Manawatū Show shearing championships bounce back after three-year recess

Flashback 10 years to the Manawatū open shearing final in 2013, from sixth place to first: Jack Fagan (left), Murray Henderson, David Buick, Gavin Mutch, Aaron Haynes and David Fagan.

The Manawatū and West Coast A&P Show’s shearing and woolhandling championships are back, with organisers hoping for a full field of entries in Feilding on Saturday after three years in recess.

The championships fell victim to Covid restrictions in 2020 and 2021 and were unable to be revived last year, but 800 sheep are now lined up for fleecing at the show at Manfeild.

Shearing judge Marcel Thwaites, of Feilding, said there had been an enthusiastic response to the championships starting up again - including that of the two farmers providing the sheep, one from nearby Halcombe and the other from near Rātana.

The competition, starting at 8.30am, will take place across nine grades - the open, senior, intermediate, junior and novice classes in shearing, and open, senior, junior and novice classes in woolhandling.

Hoggets will be shorn on a four-stand set-up, as the competition returns to the 7750-square metre Manfeild Park Stadium.

Full wool is available for the morning events and the woolhandling, which is part of the North Island’s open, senior and junior woolhandling circuit.

Competitors are advised to use the Kawakawa Rd entrance, which enables parking closer to the stadium, and are also advised to have their account details available, as major cash prizes will be paid through online banking.

Winners at the last Manawatū Show shears in 2020 came from as far as Gisborne and Taumarunui in the north, Mangamahu Valley in the west, Pongaroa in the east and Masterton in the south.

In the shearing they were David Buick (open), Simon Goss (senior), Daniel Biggs (intermediate), Adam Gordon (junior) and Josh Devane (novice), and in the woolhandling, Logan Kamura (open), Tramon Campbell (senior), Vinniye Phillips (junior) and Topia Barrowcliffe (Piopio).

It’s the fourth show of the season in successive weekends in the North Island, one of three shows nationwide on Saturday but the only one in the North Island, and one of 59 in the New Zealand shearing sports season, which runs from the end of September to early April.

The other Saturday competitions are shearing–only events at the Marlborough A&P Show in Blenheim and the “Get to the Point” Pleasant Point Gymkhana in South Canterbury.