National Corriedale Shearing Champs

Sheep in "perfect" order for NZ corriedale shears champs

Any shearers and woolhandlers wondering what a bit of a North Canterbury drought might do to the sheep can forget their concerns and get out to the Canterbury Shears’ New Zealand Corriedale Shearing and Woolhandling Championships this week.

The hot-tip comes from one who should know, in former multiple Open final winner and New Zealand representative Tony Coster having got the close-up helping crutch the 1000 sheep last Wednesday at Marble Point Station – 250 for the woolhandling to be contested this Thursday and 750 for the shearing, mainly on Friday.

Competition organisers say that while online entries have closed entries will be taken up to “on the day,” although they would like to know ahead of what is the third national-title competition of the season, following the New Zealand Merino Championships that opened the season in Alexandra on October 4-5 and the New Zealand Spring Shears in Waimate the following weekend.

“Just buy your gate pass and enter here at the Lister Shearing and Woolhandling Stadium on the day,” organisers say.

Woolhandling starts at 10am on Thursday and shearing is on Friday, with a 7.30am start. Competition is in all grdes from Open to Junior, and there is also a women’s shearing event.

For Open shearers the Alexandra, Waimate and Christchurch events are the first three legs of the PGG Wrightson Vetmed National Shearing Circuit, of which Coster won the final during the Golden Shears in Masteron five time, in 2009-2011 and 2015-2016, in addition to Canterbury Shears Open-final wins in 2007, 2013 and 2017.

“It’s been a tough year,” said Coster, who doesn’t plan coming out of competition retirement. “But I think the sheep are a bit smaller, they haven’t got the wool-weight of some years, and they are a bit finer.”

“I think they will shear well, which is probably perfect for the shearer, but we can’t please everyone,” he said.

Organisers are hopeful the number of shearers and woolhandlers will total about 100 competitors, with defending Open shearing champion Nathan Stratford , of Invercargill, facing such former winners and raiders from the north in former winners John Kirkpatrick, Gavin Mutch and Jack Fagan, and Joel Henare, from Gisborne, confirming he’ll be chasing a fourth consecutive win in the show’s Open woolhandling championship.

Fagan and fellow King Country shearer Floyde Neil will be flying-in from west Australia, where Floyde is based as a shearing contractor.

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