Southland V The Rest In National Shearing Championship

It will be Southland versus the Rest in the race for the PGG Wrightson Vetmed National Shearing Circuit title with five from the region among the qualifiers for the finals in a Central Otago woolshed next Saturday.

The 12 for the showdown were decided after the fourth and fifth qualifying rounds at the Apiti and Districts Show shearing and woolhandling championships, about 40kms northeast of Feilding.

The finals, comprising two six-man semi-finals and the final for the top six over 20 sheep each over four different wool types, will be held at Armidale Merino Stud, near Gimmerburn.

The event is in its 50th season and incorporates the McSkimming Memorial Triple Crown, contested at the Golden Shears in Masterton ever since the inaugural event in 1972-1973 until cancellation of the Golden Shears because of the Covid-19 pandemic in the last two seasons.

Southlanders are the first four in the order of favouritism at the TAB, headed by 2014 winner and Invercargill shearer Nathan Stratford, whose 17 finals in the event and career total of 73 Open finals are both more than the number of finals and career wins across the rest of the qualifiers.

Second favourite is Leon Samuels, also of Invercargill and who won the final at his first attempt last year. The third favourite is 2018 Canterbury All-Breeds Circuit winner and two-times National circuit finalist Ringakaha Paewai, of Gore, while the joint fourth favourites are Mataura shearer and Brett Roberts, who on Saturday won the Apiti Open final and who in the first of his two National Circuit finals was third in 2019, and leading North Island hope, four-times circuit finalist and 2019 winner Paerata Abraham, of Masterton.

The fifth Southland shearer to qualify is Lionel Taumata, of Gore.

Points were amassed for placings in the heats at five competitions during the season three of them before Christmas at the New Zealand Merino Shears in Alexandra and the Waimate Spring Shears (crossbred long wool) in October, and the New Zealand Corriedale Championships in Christchurch in November.

The pandemic meant the usual lambs round at the Rangitikei Shearing Sports and Marton and the second-shear round at the Pahiatua Shears could not go ahead and both were staged at Apiti.

Stratford was top qualifier at Alexandra and Waimate, Hugh De Lacy was top qualifier at Christchurch, Abraham bolted back into calculations by being top qualifier in the second-shear round on Saturday, and top qualifier on the lambs was Te Kuiti shearer Jack Fagan, who in December shore 811 lambs in a nine-hours fiver-stand World record claim, and who is son of nine-times circuit winner Sir David Fagan.

Jack Fagan will be one of six who will be trying for places in the six-man final for the first time.

A special feature of the list of 12 is the emergence of some of the brightest prospects from the lower grades of recent years, and reward for some long apprenticeships in the Open grade.

Paewai was No 1-ranked Senior nationwide in 2005-2006, Fagan was No 1-ranked Junior in 2009-10, Intermediate in 2010-2011 and Senior in 2012-2013, Manawatu shearer Aaron Haynes was No 1-ranked Senior in 2009-2010, Masterton shearer Matene Mason was No 1-ranked Senior in 2010-2011 and David Gordon, also from Masterton, was No 1-ranked Intermediate in 2012-2013.

Willy McSkimming, now returned to the South Island and based in Oamaru as a field representative for Heiniger after more than a decade shearing contracting in the King Country is a grandson of finewool shearing legend Fred McSkimming, in honour of whom the McSkimming Memorial Triple Crown was presented.

The showdown at Armidale Merino Stud will be on merino wethers, half-bred merino-romney ewes, second-shear crossbred longwool and lambs, with four of each in the semi-finals and five of each in the final

The qualifiers are: Nathan Stratford, Leon Samuels, Hugh De Lacy, Brett Roberts, Paerata Abraham, Aaron Haynes, Jack Fagan, David Gordon, Willy McSkimming, Matene Mason, Lionel Taumata, Ringakaha Paewai. Reserve: James Ruki.

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