The Ranfurly Shield Of Shearing: Where Are The Challengers?

It’s a case of have shield will travel for Southland as it seeks to defend the Colin King Shield on an almost anytime-any place basis as it looks for suitable challengers.

The Shield was put in place two years ago as a South Island equivalent of rugby’s Ranfurly Shield, and was awarded initially to Marlborough after beating North Canterbury at the November 2021 Marlborough A and P Show.

Southland successfully challenged at the New Zealand Corriedales Championships in Christchurch in November last year, but no challenges have yet been lodged for the 2023-2024 season.

Keen to get the challenges rolling is Southland veteran and renowned mentor Nathan Stratford who says the format of the trophy, presented by champion left-hander and multiple Golden Shears and National Shearing Circuit champion Colin King, provides a big chance for young hopefuls to mix-it in a team environment with top-class Open shearers.

Each team comprises one shearer from each of the four classes of Open, Senior, Intermediate and Junior, and Stratford says Southland is prepared to defend it anywhere Southland shearers are competing in all four grades.

Under the rules, it needs to be at a South Island competition, and challenges must be applied-for at least 14 days in advance so that arrangements can be made, including show organisers being able to accommodate a challenge event within their programme.

Stratford said Southland teams will be made up of the best Southland shearers, based on results in the grades, at each event where challenges take place.

Each challenge is shorn as a relay, with the Junior member shearing a single sheep, Intermediate and Senior 2 each, and Open 3 sheep.

Meanwhile, a nationwide inter-provincial teams competition is set to return to the Golden Shears programme.

The annual meeting of the Shearing Sports New Zealand’s National Committee in August gave the green light for the Golden Shears to go ahead with such an event and new Golden Shears president Trish Stevens says rules are currently being confirmed.

Teams shearing relays were held in Masterton in the earliest years of the Golden Shears in the 1960s, but teams competitions at the Golden Shears have since been limited mainly to the annual, now-invitation, two-shearers Maori-Pakeha event, the YFC shearing and woolhandling teams event, which has struggled amid dwindling YFC numbers over recent years, the transtasman shearing and woolhandling tests, and occasional World Championships’.

The 2023-2024 shearing sports season, with four of the near-60 competitions already completed, continues at the Hawke’s Bay A and P Show’s Great Raihania Shears shearing and woolhandling championships in Hastings on Friday, and the Northern A and P Show shears in Rangiora on Saturday.

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