Third time’s a charm for Young Auctioneer

MEDIA RELEASE
27 November 2014
For immediate release

Third time’s a charm for Young Auctioneer

PGG Wrightson auctioneer, Cam Bray proved that persistence pays off when he won the Heartland Bank Young Auctioneers Competition held during the Canterbury A&P Show recently.

Eight auctioneers from throughout the country competed in the third year of the Competition, and Cam was pleased to take out the win after competing in all three years.

“It meant a lot to me to win the competition. Auctioneering is a big passion of mine and I hope the win leads to more opportunities.”

Those opportunities will include travelling to the Sydney Royal Easter Show next year to watch the Australian Young Auctioneers Competition, thanks to Heartland Bank. Cam also won a $500 Swanndri clothing voucher, the New Zealand Stock and Station Agent Association Trophy and the Denis Hazlett Medal.

Auctioneering wasn’t an intentional career path for the 26-year-old from Darfield. “I’ve been auctioneering seriously for about three years and I sort of fell into it at the start. I was at an auction and the auctioneer just stopped and dropped me in it.”

Cam said that he’s impressed at how the level of competition has improved since the first year in 2012. “The competition has done great things for these young auctioneers, if anything it’s shown the firms that these jokers are keen to work at it. The bar has risen every year, so it’s working wonders.”

Contestants were put through their paces over two tough days of competition. Two qualifying events helped whittle the eight entrants down to five finalists. On Thursday 13 November contestants were required to go through the opening processes of a sale, sell by mock auction two show cattle and then close the sale. The event was made more realistic by requiring the competitors to research the animals they were selling, including interviewing the breeder, having bidding restricted to "plants" in the crowd and having a selling ring. Competitors were judged on personal presentation, knowledge of the stock they were selling, use of relevant animal information, and voice delivery including diction, delivery and patter.

The second qualifying event was held on the next morning, consisting of a 15-minute interview with a new panel of judges where they were tested on auction law and auctioneers’ responsibilities. The final later that day required the final five to sell three lots.

Convenor of the competition, Mick Withers said that the judges were impressed at how much the quality has lifted in the three years the event has been running

“The young guys are obviously putting in the extra effort to lift themselves to the next level. Of particular interest is the incredible knowledge they had of the laws and rules governing the auction process, in one case, possibly better knowledge than the judges themselves.”

-ENDS-

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