Former World champions Nathan Stratford and Joel Henare have won the two major titles at the first event of the new shearing sports season. Stratford, from Invercargill, claimed the New Zealand Merino Shears Open shearing title for a fifth time, and Henare, from Gisborne, won the Open woolhandling final for fourth time. The 60th championships were held in Alexandra on Friday and Saturday, with two shearing and four woolhandling titles at stake, and more than 120 competitors present, but without any public admission as organisers made sure the event went ahead with strict compliance with the pandemic Covid 2 rules.

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 Happy anniversary as Stratford nails Merino title

Invercargill shearer Nathan Stratford didn’t reckon it was one of his best shears, but it must have been one of the more monumental achievements when he won a fifth national finewool championship on Saturday.

Opening his 25th season of Open-class shearing in a sport renowned for results often decided by fractions, it was effectively a 20-points-plus reversal as Stratford’s trademark quality turned a 13pts time-points deficit into victory by 8.4477pts in the 60th New Zealand Merino Shears Open final in the near-empty Molyneaux Stadium in Central Otago town Alexandra.

Previously the winner in 2006, 2009, 2016 and 2018, Stratford’s winning margin over runner-up Ringakaha Paewai, of Gore, was the biggest in the last 30 years apart from 8-times victor and Western Australian finewool legend Damien Boyle’s triumphs in 2013, 2014 and 2017. Six times in the three decades it had been less than a point.

With pandemic limitations in place, including no public attendance and other Level 2 precaution, Boyle was unable to make what has been an annual trip to Alexandra for most of the last 20 years.

To Stratford victory looked anything but likely as he was third to finish Saturday’s six-man final of 12 sheep each – almost four-and-a-half minutes after Cheviot-based former Southland shearer Troy Pyper was first off in 21min 33.35sec, more than a sheep ahead of everyone else in the showdown.

“I felt I hadn’t done enough,” Stratford, unaware of the penalties stacking-up against Pyper, who, two stands down the board, was looking good till things started turning to disaster, including incurring a “maxi” stroke against him on about the fifth sheep.

Winner of more than 30 finals and twice top New Zealander and runner-up in Boyle’s dominance of the Alexandra title, Pyper reckoned he started getting too excited, and “a bit rough”, and that Stratford shore well and deserved the win, while Pyper had to settle for third place overall.

Fourth was Jocky O’Neill, of Alexandra, fifth went to merino-shearing World record-holdingr North Island shearer Stacey Te Huia, now settled in Central Otago, and sixth was 2000 and 2005 winner Grant Smith, of Rakaia.

Stratford, working for O’Neill Shearing in Alexandra and otherwise based with Southland contractors Emma and Adam Rabbidge, said it was “special” to win on an anniversary such as the 60th Merino Shears.

The championships also started the 50th season of the national All Breeds Championship, which started at Alexandra in 1972 with the first leg of what was introduced as the McSkimming Memorial Triple Crown.

Now known as the PGG Wrightson Vetmed National Shearing Circuit, it comprises qualifying rounds on five wool types at five venues, plus finals at the Golden Shears.

The next round is on the long strongwool of the New Zealand Spring Shears in Waimate next Friday and Saturday, where the national Winter Comb title, on Merinos, is also at stake.

Te Huia, Stratford, Pyper and Masterton shearer Ethan Pankhurst got the best starts in the series with the top four points-scoring places in Saturday’s heats.

The Senior final on Saturday was won by Alexandra shearer Simon Cameron, also relying on quality to beat speed. In a final of four sheep each his time of 15min 25.4sec was more than four minutes slower than the first three to finish, an impost of more than 12pts which his vastly superior quality turned into a win by more than 3pts over runner-up Haare Edwards, of Ashburton.

Henare makes the trip and wins woolhandling final 

A trip from Gisborne proved well worthwhile for former World champion Joel Henare who opened his season by regaining the New Zealand Merino Shears Open woolhandling title on the first day in Alexandra on Friday, despite having hardly worked on finewool in the last two years.

With more than 120 finals wins over the last 16 years, including multiple World, Golden Shears and New Zealand championships, Henare had to pull out his best shot to beat defending champion and Alexandra hope and eventual runner-up Pagan Karauria to win New Zealand’s only Open finewool woolhandling title for a fourth time.

Karauria dominated through the preliminary stages as top qualifier in the heats and the semi-finals, but had to settle for second place in her bid for three in a row, having won in 2018 and 2019, with the traditional Shearing Sports New Zealand season-opener being cancelled in 2020 because of the uncertainty of the pandemic.

Milton’s Tia Potae, now working mainly outside the industry, was third, and fourth was Ratapu Moore, of Seddon. 

Henare had won in each of his World championship years, his individual and teams titles of 2012 and 2017 in New Zealand and the less-successful Ireland championships in 2014.

Intent on honouring show committee chairman Greg Stuart and his team for the effort in planning and staging the anniversary competition amid the pandemic limitations, Henare left Gisborne on Monday.

He drove 1400km to arrive in Alexandra in time to help train other woolhandlers at an Elite Shearing and Woolhandling Training course on Thursday, did stadium commentaries on Friday as well as compete, and will go through it all again at Waimate this week.

“Pagan was tough to beat,” he said. “She’s on another level in the fine wool world. If the heats and semis were anything to go off, Pagan had won the final prior to it happening.

“I went into the final with a relaxed mind set and also was getting tired, but, lucky for me, I was able to get my eye in for the fleeces and what to remove, just lucky experience helped me through, and really a good support team there for me.”

“I was really happy just to make the final,” he said. “Anything after that was a bonus.”

The Senior woolhandling title was won by Jasmin Tipoki, from Wairarapa but based in Hawke’s Bay, the Junior champion was first-time winner Stoneigh Waihape, of Gore, and the Novice event was won by Anahera Cannell, from Gisborne.

The Shears attracted more than 120 competitors, with 38 in the Open shearing, 20 in the Senior, and 70 entries across the four woolhandling grades, with 22 in the Open, 18 seniors, 23 juniors and 7 novices.