Emotionals Win For Mum At Great Raihania Shears

Manawatu mum Ngaira Puha started the bounce-back from the tragedy of losing a child when she won the Open woolhandling final at the Hawke’s Bay A and P Show’s Great Raihania Shears yesterday(Friday).

Puha, a 27-year-old mum-of-two from Kimbolton, said she needed to “get out” after losing a child stillborn on October 5, said she couldn’t have done it without the support of those who had helped here through “the last few weeks.”

When they decide to make the trip, she decided she would as well, and because they were competing she would as well.

She had won just won once previously in Open class, at home show Apiti in February 2022, having shortly before given-up the full-time lifestyle of the shed to go into youth work and teaching, and this year hadn’t competed since the Golden Shears in Masterton in March.

But in the Tomoana Showgrounds shearing pavilion she still commanded the final of four who had survived from a starting field of 18 in the heats, including 2023 World Championships Cook Islands representative and former New Zealand representative and World teams title winner Keryn Herbert, of Te Kuiti, who had to settle for second place.

It was a day for new names on the trophies with Gisborne shearer Tama Niania winning the Open shearing final, a 2010 Golden Shears Senior champion also claiming only his second win in Open-class, waiting a decade since he won at the Wairoa A and P Show in January 2012.

It was a close call in a four-man final which the 33-year-old won by just 0.05pts from newly-acclaimed Master Shearer, contractor, and former New Zealand representative and national lamb-shearing champion David Buick, in his first open final in a remarkable comeback on the second anniversary of a near-fatal farm mishap in which he suffered massive crush injuries, buried up to the neck in a ditch on his farm near Pongaroa.

As the final points showed, Buick would have won but for losing struggling to send his 9th sheep through the porthole when leading the race, and ultimately had to settle for second-fastest time, when two seconds quicker would have been enough to claim a victory.

Third overall was 2017 World champion and Hawke’s Bay shearer and contractor John Kirkpatrick, just a further 0.45pts away, and third was Eketahuna shearer and first-man-off Hemi Braddick, who shore the 20 hoggets in 18min 12sec.

Niania was third-off in 18min 52sec, but had just seven penalties on the board (0.35pts) and second best points in the pen judging, a 6.05 compared with the 4.8 of Kirkpatrick, who had been top qualifier for the final and who has had more than 190 Open-class wins.

The Open class attracted 21 shearers, taking a liking in the heats to the good-shearing ewes from the Tikokino property of Duncan and Mokai Gray, but with some drama in the semi-finals, of six sheep each, with the elimination of Te Kuiti shearer Jack Fagan, who had won at the North Island show of the season at Gisborne six days earlier.

Taumarunui shearer Forde Alexander had a comfortable win in the Senior shearing final, more than three points clear of runner-up and Gisborne winner Te Ua Wilcox, Gisborne shearer made it a double in the Intermediate grade after winning at his home show last week, Napier shearer Kaivah Cooper also completed a Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay double by winning the Intermediate final, and Wairoa sisters Shawna and Ashlin Swan were first and second in the Novice event.

In the woolhandling, Tatijana Keefe, from Raupunga, had her first Senior win, after four wins and a Golden Shears second placing as a Junior last season, while Napier youngster Waiari Puna had his second Junior win, and paired with new Open-class competitor Te Anna Phillips to win a teams event for North Island circuit entrants.

The Great Raihania Shears, so-named in 2004 to commemorate the staging of the first machine-shearing competition in the World in 1902 and won by Rimitiriu “The Great” Raihania, attracted 86 shearers and wolhandlers.

The third North Island shearing and woolhandling competition of the season is at the Wairarapa A and P Show at Clareville (Carterton) next weekend, followed by the Manawatu show at Feilding on November 4 and the Central Hawke’s Bay A and P Show in Waipukurau on November 11.

Results from the Great Raihania Shears shearing and woolhandling championships at the Hawke’s Bay A and P Show in Hastings on Friday, October 20, 2023:

Shearing:

Open final (20 sheep): Tama Niania (Gisborne) 18min 52sec, 63pts, 1; David Buick (Pongaroa) 18min 29sec, 63.05pts, 2; John Kirkpatrick (Pakipaki) 19min 8sec, 63.5pts, 3; Hemi Braddick (Eketahuna) 18min 12sec, 64.2pts, 4.

Senior final (12 sheep): Forde Alexander (Taumarunui) 14min 16sec, 53.38pts, 1; Te Ua Wilcox (Gisborne) 14min 41sec, 57.05pts, 2; Laura Bradley (Woodville) 15min 55sec, 59.25pts, 3; Mark Ferguson (Elsthorpe) 17mi 9sec, 59.62pts, 4.

Intermediate final (5 sheep): Dylan Young (Gisborne) 6min 45sec, 29.45pts, 1; Mitch Nation (Napier) 7min 3sec, 37.55pts, 2; Jake Goldsbury (Waitotara) 7min 19sec, 37.95pts, 2; Tim Dickson (Hunterville) 8min 19sec, 41.35pts, 4.

Junior final (2 sheep): Kaivah Cooper (Napier) 4min 56sec, 24.8pts, 1; Tom Kerley (Wairoa) 6min 43sec, 26.15pts, 2; Lachie Cameron (Kimbolton) 6min 8sec, 27.9pts, 3; Maureen Chaffey (Pongaroa) 5min 26sec, 32.3pts, 4.

Novice (1 sheep): Shawna Swann (Wairoa) 4min 7sec, 18.35pts, 1; Ashlin Swann (Wairoa) 3min 58sec, 18.9pts, 2; James Robertson (Feilding) 3min 47sec, 19.35pts, 3; Te Ariki Te Hau (Flaxmere) 3min 55sec, 28.75pts, 4.

Woolhandling:

Open final: Ngaira Puha (Kimbolton) 182.67pts, 1; Keryn Herbert (Te Kuiti) 194.23pts, 2; Nova Kumeroa (Mataura) 203.824pts, 3; Monica Potae (Kennedy Bay) 250.612pts, 4.

Senior final: Tatijana Keefe (Raupunga) 168.53pts, 1; Amy Bell (Weber) 195.3pts, 2; Nohokainga Maraki (Flaxmere) 210.016pts, 3; Ryley Paul (Wairoa) 290.886pts, 4.

Junior final: Waiari Puna (Napier) 101.594pts, 1; Makayla Neil (Taumarunui) 123.15pts, 2; Rahera Lewis (Taihape) 155.094pts, 3; Kalyah Ferguson (Waipawa) 171pts, 4.

North Island Shearing Circuit Teams event: Waiari Puna (Napier) and Te Anna (Phillips (Taumarunui) 155.76pts, 1; Kalyah Ferguson (Waipawa) and Tatijana Keefe (Raupunga) 185.05pts, 2.

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