Welsh Gun Wins On Big Day For Taihape Shears

• Gethin Lewis is the first Welsh shearer to win an Open final in New Zealand since 2014.
• Taihape turned it on with a late change of venue because of the weather, but stil handled 219 competitors, the biggest in New Zealand this so far summer.
• The Tapawera Shears near Nelson had 23 entries, and a tractor was needed to haul a stock trailer in and out of the domain.

A Welsh shearer who has worked the Hawke’s Bay summers for almost a decade has become the first Welshman to win an Open shearing title in New Zealand in more than a decade,, despite the fact that his countrymen have won the last two World championships finals.

Gethin Lewis, who works 3-4 months each year for Napier shearing contractor Brendan Mahony, surprised even himself with his win in the Taihape Shears Open final at Erewhon Station on Saturday, with a victory by 1.8435 points over runner-up, defending champion and 10-times Taihape Open winner Rowland Smith, of Maraekakaho, also in Hawke’s Bay.

One of 43 in the Open field, he scraped in as last-man into the five-man final, and reckoned at the end he might have been good for third, or fourth, or fifth.

Third place went to reigning Golden Shears and New Zealand shears open champion Toa Henderson, who having already guaranteed a place at the World championships in Masterton in March opened the throttle big time for one of the fastest times shearing 20 adult sheep in competition in New Zealand.

Henderson blasted the 20 out in 14min 43.07sec, beating Lewis to the final cord by 9.84 seconds. Smith was last to finish the five-man final, in 16min 22.78sec, but underlined his hopes of another place at a World championships with a display of true quality, both on the shearing board and with the finished product in the judging pens.

Lewis, with one win to his credit in New Zealand previously as a Senior at Pukekohe, claimed the first win by a Welsh shearer in a New Zealand competition Open final since Richard Jones won back to back titles at the Inangahua A and P Show’s Reefton Shears in 2013 and 2014. Jones won the World title in France in 2019.

From Rhayader, Powys, Lewis has represented Wales in several home and away series’ against New Zealand in the last three years, but last year just missed selection in the Welsh team for the World championships.

He did, however, shear a British eight-hour ewes record of 696, and his last competition win was the Welsh lambs shearing circuit final in August, at the Cwmdauddwr Shears.

He wasn’t sparing a lot of time to celebrate the breakthrough, heading straight back to work on Sunday for shearing at Puketitiri.

It was a good day for Wales, with Rhys Davies, of Builth Wells, winning the Intermediate final, in a remarkable day after the Taihape Shears, with 219 shearers and woolhandlers competing, had been relocated at just two days’ notice, due to heavy rain which had made it almost impossible to get the 1500 sheep in and of regular town venue Memorial Park.

Ngaio Hanson, of Eketahuna, sprang a big surprise by winning the Taihape Open Shears Open woolhandling final, with a 2.6 points margin over runner-up Pagan Rimene, who was competing just four days after shearing 481 lambs in the eight hours of a four-stand women’s record in South Otago last Tuesday.

Hanson, a World championships representative in 2023, only managed her first Open final win, at Dannevirke, on January 31 last year.

The win on Saturday kept her hopes of another World championships bid alive, helping her into a selection series final in Marton on February 7, with Rimene among the opposition.

Third place on Saturday went to multiple World and Golden Shears champion Joel Henare, who gained enough points to secure his place at the championships in Masterton.

The entries on Saturday comprised 161 shearers across five grades (Open 43, Senior 35, Intermediate 30, Junior 40, Novice 13) and 58 woolhandlers (Open 24, Senior 14, Junior 20), making it the biggest show of the season to date, as competitors and gather from around the globe ahead of the World championships.

Shearing Sports New Zealand chairman Warren Parker, of Raglan, said he and others were in awe of the work done by Taihape Shears chairman Hayden Tapp and his committee in relocating the competition.

They had decided on the move only on Thursday morning, having realised less than 24 hours earlier it would be near impossible to stage the championships at the town venue, where the 60th anniversary in 2023 was notable for the wet weather and the need to use tractors to haul the sheep trucks in and out of the park.

“It is not a case of simply transferring a rugby game from a sodden ground to something a little better,” he said. “They have to shift everything out of one venue, move it 20-30kms out into the country, have to work out how the sheep are going to get in and out, where the judges will do their job, where everyone will park and where will they be fed. This is full-on rehoming for a day, and it’s amazing the way shows keep on stepping up to meet the challenges.”

One shearer said it comes with the nature of the game. “Everyone just gets on and does it,” he said.

Tapp said station manager James Maher had no hesitation in making the 50-year-old woolshed available.

With only five stands available, instead of six at the park, extra competition heats were needed, stretching the day to over nine hours of shearing, with over 1500 sheep trucked-in from two nearby properties.

Meanwhile, weather also caused problems for the only other shearing competition in the country at the weekend, with a tractor used to haul a sheep trailer onto the domain for the Tapawera Shears, south of Nelson.

In contrast, there were just 23 shearers across four grades, with the Open final won by Hugh de Lacy, from North Canterbury, as he and local hope Travers Baigent waged a two-man battle for time honours, each finishing the 20 in under 20 minutes, which de Lacy won by just under 40 seconds.

The only competition this week is the Dannevirke A and P Show shearing and woolhandling championships and speedshear on Friday, followed next by the Aria Sports on Waitangi Day, and the next day the North Kaipara A and P Shears at Paparoa, the Rangitikei Shearing Sports in Marton and the Reefton Shears.

