Abraham Regains NZ Shears Open Speed Shear Title

March 28, 2025

It was a bit of a case of the boss always wins in Te Kuiti on Thursday night as Wairarapa shearing contractor Paerata Abraham won the New Zealand Shearing Championships Open Speed Shear for a third time.

Abraham had to wait nine years to add to his back to back pair of 2015 and 2016 and the victory came with the dreaded “DQ” for Welsh shearer Llyr Jones who shore the four-man final of two sheep each in 41sec, at first looking like a win by 1.29sec over Abraham, for whom he has worked the summer down-under.

The demise stopped what would otherwise have been a UK cleansweep in the three events on the opening night of the three-day championships in Te Kuiti’s Les Munro Centre.

A similar fate befell the third-fastest, Taihape’s Reuben Alabaster, Abraham thus claiming the $1000 prize by almost six seconds from Mataura gun Brett Roberts, who had otherwise been last to finish the final.

An early exit was local hope Jack Fagan, eliminated in the heats and missing-out on a place in the top eight for the semi-final, but securing just enough points to win the five-round JR Speed Shear Circuit, beating runner-up Forde Alexander, of Taumarunui, by just two points.

Jones, who had the fastest single-lamb time of the night with a 19.06sec flyer in the semi-finals, got one back when he and Welsh teammate Gethin Lewis beat a King Country selection of Digger Balme and Kelly Brill in a relay of two lambs per team. The Welsh finished in 41.97sec, the Kiwis in 48.72sec, easing-up after realising the game was gone, in what was a big boost for the Welsh ahead of the final Wools of New Zealand series test match against Fagan and David Buick tonight.

English shearer Callum Bosley, who shears for Balme in King Country, defied his own claim that he wouldn’t be fast enough by winning the Senior final with a fastest two–lamb time of 50.72sec gin beating runner-up Taelor Tarrant by 2.64 seconds. Bosley also had the fastest time on a single lamb in the Senior semi-finals.

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