$20,000 To Shear A Lamb In 19.78 Seconds

Te Kuiti shearer Jack Fagan has picked-up World shearing’s richest cash prize in a lightning transtasman trip to win the Oberon Quick Shear in New South Wales.

In a field stacked with shearers from New Zealand, some based in Australia, Fagan won $A20,000 (more than $NZ22,000) with a final shear that took just 19.78 seconds, despite the torrential rain around the roofed but open-sided shearing board at the Oberon Show, about 50km south of Bathhurst and 180km west of Sydney.

The win also includes a trip to Wales with the Wagga Wagga Speed Shear team, in which he also shore in Wales last July after winning the Wagga Wagga event three months earlier.

Saturday’s triumph was his third win in a week in the shearing sports short-form, known in New Zealand as speed shears, and his 74th in the races against the clock in New Zealand, Australia and the UK, all under the watchful eye of qualified judges ensuring the maintaining of quality standards with no half-measures.

Any sheep not up to the standards can be disqualified and mean an early end to the shearer’s dreams, such being the case with Scotsman, Hawke’s Bay farmer, shearer and former Golden Shears and World champion Gavin Mutch.

The top qualifier for the final, with a time of 19.68sec, he had to settle for sixth money among the six in the prizegiving after a red light on a 19.84sec shear that would have otherwise been good enough for the $A4000 second prize, that went to the 19.96sec of Masterton shearer Paerata Abraham, who on Thursday won a 20-sheep final at the Aria Waitangi Day Sports, between Te Kuiti and Taumarunui.

Third was Australia-based Jovan Taiki, from Porangahau, fourth was Aria sports shears runner-up, multiple Golden Shears Open champion and 2014 World champion Rowland Smith, of Maraekakajho, and fifth was Australia-based Hemi Power, from Gore.

The previous Saturday (February 1), Fagan won the Halcombe Tavern Speed Shear, near Feilding, and on Thursday night he won the Quota Club Speed Shear in Te Kuiti, before making the transtasman dash to extend a sequence of Oberon wins for shearers from New Zealand.

Taiki won in 2022, when the first prize leapt from $A5000 to $A10,000, Marton shearer Jimmy Samuels won in 2023, and West Australia-based Floyd Neil, from Taumarunui was the first winner of the $A20,000 prize last year.

Meanwhile, there’s no let-up in a season of possibly a record number of speed shears in New Zealand, with more than 40 this season, most supporting charitable causes.

They are in addition to 58 shows on the Shearing Sports New Zealand calendar, including the Golden Shears in Masterton on February 27-March 1, and the New Zealand Shears in Te Kuiti on March 27-29, each including a speedshear event.

At least 14 are being held this month, with at least six around the Otago Shears shearing and woolhandling championships that were held on Saturday in a woolshed at Te Houka, near Balclutha, and the Southern Shears shearing and woolhandling this coming Friday and Saturday in Gore.

First-year Open shearer Forde Alexander, of Taumarui, won t the Aria Cozy Club speedshear on Wednesday night, Mataura shearer Brett “Kornie” Roberts won at the Tokanui Tavern on Thursday night, Southland shearer Cody Smith had his first Open speed shear win at the Waihola Swans Speed Shear on Sat urday night, and $3500 would be on the line for the winner of the Tuapeka Speed Shear in Lawrence on Sunday nay night.

The Southern Shears later in the week is the first round of the New Zealand machine-shearing and woolhandling 2026 World championships team selection series’, with Fagan, Abraham and Rowland Smith all among the entries.

Fagan flew into Auckland before midday on Sunday.

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