Shearing: Toa Henderson hopes to be at Whangarei show - weather willing

The scene when shearing returned to the Whangarei A and P Show in 2020. It's back again this Saturday, starting at 10 am. Photo / SSNZ

Northland shearer Toa Henderson often travels a thousand kilometres or more to get to and from competitions, as he did when he won in Central Hawke’s Bay earlier this month and again last Saturday when he won in Stratford.

However, with the weather dictating where he will be working in a year - where rain has often been the time-clock - it’s in the lap of the gods as to whether the Kaiwaka gun will get to the nearest competition to home, about 60km away in Whangarei on Saturday.

If the sheep at work in the woolshed can be shorn in time and there’s no need to work, he’ll be there. If not he might not.

“I’m not sure if we can make it,” he said about 6 am, facing more rain today.

“But we’re praying we will get there. We should get there, but it has been a bit wet up here. It is raining, but it’s meant to be good after that.”

Getting there is all about chasing the competition, as he prepares for the bigger challenges of the New Year.

Henderson will be targeting the Golden Shears in Masterton in March and the New Zealand Shears in Te Kuiti, along with the open-class dream of winning selection in the Wools of New Zealand Shearing Sports New Zealand team for the World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships in Scotland in June.

But there’s also the need to support the local competitions in the north, starting with the Whangarei A and P Show, the last competition in the country before Christmas and the first A and P Show in Northland since 2020.

It could be one of his few opportunities to support the smaller shows in the north, although Whangarei is just the first of six north of Auckland with shearing competitions.

However, Kaikohe (January 21), the North Kaipara A and P Show at Paparoa (February 4), the Northern Wairoa A and P Show at Arapohue (February 11), and the North Hokianga A and P Show at Broadwood (February 18) all clash with bigger shows,

Not to mention the Kumeu A and P Show on March 11, which is sandwiched between the main events at Masterton and Te Kuiti.

The Whangarei show revived its shearing competition in 2020, celebrating the first use of a new three-stand competition board and pens, built at a cost of about $40,000, but the show was cancelled last year for only the second time as global pandemic restrictions ground the public events calendar to a halt.

Te Kuiti shearer Jack Fagan, who won the 2020 final and who was runner-up to Henderson at Stratford at the weekend, will compete on Friday night at the Matiere speed shear, acclaimed as in the “middle of nowhere” at the Matiere Cosmopolitan Club between Te Kuiti and Taumarunui,.

Fagan is unable to be at Whangarei the next day, however.

But there are hopes shearers will travel to Whangarei amid a new keenness for competition and fraternity after the disappointments of the Covid era.

Shearing starts at 10 am, with competition from novices to the open class, plus a veterans competition, in which some judges shear, to add to what can also have been a long day out.

Entries have been good at most of the 15 competitions throughout the country so far this season, including the Taranaki Shears in Stratford last weekend, the only competition in the region among about 60 on the Shearing Sports New Zealand calendar.

There were 50 shearers across the five grades, including 15 in the open class, with hope beating the odds and mainly fine weather prevailing.

“The sheep shore well considering they had spent nearly every day of November wet,” Organiser Shane Rawlinson said.

He said it was a “Herculean effort” by the sheep suppliers, the Brown family, of Mangamingi, to get the sheep dry for the show.

The sheep were in good condition though for Henderson to cut out his pen of 15 in the four-man final in 12min 12sec, putting more than a sheep around Fagan for a 3.2 time-points buffer - ultimately winning by 1.66pts once quality was also factored.

Whangarei competition convenor Richard Dampney is keeping his fingers crossed, saying there could be a shortage of shearers if the weather stops them from getting a good run for the week and means they need to work at the weekend to get the sheep shorn.

The flip side is that there aren’t a lot of sheep left in Northland.

“Basically all the sheep that are left in Northland will get shorn at the shows,” Dampney said.

Dampney has had to step up, along with others, after the passing of Northland shows stalwart and referee and judge Neil Sidwell in July.

Results from the Taranaki Shears at the Stratford A and P Show on Saturday, November 26, 2022

Open final (15 sheep): Toa Henderson (Kaiwaka) 12min 12sec, 44.67pts, 1; Jack Fagan (Te Kuiti) 13min 16sec, 46.33pts, 2; David Gordon (Masterton) 13min 27sec, 46.62pts, 3; Lionel Taumata (Gore) 14min 1sec, 49.52pts, 4.

Senior final (8 sheep): Clay Harris (Piopio) 8min 56sec, 36.425pts, 1; Adam Gordon (Masterton) 10min 1sec, 37.55pts, 2; Jimmy Napier (Riverside) 11min 15sec, 45pts, 3; Topia Barrowcliffe (Piopio) 10min 45sec, 45.0125pts, 4.

Intermediate final (6 sheep): Bruce Grace (Napier) 8min 27sec, 34.517pts, 1; Will Sinclair (Balclutha) 9min 32sec, 41.133pts, 3; Jack Pringle (Balclutha) 9min 46sec, 41.133pts, 3; Derek Houpapa (Taumarunui) 9min 31sec, 45.0125pts, 4.

Junior final (4 sheep): Iian Jones (Wales) 7min 51sec, 37.8pts, 1; Cheyden Winiana (Nuhaka) 8min 57sec, 37.85pts, 2; Jake Goldsbury (Feilding) 9min 2sec, 38.35pts, 3; Pat Corrigan (Ireland) 9min 31sec, 44.8pts, 4.

Novice (1 sheep): Paddy Dunne (Ireland) 3min 41sec, 28.05pts, 1; Joe Smith (-) 3min 7sec, 28.35pts, 2; Anthony Smailes (Hunterville) 3min 55sec, 59.75pts, 3.