Shearing It Around: Who's Your Pick ?

It’s sometimes dismissed as a sport, and not your regular weekend punting, but shearing in a woolshed in Central Otago takes on a position near centre-stage for one of the few home-based sports betting opportunities in New Zealand tomorrow (Saturday).

With dwindling numbers of events amid the coronavirus crisis, the only events in New Zealand available to sports bettors on Saturday are Super Rugby Pacific games at Eden Park in Auckland and the Caketin in Wellington, a women’s World Cup cricket match between South Africa and Bangladesh at the University Oval, Dunedin, and the PGG Wrightosn Vetmed National Shearing Circuit finals at Armidale Merino Stud, near Gimmerburn..

The TAB last weekend opened betting on the 12-man shearing event, the 50th finals since it was established as the McSkimming Memorial Triple Crown in 1972-1973, in honour of New Zealand finewool merino shearing legend Fred McSkimming.

All but two of the multi-breeds finals have been shorn at the Golden Shears in Masterton, but with the cancellation of the glamour championships amid the pandemic, last year’s final was held at the New Zealand Shears in Te Kuiti, and this year isbeing held in the South Island for the first time, following the cancellation of 45 of the 59 shearing sports shows which were scheduled throughout the country during the summer.

It came as a surprise to TAB sports trader Daniel Beswick that there had been TAB betting on shearing in New Zealand for more than 20 years, the first being on the New Zealand Corriedale Championships at the Canterbury Shears in 1998.

That was just two years after the introduction of fixed-odds sports betting at the TAB in New Zealand, which is understood to be still the only country in the World where betting on shearing sports is available, partly due to shearing and woolhandling competition being recognised as sport by Government agency Sport New Zealand.

Beswick said that with the Golden Shears and New Zealand Shears both cancelled the shearing circuit provided a good opportunity for shearing to still have a place on the TAB programme, and for people to show their support for both the sport and its top competitors, particularly with the event being closed to the public because of the pandemic restrictions on public gatherings.

It is however being livestreamed by Shedtalk on facebook.

The TAB is running three pools, on picking the winner, picking shearers to make the Top 3, and picking where the winning shearer will be from - the North Island or the South Island.

The warm favourite is 2014 winner Nathan Stratford, who has shorn 17 of the circuit finals in an Open-class career of 25 years, and whose 73 finals wins outnumber those of all 11 other qualifiers.

With Southland shearers being the first four favourites, the South Island is strongly favoured to produce the 50th-year winner, and was paying $1.16 in the North v South pool.

Starting at 2pm on Saturday, the 12 qualifiers will shear in two semi-final heats of 16-sheep each, comprising 4 merino wethers, 4 half-bred merino-romney ewes, 4 second-shear crossbred longwool and 4 lambs. The final for the top six will be of 20 sheep (five from each wool type), providing a marathon showdown expected to take over 23 minutes.

Odds to win:

To Win: Nathan Stratford (Invercargill) $1.90; Brett Roberts (Mataura) $3.50; Leon Samuels $4.50 (Invercargill); Ringakaha Paewai (Gore) $6.50; Paerata Abraham (Mastertonn) $9.00; Aaron Haynes (Feilding) $15; Jack Fagan (Te Kuiti) $15.00; Hugh De Lacy (Prnassus) $17.00; David Gordon (Masterton) $41.00; Lionel Taumata (Gore) $81.00; Matene Mason (Masterton) $81.00; Willy McSkimming (Oamaru) $101.00.

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