.

Oldfield, from Geraldine, based in Hutt Valley, and winner previously in 2020 and 2021, won by just 0.26 points from 2025 New Zealand transtasman series team member Scott McKay, of Clarence, but Fairlie farmer Dobbs, going for three in a row with 20 wins in the Golden Blades dating back 40 years, had to settle for fifth place.

McKay controlled the pace and shore the five sheep in 15min 18.53sec, beating Oldfield by almost 11 seconds and the remaining four finalists by more than two minutes.

Oldfield reckons he was catching McKay, and said: “One more sheep and I think I would have got him.”

He said that now that the team selection had been decided – with machine shearing and woolhandling representatives to be decided in January-February), he will get in as much competition as possible, despite the competitions being in the South Island, and himself being based in the North Island.

In the machine shearing on Saturday, the Open title was won, also for a third time, by defending champion and Te Kuiti gun Jack Fagan, son of Sir David Fagan, who won the title 13 times from 1984 to 2009.

Fagan, who flew into Christchurch only a few hours earlier, won by just 0.24 points from 2020 winner, Scotland international and Southern Hawke’s Bay farmer Gavin Mutch, who had finished almost a minute clear in shearing the 10 sheep in 10min 44.71sec.

Third in the six-man final was Oamaru’s Justin Meikle, who on Friday won the Donaghys Canterbury All-Breeds Circuit final, and had seen daughter Zoe win the Junior woolhandling final, in what was a corrected result after initially being name runner-up.

It was Fagan’s second win of the season, having won at the Poverty Bay A and P Show on October 18, while Meikle’s win on Friday was his third, after triumphs at the Ellesmere Show on October 18 and the Pleasant Point Gymkhana Shears last week.

Dre Roberts, of Mataura, claimed his third Senior title of the season, and the Intermediate final was a triumph for young Kurow shearer Tamati Dennison, in his first competition in the grade and having won the Junior final at Pleasant Point seven days earlier.

Shows travel-mate Tye Meikle, the No 1-ranked Junior nationwide last season and unbeaten in five Intermediate finals this season, managed only fourth on the Christchurch stage.

The Junior final provided a first win for Ben Rowson-Jones, from Ashover, near Matlock, in North Derbyshire, England, and who’s working for Phil Cleland, in Oamaru, and who, like many from the UK, will need to head home for lambing beats in February, thus missing the Golden Shears.

The women’s title was successfully-defended by first-season Open-class shearer Laura Bradley of Papatawa, near Woodville, while the Intermediate blades competition was won by Evalyn McGregor, of Otautau.

In Friday’s woolhandling, in which entries across the three grades doubled compared with last year, the Open final provide a rare males one-two, with Joel Henare claiming the title for an eighth time, showing his experience of competitions with two-shearers to work, compared to just one in many other competitions.

While he dominated the final, he hadn’t had the show all his own way, with runner-up Logan Kamura of Bulls, coming off successive wins in the previous fortnight and top qualifying from Friday’s semi-finals, and being the second of three who headed Henare among the 19 competitors in the heats.

Third place went to Taiwha Nelson, who won the title in 2012.

The Senior final provided a second national title win for Tia Manson, of Piopio, who opened the season with a red ribbon at the New Zealand Merino Shears in Alexandra.

Henare, who won World individual and teams titles in Masterton in 2012 and Invercargill in 2017, said it was an “awesome” show, with “great numbers and lots of support.”

“It was a great day for our agricultural and pastoral communities, lifting the bar of wool harvesting for the global fibre-to-fabric market, and showing that there is still a high demand for the renewable fibre,” he said.

A wool fashion parade in the shearing pavilion on Friday “exposed the niche market and the skills it takes to get it there,” he said.

The shears attracted 116 entries (42 up on last year), with 75 shearers (Open 24, Senior 21, Intermediate 9, Junior 11, Blades 7, Intermediate Blades 3), and 41 woolhandlers (Open 19, Senior 9, Junior 13).

The remaining competitions in the South Island before Christmas are both shearing-only competitions next Saturday (November 22), at the Nelson A and P Show and the West Otago A and P Show at Tapanui.

In the North Island, the shearing-only Taranaki Shears are at the Stratford A and P Show on November 29, and on December 6 the shearing-only Northland shows circuit kicks off with the Whangarei Shears, while the Agrodome shearing and woolhandling championships will be held at the Rotorua A and P Show.