While there is no competition shearing on Saturday there will be a multi-stand strong wool lamb record attempt at Waihelo Station, Moa Flat, West Otago.

Former Golden Shears Open champion Leon Samuels, of Roxburgh, reigning PGG Wrightson Vetmed national circuit champion Paerata Abraham, of Masterton, and Shane Ratima, of Hunterville, will be attempting the eight-hours three-stands record of 1976 shorn by Coel L’Huilier, Kaleb Foote and Daniel Langlands near Piopio six years ago.

Results of the Taihape Shears at Erewhon Station on Saturday, January 24, 2026:

Shearing:

Open final (20 sheep): Gethin Lewis (Wales) 14m 52.91s, 52.6955pts, 1; Rowland Smith (Maraekakaho) 16m 22.78s, 54.539pts, 2; Toa Henderson (Kaiwaka) 14m 43.07s, 54.6035pts, 3; Jack Fagan (Te Kuiti) 15m 33.81s, 55.5405pts, 4; David Buick (Pongaroa) 15m 37.75s, 55.7875pts, 5.

Senior final (10 sheep): Taelor Tarrant (Taumarunui) 10m 14.62s, 41.531pts, 2; Kaivah Cooper (Napier) 11m 2.62s, 44.831pts, 2; Dylan Young (Gisborne) 11m 21.06s, 45.553pts, 3; Luke Parkhouse (Devon, England) 11m 52.56s, 47.128pts, 4; Emma Martin (Wyndham) 13m 7.84s, 47.992pts, 5.

Intermediate final (8 sheep): Rhys Davies (Builth Wells, Wales) 10m 1s, 40.3pts, 1; Zakaia Lewis (-) 9m 44.34s, 40.842pts, 2; Joseph Scahill (County Mayo, Irelannd) 10m 0.5s, 41.025pts, 3; Riley Norman (Eketahuna) 11m 15.75s, 41.925pts, 4; Lachie Cameron (Kimbolton) 11m 32.35s, 42.8675pts, 5.

Junior final (4 sheep): Kinston Pue (Raetihi) 5m 37.22s, 22.361pts, 1; Alex Wrenn (Dannevirke) 5m 43.78s, 22.439pts, 2; Sean Dunne (Wicklow, Ireland) 5m 32.1s, 24.335pts, 3; Camden Bolton Smith (Woodville) 5m 59.97s, 27.4985pts, 4; Cian Dafis (Llanrwst, Wales) 5m 46.22s, 28.061pts, 5.

Novice (1 sheep): Oliver Bambry (Pahiatua) 4m 34.9s, 20.745pts, 1; Justine Eerden (Belgium) 5m 2.25s, 21.1125pts, 2; Rikihana Salmond (Te Kuiti) 4m 21.69s, 25.0845pts, 3; Ngahuia Salmond (Te Kuiti) 3m 51.06s, 25.553pts, 4; Connor Rose (Central Hawke’s Bay) 3m 15.72s, 26.786pts, 5.

Open Speedshear: Tiare Tipu (Porangahu) 17s, 1; Jack Fagan (Te Kuiti) 17.1s, 2; Simon Goss (Whanganui) 18.7d, 3; Chris Dickson (Masterton) 19s. 4; Brett Roberts (Mataura) 17.1s (DQ).

Woolhandling:

Open final: Ngaio Hanson (Eketahuna) 344pts, 1; Pagan Rimene (Alexandra) 37pts, 2; Joel Henare (Gisborne/Motueka) 37.126pts, 3; Te Anna Phillips (Taumarunui) 79.056pts, 4.

Senior final: Amy Bell (Weber) 31.704pts, 1; Tia Manson (Piopio) 40.15pts, 2; Whakapunake (Naki) Maraki (Flaxmere) 48.94pts, 3; Nohokainga Maraki (Flaxmere) 143.332pts, 4.

Junior final: Leah Tamainu (Nuhaka) 23.708pts, 1; Gemma Buick (Pongaroa) 32.34pts, 2; Caitlyn Murphy (Pongaroa) 43.38pts, 3; Paige Marshall (Kihikihi) 36.91pts, 4.

Tapawera Shears

Results from the Tapawera Shears, near Nelson, on Saturday, January 24, 2026:

Open final (20 sheep): Hugh de Lacy (Rangiora) 19m 5.78s, 64.99pts, 1; Travers Baigent (Wakefield) 19m 44.56s, 68.43pts, 2; Timo Hicks (Tapawera) 24m 15.9s, 79.1pts, 3; Baden Barker (Tapawera) 27m 6.84s, 91.79pts, 4.

Senior final (8 sheep): Zion Smith (Christchurch) 13m 0.03s, 46.38pts, 1; Sam Hodgkinson (Tapawera) 13m 43.09s, 51.15pts, 2; Dylan Hamlin (Bainham) 16m 44.65s, 57.86pts, 3; Andrew Ferguson (Kaihoka) 17m 39.56s, 58.1pts, 4.

Intermediate final (4 sheep): Levi Beedles (Rangiora) 6m 43s, 26.05pts, 1; Ryan Hodgkinson (Tapawera) 5m 35.81s, 32.29pts, 2; Pam Irvine (Tapawera) 10m 34.59s, 43.98pts, 3.

Junior final (3 sheep): Mike Toshach (Rangiora) 6m 41.09s, 28.05pts, 1; Holly Crombie (Rangiora) 7m 42.28s, 34.11pts, 2; Katie Hicks (Tapawera) 9m 54.85s, 38.08pts, 3; Emma Sowman (Tapawera) 8m 9.5s, 45.48pts, 4.

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