World Champs hopes cut-above the rest at Oxford

World championships blade shearing hopefuls Tony Dobbs and Allan Oldfield got-in some good late season New Zealand form when they finished first and second at the Oxford A and P Show in North Canterbury on Saturday.

They were among six who lined-up in the bladeshearing and clearly dominated the final with Fairlie farmer Dobbs winning by 1.65pts, with a gap of over 6pts between Oldfield, of Geraldine and third placegetter, father and 2017 World Championship finalist Phil Oldfield.

Dobbs and Allan Oldfield shore almost clip-for-clip, Oldfield winning the race by just over 2 seconds and shearing the 4 sheep in 11min 55.19sec for his pen of four sheep.

One more bladeshearing competition remains in New Zealand, at the Mackenzie Shears’ New Zealand Lambshearing Championships in Fairlie on Easter Monday, before the pair join the Allflex New Zealand Shearing and Woolhandling team for the World Championships in France in the first week of July.

Southland shearer Troy Pyper’s decision against travelling to the New Zealand championships in Te Kuiti bore fruit when he completed his New Zealand season with a win in the Oxford Shears Open machine-shearing final, his 8th win in 12 since mid-October.

Heading for Australia two days later, Pyper turned on the pace to shear the 10 sheep in the quickest time of 10min 25.68sec, four seconds quicker than next-man-off and Marlborough contractor Angus Moore, but second place ultimately went to Pleasant Point shearer Ant Frew. .

Waimate-based Chilean World championships representative Luis Pincol also had his 8th win of the season in one of his last Senior events before being promoted to Open-class next summer.

Just short of the threshold for upgrading at the end of last season, Pincol has had four seasons as a Senior, with a possible record for the grade of 21 wins.

Dobbs, Pyper and Pincol were all successfully defending titles they won at the Oxford show last year.

RESULTS from the Oxford A and P Show Shears on Saturday, March 30, 2019:

Open final (10 sheep): Troy Pyper (Invercargill) 10min 25.68sec, 38.38pts, 1; Ant Frew (Pleasant Point) 11min 1.19sec, 40.16pts, 2; Angus Moore (Sefton) 10min 29.57sec, 40.48pts, 3; Paul Hodges (Reefton) 12min 34.19sec, 44.51pts, 4.

Senior final (8 sheep): Luis Pincol (Chile/Waimate) 10min 58.94sec, 41.45pts, 1; Duncan Leslie (Owaka) 11min 30.88sec, 42.54pts, 2; Isaac Duckmanton (Christchurch) 12min 14.88sec, 52.24pts, 3; Kelly Macdonald (Wanaka) 14min 18.12sec, 65.03pts, 4.

Junior final (3 sheep): James Wilson (Wyndham) 9min 18.38sec, 37.589pts, 1; Kelly Poehls (Makara) 10min 20.44sec, 42.022pts, 2; Chase Rattray (Ashburton) 10min 1.37sec, 48.729pts, 3.

Blades final (4 sheep): Tony Dobbs (Fairlie) 11min 57.28sec, 46.36pts, 1; Allan Oldfield (Geraldine)11min 55.19sec, 48.01pts, 2; Phil Oldfield (Geraldine) 13min 31.78sec, 54.09pts, 3; Tim Hogg (Timaru) 13min 11.96sec, 57.1pts, 4.

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