Kiwis Chase Elusive Shears Cleansweep In Australia

The Shearing Sports New Zealand shearing and woolhandling team is gathering in West Australia hopeful of a rare cleansweep of Transtasman machine shearing, blades shearing and woolhandling tests.

The internationals will take place during the Australian National Shearing and Woolhandling Championships which start on Friday in Katanning, about 280km southeast of Perth, and end on Sunday.

It marks the 50th anniversary of the first of the annual home and away matches, a machine shearing test, held at Euroa, Vic., in 1974.

While New Zealand dominated the earlier era, it hasn’t won a cleansweep or a machine shearing test in Australia since 2010, and, with the series abandoned from 1984 to 1997 because of trade union conflict in the Australian industry, the Australians have dominated over the ensuing years and have, in all, won 38 of the 71 machine shearing tests.

Woolhandling tests were introduced in 1998, New Zealand having since won 36 of the 47 matches, while the black singlets have won 15 of 16 blades shearing tests since 2010, Australians Johnathon Dalla and Andrew Murray having claimed an historic victory last year in Jamestown, South Australia.

Kiwis Tony Dobbs, of Fairlie, and Tim Hogg, of Timaru, regained New Zealand’s ascendancy in a narrow victory in their latest test at the Waimate Spring Shears a fortnight go, although Dalla claimed fstest time, best pen points and best points over all, and the blades teams are intact for a rematch this weekend.

The machine shearing and woolhandling teams have one survivor from the teams that won tests at the Golden Shears in Masterton in March, in Leon Samuels, of Roxburgh, who retained a place by winning the Golden Shears Open shearing final. He is joined by PGG Wrightson Vetmed National Shearing Circuit third placegetter Jack Fagan, of Te Kuiti, and New Zealand Merino Shears Open champion Chris Vickers, of Shag Point, coastal Otago.

New Zealand has a newly selected woolhandling combination of 2023 World championship representative Ngaio Hanson, of Eketahuna, and former Transtasman team member and 2019 World teams champion Pagan Rimene, of Alexandra.

The team is managed by shearing judge, instructor, gear supplier representative and small-block farmer Russell Knight, of Apiti, with Rose Puha, of Kimbolton, as woolhandling judge.

The Australian machine team is Daniel McIntyre , of Glen Innes, NSW, Nathan Meaney, of Kapunda, SA, and Josh Bone, of Nhill, Vic., and the woolhandlers are Alexander Schoff, of Chinchilla, Qld., and Marlene Whittle, of Maryborough, Vic.

Of all those in the three tests, McIntyre is the most experienced with 17 tests consecutively since 2013, and victories for Australia in 14 of the 19 he has contested.

With time in Australia, during which Fagan reached an Open final at Kojonup and Samuels has won a quick shear, the team New Zealand team is better prepared than most for the transtasman trip, with Vickers having the added benefit of working many seasons around Katanning and nearby Wagin.

Dobbs, with 12 consecutive transtasman tests to his name, and Hogg, with two tests in 2012, arrived in West Australia on October 14, Dobbs heading for friends with sheep on which to practice, and with Hogg and former national representative Mike McConnell working for a contractor around Katanning, both with the blades and with a handpiece.

The team will also have the chance to contest Open events during the championships which are otherwise for state teams from throughout Australia.  

Result of the Transtasman blade shearing test at the Waimate Spring Shears on October 12, 2024:

Blades (4 sheep): New Zealand 120.416 (Tony Dobbs 13m 30.84s, 59.042pts; Tim Hogg 14m 32.47s, 61.374pts) beat Australia 123.62pts (Johnathon Dalla 13m 28.3s, 53.915pts; Andrew Murray 15m 29.13s, 69.707pts.

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