The Master In Control - Henare Regains Canterbury Shears Title

Master Woolhandler Joel Henare clocked-up another milestone in Christchurch today (Thursday) when he became only the second person to complete a treble of the three pre-Christmas national Open woolhandling titles.

The 28-year-old Gisborne woolshed maestro added the Canterbury Shears’ New Zealand Corriedale title to the NZ Merino title he won in Alexandra on October 1 and the Spring Shears long strongwool title he won in Waimate a week later.

Henare has now won 123 Open finals, and on each of the last three occasions the runner-up was Alexandra woolhandler and fellow World champion Pagan Karauria, who two years ago was the first to claim the treble and who today had to settle for second-best in trying to win the Canterbury title for a third year in a row.

But there was still plenty to savour for the Karauria crew from Central Otago, with 16-year-old sister Charis Morrell claiming her first Senior woolhandling title - to go with three Junior titles on lambswool over the last two seasons – before heading home to Alexandra for her Dunstan High School prizegiving in the morning.

Karauria, a World teams title winner in France in 2019 and winner of the New Zealand Shears Open final in Te Kuiti last April, today (Thursday) spoke of the work her teen sister was putting into both school and the training for woolhandling competition, and the pride watching the ribbons being handed-out later in the afternoon, with dad and former shearing champion and World record holder Dion Morrell in charge.

“Charis has been training a lot for competition because she has school,” she said. “Some days she and dad will go out either in the morning, after school or on a day off to handle 30-50 sheep where she can develop her own system and rhythm.”

“Nowadays I go out to help train her to try to teach her to teach herself and find what works for her,” said Karauria. “It was hard to hold the tears back in our row during prize giving.”

In the spirit of the industry’s and sport’s whanaungatanga and manaakitanga, Henare could also take dome pride in the achievement, having on Wednesday been chief instructor at a high-performance run by Elite Wool Industry Training, with students including Charis Morrell and Corriedales Junior final winner Jess Rose Toa, of Ashburton.

With Covid-19 Level 2 conditions in place, some potential competitors were absent and the day’s events attracted 34 competitors across the grades, including 17 in the Open class.

The second day of the championships (Friday) will be devoted to shearing competition, with Open, Senior, Intermediate, Junior and Blades titles at stake, as well as the Canterbury All-Breeds Circuit final.

The Open class heats constitute the third round of the PGG Wrightson Vetmed National Shearing Circuit, from which at least three will be missing because of the confines of Level 3 alerts in the North Island.

Another missing will be defending Corriedales champion and 2012 World champion Gavin Mutch, who had to pull out of the Circuit before it started, because of a shoulder injury.

He’s now intent on recovering full fitness in time to return to Scotland in June to try to win selection again in his native country’s team for the next World Championships at the Royal Highland Show in Edinburgh 12 months later.

The favourite to win the Open title tomorrow is Invercargill shearer Nathan Stratford, winner in 2016 and nine times a finalist in the last 10 years.

Geraldine shearer and 2019 World bladeshearing champion Allan Oldfield, who now lives in Hutt Valley, returns to the South Island to defend the Golden Blades title he won for the first time last year.

His preparation this week included shearing some alpaca.

Results of the New Zealand Corriedale woolhandling championships at the Canterbury Shears in Christchurch on Thursday, November 11, 2021:

Open final: Joel Henare (Gisborne) 185.63pts, 1; Pagan Karauria (Alexandra) 214.244pts, 2; Nova Kumeroa Elers (Mataura) 245.88pts, 3.

Senior final: Charis Morrell (Alexandra) 215.406pts, 2; Tamara Marshall (Tuakau) 243.48pts, 2; Krome Elers (Mataura) 251.156pts, 3.

Junior final: Jess Rose Toa (Ashburton) 110.818pts, 1; Emma Martin (Gore) 265.032pts, 2; Trish Booth (Christchurch) 366.95pts, 3

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