Big Miles Pay Off For Northland New Shearing Star

The miles have paid off for most-driven Northland shearer Toa Henderson who on Saturday night became the first first-time Golden Shears Open finalist to win shearing’s glamour prize in 15 years.

Notorious for his trips from tiny Kaiwaka to shearing competitions around the country, including one-day lower North Island excursions of 6-7 hours each way, often sharing the wheel with father Mike, the 34-year-old Henderson won with remarkable comfort in a final that started wide-open after the elimination of defending champion Leon Samuels, eight-times winner Rowland Smith, four-times winner John Kirkpatrick and 2015 victor Gavin Mutch in the quarterfinals and semi-finals.

He was the fastest on the night, shearing the 20 sheep in 16min 15.779sec on Stand 1, eight seconds quicker than eight-time finalist and local Wairarapa hope David Buick at the other end of the board, ultimately the runner-up as Henderson won by 2.13pts.

Third was Riverton shearer Casey Bailey, runner-up in his first Golden Shears Open final last year, and on Saturday scoring the best quality points in finishing the best of the four southern hopes who filled the remaining stands.

Marlborough shearer Angus Moore, the 2007 Senior champion and since three times the winner of the National Shearing Circuit, was fourth in what was his second Golden Shears Open final, Southland veteran Nathan Stratford was fifth in the final for a 12th time , and Mataura shearer Brett Roberts was sixth in his first time in the final, 11 years after graduating to Open class following his 2014 Senior win in Masterton.

While those awaiting the final result were still conjecturing on any of the finalists claiming the title after the sheep were away on the truck, Henderson was sure of such a triumph one day.

“I’ve been dreaming of this since I was this high,” he said, hovering his hand at about toddler height, and he had had visions of “holding this trophy” and of the moment the whanau and other supporters from north belted into Ngati Whatua haka Ko te Puru. “I used to dream of this moment”

“To come off first and hold the trophy means more to me than anything,” he said. “My wife, Phoebe, and my family, and everyone back in Kaiwaka knows what it means.”

Henderson had gone close to winning a Golden Shears title before, in the Senior grade in 2008, when beaten only by brother Tane Henderson.

He shore several years in Australia before coming back to start the campaign with a win at the Warkworth A and P Show in March 2019.

He had three wins the following season, including venturing south to win at Apiti seven days before the 2020 Golden Shears, before starting to venture further afield with three wins in 11 finals in the 2020-2021 season.

He was the No 1-ranked Open shearer last season, with 11 wins in16 finals. He also won both the Otago Shears and Southern Shears finals in February, and has now had 37 Open final wins in New Zealand.

Meanwhile, two-times World individual woolhandling champion Joel Henare claimed his 11th consecutive Golden Shears Open woolhandling title, beating 2023-2024 New Zealand representative Tia Potae, 2019 World Championships representative Pagan Rimene and 2024 Senior winner and now first-year Open woolhandler Vinniye Phillips.

Masterton figured among the major titles, with Paerata Abraham winning the PGG Wrightson Vetmed National Shearing Circuit final for a second times, claiming a place in the 2025-2026 New Zealand team with Henderson, and Eketahuna ‘s Ngaio Hanson, who retained her place by finishing second in the North Island Woolhandling Circuit Open final on Saturday afternoon. Circuit winner Keryn Hebert is ineligible, now representing Cook Islands on the international scene.

International

The Australian shearing team of Daniel McIntyre, Nathan Meaney and Jamie Boohman beat the New Zealand team of Leon Samuels, Jack Fagan and Chris Vickers in the transtasman shearing test, having also won by a big margin at Katanning, West Austraia, last October.

A New Zealand team of Rimene and Hanson had won the woolhandling test on Friday night.

Senior and Intermediate shearing

Young Wairoa shearers Bruce Grace and Ryka Swann saved some face for Hawke’s Bay after the region’s rare absence from the Open final by winning the Senior and Intermediate shearing finals respectively.

Grace, 21, works for four-times Open champion John Kirkpatrick and had all season challenged for Senior honours with Laura Bradley, from Papatawa, between Dannevirke and Woodville, and Oamaru shearer John Cherrington, the trio having collectively won 21 of the finals throughout the country.

Bradley had won 10, Cherrington 6, and Grace 5, but in the 12-sheep final Grace finished first, in 12m 36.551s, carded the best quality points, and beat runner-up Cherrington by more than four points overall, while Btadley was fourth..

Ryka Swann’s win in the Intermediate shearing final secured him his second Golden Shears Championship, at the age of just 19.

He won the Novice title at the age of 14 in 2020, and sister Ashlin won last year, aged 15.

Despite being more than two years into a building career Swann continues to do the shearing shows with Ashlin, her twin sister, Shawna, and dad Paul, all travelling from the family farm west of Wairoa.

Swann shore the 8 sheep in 9m 58.567s, the only finalist to cut under 10 minutes, but it was close in the final count with victory coming by just 0.458pts from runner-up and 2024 Junior winner Kaivah Cooper, a Napier workmate of Senior winner Bruce Grace.

Junior shearing

The Junior shearing final came down to a two-man South Island head-to-head, between 16-year-old Oamaru shearer Tye Meikle, whose 12 wins throughout the season is the most by any shearer or woolhandler in any grade in 2024-2025, and Paddy Hudson, of Hokonui, who had to be talked into entering a competition for the first time seven weeks ago.

After beating Meikle in his two outings Hudsonn still had to be talked into going to Masterton for the Shears.

Both were beaten to the finish by Irish shearer Joseph Scahill, of County Mayo, who shore the five sheep in 7m 4.961s, but who had to settle for third police as the young southern guns came through with the quality.

Hudson claimed the vaunted red ribbon by just 0.435pts in thwarting Meikle’s bid to win the event his father had won in 1993.

The 19-year-old Hudson, who works for Gore contractor Jamie McConnachie, has the distinction of already having won on three different classes of wool in national title events – full wool at Lumsden on January 19, lambs 24 hours later at the Winton A and P shows national crossbred lambshearing championships, and the second-shear ewes of the Golden Shears.

He also won on second shear ewes at Apiti, near Feilding, seven days before the Golden Shears.

Southland’s woolhandling honour

The Senior and Junior woolhandling titles both went to Southland-based competitors, headed by the Senior win to Mataura teenager Lucy Elers, 12 months after winning the Junior title..

She won from three North Island opponents to record her second Senior win, having won at Lumsden in January, but it was a close call with victory coming by less than two points from Tatijana Keefe, from Raupunga.

The Junior final provided the first career win for Gore-based Jasmine Emery, from Oamaru, with a comfortable margin from runner-up Grace Croasdale, of Eketahuna.

© Scoop Media