Napier woolhandler part of big transtasman test win

The players in New Zealand's big woolhandling test match win in Australia on Saturday. From left: Winning New Zealanders Angela Stevens, of Napier, Cushla Abraham, of Masterton, and Australians Racheal Hutchison and Aroha Garvin. Photo / Terry Sims / Sheep Central

A Napier woman has featured in a stunning transtasman woolhandling victory, where two first-time New Zealand representatives beat an Australian team comprising two of the world’s most experienced competitors.

It was a happy birthday reward for Angela Stevens, the daughter of world champion Hawke’s Bay shearer John Kirkpatrick, who shore a New Zealand record of 19 transtasman tests from 2002 to 2019.

On Saturday, as transtasman tests bounced back after two years of cancellations, Stevens paired with Masterton woolhandler Cushla Abraham for victory by almost six points over Aroha Garvin, an expatriate Kiwi who first represented Australia in 1999, and Racheal Hutchison, competing in their 11th transtasman test - an Australian woolhandling-record.

The win gave the Shearing Sports New Zealand team a 2-1 triumph across three tests during the Australian National Shearing and Woolhandling Championships in Bendigo, Victoria.

South Canterbury guns claimed the other Kiwi victory in a blades shearing test on Friday, but the machine shearing team of veteran Nathan Stratford and new internationals Leon Samuels and Stacey Te Huia, all based in Southland or Central Otago, was unable to make any dent in the Australians’ record of being unbeaten in transtasman machine shearing tests in Australia since 2010.

Oldfield and Dobbs added to the triumph by finishing first and second respectively in the Bendigo Open blade shearing final on Saturday.

New Zealand has now won 35 of the 45 woolhandling tests since woolhandling was added to transtasman competition in 1998, and Stevens and Abraham will represent New Zealand again in the next test at the Golden Shears in Masterton in March.

Meanwhile, there was an $A10,000 windfall for Abraham’s husband, 2019-2020 transtasman series New Zealand representative Paerata Abraham, formerly of Dannevirke, travelling 264 kilometres southwest from Bendigo on Saturday to win a speed shear at Hamilton, Victoria. It was a New Zealand trifecta, with Aaron Bell from Waipawa the runner-up, and third place going to Ethan Pankhurst of Masterton.

Result of the transtasman test matches at Bendigo, Vic. on Friday and Saturday:

Blade shearing (3 merinos): New Zealand 154.53pts (Tony Dobbs 15min, 22sec, 75.77pts; Allan Oldfield 12min, 42sec, 78.77pts) beat Australia 158.32pts (Johnathon Dalla 14min, 19sec, 68.62pts; Ken French 16min, 14sec, 89.7pts).

Machine shearing (6 merinos, 6 crossbreds): Australia 231.93pts (Nathan Meaney 18min, 29sec, 75.87pts; Daniel McIntyre 17min, 20sec, 76.42pts; Sam Mackrill 18min, 58sec, 79.65pts) beat New Zealand 298.92pts (Leon Samuels 18min, 16sec, 95.97pts; Nathan Stratford 22min, 39sec, 100.95pts; Stacey Te Huia 18min, 18sec, 101.98pts).

Woolhandling (6 fleeces): New Zealand (Angela Stevens, Cushla Abraham) 70.75pts, beat Australia (Aroha Garvin, Racheal Hutchison) 76.51pts.