South Island shearer Lionel Taumata at his last senior competition in 2019. On Saturday he had his first open final win, at the Duvauchelle Shears. File picture
by Doug Laing, Hawke’s Bay Today
Former No.1-ranked senior shearer Lionel Taumata finally cracked a win in the open class, as the post-Christmas stage of the 2023-2024 shearing sports season kicked off at the Duvauchelle A & P Show on Saturday.
It was the first open show win for Gore-based Taumata, who is in his fifth season in the top grade since a successful path through the lower grades — with 23 wins culminating in nine wins and 11 other finals placings in his final year, which made him the top-ranked senior shearer nationwide in 2018-2019.
He has also been a dual Golden Shears and New Zealand Shears finalist five times — as a junior, as runner-up in both events as an intermediate shearer in 2016, and three times in the senior grade.
However, in the four-and-a-half seasons since stepping up in the spring of 2019 — and continuing to follow the shows south and north — Taumata’s best results had been three second placings in a row at the Ellesmere, Ashburton and Marlborough shows in October-November 2022 and three wins in a row in the short-form arena of the speed shears earlier this season.
In Saturday’s triumph at the Peninsula Duvauchelle Shears — where he won the senior final in 2017 — Taumata was the only shearer to cut under a minute a sheep in the four-man final of over 10 sheep each.
He also had the best quality points and won by 1.2 points from runner-up, Pleasant Point contractor and 2023 winner Ant Frew.
Waikaka shearer Brayden Clifford, the No.1-ranked senior nationwide in 2020-2021 was third, and Shaun Burgess, of Rakaia, came fourth.
Taumata’s has not been an uncommon path for the best-performing shearers coming through the grades to all but start again, as they endure slender pickings in the top class, awaiting the opportunity to topple the big guns.
“I’m not really worried — I just love being amongst it,” he said.
“It doesn’t happen straight away for a lot of shearers going up into the open.”
A bonus was also winning the show’s speed shear.
Taumata now has five open speed shear wins under his belt, which validates his invitation again to the New Zealand Rural Games Speed Shear in Palmerston North in March.
Meanwhile, Gisborne/Rangiora shearer Blake Crooks claimed his fifth senior win of the season, beating former No. 1-ranked junior Liam Norrie, of Cheviot.
The 26-year-old, from Gisborne and a Hamilton Boys High boarder in school days, started out shepherding then ran a lifestyle shearing business in Wellington before deciding to go shearing full-time.
Brad McNamara, of Le Bons Bay, Banks Peninsula, won the intermediate final and Chloe Loam became the third female to win the junior event in the past three years.
While some well-performed shearers competed, there were just 23 entries across the four grades.
The competition season steps up this week with six shows in three days, starting with the Northern Southland Community Shears (incorporating the national full wool shearing and woolhandling championships) near Lumsden on Friday.
A & P Show competitions will span the length of the country on Saturday, at Kaikohe, a woolshed near Wairoa, the Golden Bay show at Takaka, and the national crossbred lambs shearing and woolhandling championships at the Winton A & P Show’s Southland Shears.
The Royal New Zealand Horowhenua Show will stage its Horowhenua Shearing and Woolhandling Championships on Sunday.
Te Kuiti shearer Jack Fagan claimed his 59th open speed shear win in Saturday night’s Te Puna Speed Shear at The Point Ale House in Whakamarama, west of Tauranga.
In a field possibly limited by other events in the shearing industry at the weekend, including a five-stand world record in Southland and a 24-hour shearing fundraiser near Masterton, Fagan had to beat two old hands and former winners.
One was Otorohanga’s Digger Balme, who came second; the other was Jack’s father, shearing legend Sir David Fagan, who was third.
Fagan senior said it was his first speed shear since about 2015, the year he retired from top competition.
Jack Fagan shore the winning sheep in 17.28sec, more than a second quicker than the old stagers, with Sir David saying later that he was at the competition with his son, and borrowed his gear to “help make up the numbers”.
Among those absent were Marton speedster Jimmy Samuels and Masterton’s Paerata Abraham, who, with Fagan, will be considering their chances in the world’s richest-ever speed shear in four weeks, with an A$20,000 first prize, among a total prize pool worth over A$45,000, at Oberon, New South Wales, on February 10.
There are three speed shears along the way in Southland this week.
At the Duvauchelle A&P Show on Saturday, January 13, 2024.
Open (10 sheep): Lionel Taumata (Gore) 9min 50sec, 35pts, 1; Ant Frew (Pleasant Point) 10min 8sec, 36.2pts, 2; Brayden Clifford (Waikaka) 10min 19sec, 39.05pts, 3; Shaun Burgess (Rakaia) 11min 1sec, 46.05pts, 4.
Senior (10 sheep): Blake Crooks (Gisborne/Rangiora) 11min 56sec, 43.5pts, 1; Liam Norrie (Cheviot) 12min 19sec, 45.15pts, 2; Jesse Sullivan (Harihari/Geraldine) 12min 14sec, 50.9pts, 3; Jack Gordon (Timaru) 13min 10sec, 55.2pts, 4.
Intermediate final (6 sheep): Brad McNamara (Le Bons Bay) 9min 58sec, 35.06pts, 1; Gevius (Gevo) Hughes (Taumarunui) 10min 9sec, 40.45pts, 2; Duncan Adams (Scotland) 12min 19sec, 41.95pts, 3.
Junior final (4 sheep): Chloe Loam (-) 9min 42sec, 37.1pts, 1; Ella Caves (Christchurch) 8min 11sec, 39.05pts, 2; Wolfgang Riess (Austria) 10min 31sec, 42.05pts, 3; Hanna Johns (Banks Peninsula) 10min 9sec, 66.45pts, 4.