Too Mutch: Happy To Teach - Expected To Shear

Expatriate Scotsman, former World shearing champion and Southern Hawke’s Bay farmer Gavin Mutch will miss his new home show tomorrow(Friday) but has still made it a good week, with a win in the US national “Professional” championship.

Helping train shearers in the US, Mutch had no plans to shear in the event on Monday when he landed in Rapid City, South Dakota – or, as Google so rapidly puts it, 7672 “miles” from Dannevirke, near where he has been managing a farm since moving from Whangamomona, Taranaki, about three years ago.

Arriving in Rapid City with just a pair of mocassins in his kit, Mutch would have been happy just helping-out and training and encouraging younger shearers.

He judged blades and beginners shearing in the pens “out the back”, but “they expected me to compete,” he said, after the appearance on All-American Sheep Day at the Black Hills Stoick Show, which was last year reported to have attracted 331,000 people.

Borrowing a handpiece, combs and cutters, he ended the day winning a four-man final over 12 sheep each by over 9pts from five-times US champion Alex Moser.

Often troubled by a shoulder injury, which in November saw him retiring midway through the Central Hawke’s Bay show final in Waipukurau, Mutch was in charge from the start, finishing the first sheep while Moser and fellow other finalist Nolan Abel and Kurtis Mooney, were still on the long below and yet to start the last side.

He maintained the margin to finish in the 12 in 16min 40sec, almost a minute but not quite a full sheep ahead of Moser, who finished in 17min 38sec.

Mutch, who also had the better quality points, also wasn’t particularly worried about the shoulder on the day, saying: “It’s workable. It was only a 12- sheep final, so it wasn’t too bad.”

Mutch, who flew to the US the day after beating 2014 World champion and multiple Golden Shears winner Rowland Smith in a 20-sheep final at the Wairoa A and P Show on January 21, says he’s now won in 11 countries, and wonders what will be next.

Of course, there’s Scotland, where he was arised on a farm near Huntly, Aberdeenshire, he helped with the shearing from about the age of 10 and after completing an agricultural course came to New Zealand at the age of 17, soon making an impact and becoming Shearing Sports New Zealand’s No 1-ranked Senior shearer for the 2001-2002 season.

Winning mainly in Scotland and New Zealand, he’s also won in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Ireland France, Norway, Australia, Canada, and now the US.

The 43-year-old father-of-four’s wins include the World Championship individual title in Masterton in 2012, the teams title with compatriuot Hamish Mitchell in Ireland two years later, and in 2015 back in Masterton becoming the only shearer from overseas to win the Golden Shears Open final.

He’s represented Scotland in seven World championships, in six countries, from 2005 ro 2019.

On the current trip he’s done shearing schools in Canada and South Dakota, is now in Montana for another school, before flying to Oregon for two more.

His absence abroad means he misses the Dannevirke show, Saturday’s Rangitikei Shearing Sports North Island championships in Marton, and the Aria sports in King Country on Waitangi Day, but he returns to New Zealand on February 12, in time to tackle the buildup to the Golden Shears in Masterton on March 2-4 and the New Zealand Shears in Te Kuiti on March 30-April 1.

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