Slow and steady wins the race - Toko farmer Paul Avery's clean shearing won him the 2007 Taranaki Shears Open title last Sunday.
Held at Stratford's War Memorial Centre, the day-long competition attracted hundreds of locals to support Taranaki's top shearers. The crowd favourite was of course - Paul Avery.
Paul headed into the open final with his recent win from the Golden Shears and is said to be having one of the best seasons of his career.
An impressive line-up of national shearing champions made the finals even more exciting, with exceptionally fast times and quality shearing guaranteed.
Digger Balme from Te Kuiti led the finals, shearing his first of 20 sheep in an incredible 42 seconds.
His fast hands didn't stop there as he finished his pen in a blistering 15m 8.08s. Napier's John Kirkpatrick was right on his heels with a time of 15m 18.79s followed closely by Paul Avery and Dion King with 15m 34s. David Fagan and Rowland Smith finished off the line-up.
However, Paul's quality and accuracy in his shearing took him to the front and he gained the title with less penalty points.
Although half of the sheep in the competition came from Paul's Waiwiri Road farm, he said there was no favouritism as he had only bought the flock two months prior from Matamata and this was their first shear.
Paul also won two other trophies for the shearer with the overall highest quality of shearing and the overall highest point scorer.
Paul will take these two wins with him as he heads to the New Zealand Shearing Championships in Te Kuiti this Sunday (March 31).
The junior finals (4 sheep) was won by David Hape with an impressive time of 5m 35s, Mark Grainger (2), Sam McDonald (3) and local shearer Lloyd Downs (4). Lloyd also won the Egmont Tanneries Trophy for the highest quality junior shearer.
The intermediate section (6 sheep) was won by Toa Henderson with 6m 57s, Tai Hoera (2) and Peter Jackson (3). Local shearer Aaron Harris placed fifth. The senior finals (10 sheep) were won by Tane Henderson with 10m 27s, Simon Bedwell (2) and Rikki Alabaster (3).
2007 Taranaki Shears Open Champion, Paul Avery, pulls another sheep ready to be shorn.
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