Last Clip For Blade Shearing Hopes

New Zealand's depleting band of blades shearers gather in the small Canterbury town of Oxford tomorrow (saturday) to decide who will clip for their country at the World shearing and woolhandling champnionships in Wales in July.

But for Timaru meatworker and former World championships finalist Bill Michelle, who won a New Zealand titles at the Canterbury Show in November, the chance to retain the place he had at the last World Championships in 2008 is already gone.

Still competing, Michelle says he hasn't got enough points to make the cut in the Mark Marshall Memorial Blades Circuit which ends at the Oxford A and P Show and from which the two shearers will be chosen.

Darfield shearer Brian Thomson is already a certainty, he says, and his teammate will be either Phil Oldfield, of Geraldine, Mike McConnell, of Cave, or Alan Gemmell, of Rangiora.

"I missed out at Masterton last month," he said, referring to the inclusion of the Golden Shears in the otherwise South Island-only series for the first time.

"I haven't shorn a sheep since," he said. "The three will have shorn a few sheep in the last week or so, but we're a bit of a novelty now."

Thomson won two events at Omarama and Rangiora early in the season, McConnell won the Silver Shears in Waimate, Gemmell won at Ashburton and Reefton, and Oldfield won the special Golden Shears 50th anniversary title, while also among about a dozen shearing at Oxford will be Timaru veteran John Kennedy, who won the Australian title in Warialda, NSW, five months ago.

The two top shearers in the series will be part of a six-strong New Zealand team for the World championships. Waipawa shearer Cam Ferguson has one of the machine-shearing berths after winning the Golden Shears Open final on March 6 and the other other will be decided at next week's New Zealand Championships in Te Kuiti. The woolhandlers, Keryn Herbert, from Te Awamutu, and reigning champion Sheree Alabaster, of Taihape, claimed their places in a selection series final at the Golden Shears.

Machine shearing is also on the Oxford programme, but most of the country's best will be competing tomorrow at the Royal Easter Show in Auckland.

ENDS

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