Shearing Test Match A Feature Of National Championships

About 300 shearers and woolhandlers are gathering in Te Kuiti in search of New Zealand Championships titles in one of the last of the 58 shows on the Shearing Sports New Zealand calendar for the summer of 2024-2025.

The New Zealand Shears started today (Thursday) and end on Saturday, but for Welsh shearers Llyr Jones and Gethin Lewis the focus will be trying to repeat their international win of 12 months ago when they claimed Wales’ first shearing test match win in New Zealand.

They are bolstered by the result in a near-thing last Saturday at the Waitomo Caves sports, where New Zealanders David Buick and Jack Fagan made it 2-0 in a three-match series with victory by just 1.099pts.

The test will be shorn on Friday, the second night of the three-day championships marking the 40th anniversary of when the event was first held in 1985, but it won’t be the only challenge to keep Jones and Lewis engaged before they fly-out on Wednesday for the summer back in the UK.

They are both among the field for the shears’ Thursday-night speedshear and Saturday’s Open shearing championship, while Jones is hoping to become the first Welsh shearer to reach the final of the New Zealand Shears Circuit, having made the 12 for the semi-finals.

Of the test-match prospects, he said: “It was a close test last week between the teams, but hopefully we can have a big win in Te Kuiti and make it the same as last year.

“David and Jack are a very good team,” ” said Jones, who has been based in Wairarapa, where he and employer, 2023-2024 New Zealand team member and competition rival Paerata Abraham unsuccessfully tackled a World lambs shearing record in December. “But hopefully myself and Geth can win this last test in Te Kuiti, on lambs.”

Fagan’s father, shearing legend and championships show president Sir David Fagan, now in his 10th season since retiring from Open competition, believes the Waitomo test shows the Welsh will be a formidable combination in the town’s major events venue, the Les Munro Centre.

“It was very close at Waitomo, it should be a great contest, over 20 lambs each,” he said. “Llyr and Gethin are now possibly the best Welsh team that has come to New Zealand. They are a definite chance of repeating the win they had last year.”

Buick, who has shorn more than 20 test matches for New Zealand, in New Zealand, Australia, the UK and France, is the reigning New Zealand Shears Open Champion, and is on the brink of being named the season-ending No 1-ranked Open shearer for a second time.

He faces a major challenge to retain the Open title against Northland shearer Toa Henderson, who beat him in the Golden Shears Open final in Masterton four weeks ago, and who was the No 1-ranked Open shearer last season.

Henderson has a unique current record, in having won Open finals every Saturday since February 8, as far afield as Balclutha and Gore in the South Island and Warkworth in the north, the latest in beating Buick by more than three points at Waitomo last Saturday.

Henderson has been first to finish in each of the seven wins, six of which have been in 20-sheep finals he’s shorn in under 17 minutes. Buick has been second in four consecutive finals since winning at Taumarunui on February 21.

There will however be several challenges, among them several who raised a few eyebrows when they missed out on places in the Golden Shears final, including Hawke’s Bay shearer Rowland Smith, who has dominated the two big finals at Masterton and Te Kuiti over the last decade.

He’s had 16 wins across the Te Kuiti championships’ feature Open events, including eight in the championship, seven in the North Island Shearer of the Year final, and a 2017 treble with victory also in the Shears Circuit final.

Similarly placed is Southland gun Leon Samuels who also missed out on a place in the Golden Shears final, unsuccessfully defending the title he won in 2024, after winning the Te Kuiti final 11 months earlier.

There is a wide range of other Open title hopefuls, with more than half of the field chasing points in what is the third round the 2026 World Championships New Zealand team selection series.

There’s particular rivalry in the Open woolhandling championship where Motueka-based 10 times Golden Shears Open champion Joel Henare, from Gisborne, will be trying to reclaim the New Zealand title he won four times between 2010 and 2017.

The defending champion is Te Kuiti’s Keryn Herbert, with whom Henare is rivalling for the No 1-ranked Open woolhandling honours.

It’s also a round in the New Zealand team selection series with numerous other possibilities, including Taumarunui’s Vinniye Phillips, who has won three finals and reached the Golden Shears final in her first season at the top level after being named No 1-ranked Senior woolhandler nationwide last season.