RESULTS from the Canterbury Shears’ New Zealand Corriedales Shearing and Woolhandling Championships at the Royal New Zealand A and P Show, Christchurch, on Friday-Saturday November 14-15, 2025:

Shearing:

Open final (10 sheep): Jack Fagan (Te Kuiti) 11m 41.93s, 43.2pts, 1; Gavin Mutch (Scotland/Dannevirke) 10m 44.71s, 43.44pts, 2; Justin Meikle (Oamaru) 12m 2.97s, 46.15pts, 3; Hugh de Lacy (Rangiora) 12m 36.5s, 47.13pts, 4; Nathan Stratford (Invercargill) 13m 35.9s, 47.6pts, 5; Corey Palmer (Dipton) 13m 25.16s, 53.66pts, 6.

Senior final (7 sheep): Dre Roberts (Mataura) 11m 55.2s, 45.33pts, 1; Zion Smith (Christchurch) 13m 9.31s, 46.32pts, 2; Nick Owen (Dannevirke/Christchurch) 11m 26.9s, 47.2pts, 3; Reuben King (Kaiapoi) 14m 9.03s, 51.59pts, 4; James Wilson (Winton) 14m 44.69s, 53.95pts, 5; J P Bouyer (Hastings) 14m 52.62s, 54.2pts, 6.

Intermediate final (4 sheep):: Tamati Dennison (Kurow) 8m 27.38s, 36.87pts, 1; Ariana Te Whata (Mossburn) 9m 15.34s, 39.02pts, 2; Kye Waihape (Temuka) 8m 51s, 39.05pts, 3; Tye Meikle (Oamaru) 8m 54.79s, 39.74pts, 4; Izaak Cleland (Oamaru) 8m 8.16s, 42.42pts, 5; Caleb Makuch (Temuka) 8m 49.66s, 42.48pts, 6.

Junior final (3 sheep): Ben Rowson-Jones (North Derbyshire, England) 8m 37.5s, 42.21pts, 1; Joel McCone (Temuka) 8m 46.59s, 43.66pts, 2; Jamys Christian (Isle of Man) 10m 4.5s, 44.23pts, 3; Logan McCartney (Ashburton) 9m 41.85s, 47.76pts, 4; Tracey Paton (Otaio) 9m 58.96s, 48.61pts, 5; Cam Henson (Woodville) 9m 47.78s, 50.72pts, 6.

Donaghys Canterbury Circuit (10 sheep): Justin Meikle (Oamaru) 11m 43.06s, 45.45pts, 1; Hugh de Lacy (Rangiora) 12m 22.28s, 47.31pts, 2; Blake Crooks (Rangiora) 12m 23.72s, 47.89pts, 3; Lyall Windleburn (Rangiora) 11m 44.44s, 49.52pts, 4; Shaun Burgess (Rakaia) 13m 38.41s, 52.92pts, 5; Murray Johnstone (-) 13m 31.81s, 53.79pts, 6.

Crusaders Region Open (7 sheep): Murray Johnstone (Cust) 10m 20.97s, 39.62pts, 1; Taare Edwards (Ashburton) 11m 38.37s, 44.35pts, 2; Liam Norrie (Cheviot) 11m 31.62s, 45.15pts, 3; Lyall Windleburn (Rangiora) 10m 25.44s, 45.41pts, 4; Blake Crooks (Rangiora) 11m 26.25s, 47.88pts, 5; Thomas Lambert (Christchurch) 12m 46.78s, 53.48pts, 6.

Blades shearing:

Golden Blades Open final (5 sheep): Alan Oldfield (Geraldine/Lower Hutt) 15m 29.47s, 53.87pts, 1; Scott McKay (Clarence) 15m 18.53s, 54.13pts, 2; Tim Hogg ((Rolleston) 17m 24.69s, 60.23pts, 3; Mike McConnell (Timaru) 17m 57.37s, 60.47pts, 4; Tony Dobbs (Fairlie) 17m 38.43s, 61.72pts, 5; Peter rce (Rakaia) 17m 48.37s, 63.82pts, 6.

Intermediate (2 sheep): Evalyn McGregor (Otautau) 15m 21.16s, 57.56pts, 1; Simon Rouaret (Albine, France) 15m 58.41s, 59.42pts, 2; Gonzalo Olivares (Santiago, Chile) 16m 43.65s, 66.68pts, 3.

Woolhandling

Open final (5 fleeces): Joel Henare (Motueka) 107.45pts, 1; Logan Kamura (Bulls) 154.176pts, 2; Taiwha Nelson (Alexandra) 154.35pts, 3; Amy Ferguson (Alexandra) 4.

Senior final (2 fleeces): Tia Manson (Piopio) 67.988pts, 1; EmmaMartin (Gore) 9.15pts, 2; Ashley Clarke (Gore) 98.5pts, 3; Renee Bonney (Waimate) 4.

Junior final: Zoe Meikle (Oamaru) 66.96pts, 1; Tahlia Nelson (Alexandra) 79.34pts, 2; Gabriela Schmidt (Alexandra) 144.06pts, 3; Jade Stark (Waipara) 4.

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