With New Zealand championship honours in five shearing grades and four woolhandling grades, there is some big interest in the lower classes, headed by the Senior shearing championship, in which Laura Bradley, from Papatawa, near Woodville, will bow out of the class with a bid for her 12th win of the season, easily a record for a female in the Senior class, making her the first woman to be promoted to Open class based on competition wins.

The championships opened on Thursday morning with lower grades shearing and woolhandling heats, increasing pace throughout with the Open shearing and woolhandling events going through all stages of heats, quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals on Saturday.

Thousands of people are also expected in town on Saturday for the Great New Zealand Muster, including the annual Running of the Sheep through the main street at 2pm.

Results from last weekend's events:

Results from the Waitomo Caves Sports Shears on Saturday, March 22, 2025:

International (20 Sheep): New Zealand (David Buick 17m 57.66s, 58.833pts; Jack Fagan 18m 6.18s, 59.309.3pts) 118.142pts beat Wales (Gethin Lewis 17m 38.82s, 58.941pts; Llyr Jones 18m 14s, 60.3pts) 119.241pts. NZ leads 2-0. The last test is at the New Zealand Shears in Te Kuiti on Friday.

Open final (20 sheep): Toa Henderson (Kaiwaka) 16m 12.16s, 53.408pts, 1; David Buick (Pongaroa) 16m 53.44s, 56.722pts, 2; Jack Fagan (Te Kuiti) 18m 0.75s, 60.0375pts, 3; Dig Balme (Te Kuiti) 16m 18.25s, 66.7625pts, 4.

Senior final (10 sheep): Taelor Tarrant (Taumarunui) 10m 42.16s, 37.708pts, 1; Gabriel Winders (Invercargill) 11m 14.37s, 38.3185pts, 2; Ethan Fladgate (Otorohanga) 12m 55.03s, 42.9515pts, 3; Callum Bosley (England) 12m 15.15s, 42.9515pts, 4.

Intermediate final (3 sheep): Hamuera Henderson (Kaiwaka) 1; Maaka Nikora (Taumarunui) 2; Luke Marsden (Taumarunnui) 3, Matthew Smith (Otorohanga) 4.

Junior: Jodeisha Kirkpatrick (Gisborne) 1, David Hagley (Ohakune), 2, Sonya Fagan (Te Kuiti) 3, Tana Maguire (Piopio), 4.

Novice (2 sheep): James Anderson (Pukeatua) 7m 5s, 27.75pts, 1; Aimee Atkin (Eketahuna) 7m 38s, 28.9pts, 2; Briar Joines (Kawhia) 7m 33s, 30.15pts, 3; AJ Hall (Taumarunui) 7m 24s, 31.2pts, 4.

Flaxbourne A and P Show Shears at Ward on Sunday, March 23, 2025:

Open final (8 sheep): Angus Moore (Ward) 7m 48.91s, 32.45pts, 1; Alex Smith (Rakaia) 9m 11.41s, 35.2pts, 2; Axle Reid (Waipawa) 9m 0.09s, 35.5pts, 3; Earl Paewai (Seddon) 8m 17.22s, 39.24pts, 4.

Senior final (4 sheep): John Cherrington (Oamaru) 5m 7.43s, 19.87pts, 1; Laura Bradley (Woodville) 5m 8.72s, 22.19pts, 2; Seymour Lambert (Ward) 4m 42.31s, 24.87pts, 3; Heath Barnsdall (Aria) 5m 26.87s, 30.04pts, 4.

Intermediate final (3 sheep): Keahrey Manson (Piopio) 4m 54.03s, 20.37pts, 1;Caleb Brooking (Mataura) 6m 12.85s, 28.31pts, 2; Merlot Tupara (Renwick) 5m 51.35s, 34.23pts, 3; Billie Collins (Ward) 5m 35.72s, 37.45pts, 4.

Junior final (2 sheep): Cam Henson (Woodville) 4m 54.44s, 22.22pts, 1; Charlotte Boyce (Seddon) 6m 37.47s, 32.37pts, 2; Ethan Baldwin (Ward) 5m 29.37s, 39.97pts, 3; Elijah Lambert (Ward) 5m 0.72s, 44.04pts, 4.

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