Lochearnhead Shears: New Zealand shearers edged out by Scotland

The line-up after the Joe Te Kapa Memorial Trophy test match between Scotland and New Zealand at the Lochearnhead Shears. Photo / Shearing Sports New Zealand

Golden Shears and New Zealand Shears Open champion Toa Henderson faced his international test match shearing debut with a fair bit of zip.

However, he was unable to complete the big dream of victory at the Lochearnhead Shears in Scotland at the weekend.

In the first of the Wools of New Zealand team’s six tests in the UK, the Scotland team of Gavin Mutch and Calum Shaw beat Northlander Henderson and King Country shearer Jack Fagan by 2.9 points.

Henderson was first off the board, shearing the 14-horned Scottish blackface sheep in 9m 40s, beating New Zealand-based Mutch by seven seconds.

But Mutch was the ultimate man of the day, with comfortably the best individual points in both the Joe Te Kapa Memorial Trophy test and the 20-sheep championships’ open final.

Mutch won the New Zealand Shears Circuit final in Te Kūiti this year and is in one of the best patches of a career that includes a world individual championship win in Masterton in 2012 and a Golden Shears open title on the same stage three years later.

Henderson, in addition to posting the fastest time in the test, made his way through the open field of 36 to reach the four-man final and finish fourth.

This underlines that he means business in his first shearing venture in the Northern Hemisphere, just four days after arriving from New Zealand.

While Mutch was less than a point clear of Fagan in the test, Shaw had the best quality points, but Henderson was penalised the heaviest in judging on the shearing board and with the finished product in the pens.

It was quality and experience that carried the day, as Mutch and Shaw have shorn Scotland many times together over the last decade.

Northland shearer Toa Henderson in his test match debut for New Zealand in Scotland. He was first to finish but unable to break the home team's stranglehold. Photo / Shearing Sports New Zealand

This includes the last time New Zealand won at Lochearnhead, a victory by Kiwi world champions John Kirkpatrick and Rowland Smith in 2016.

The Scots pair achieved the ultimate goal by winning the World Teams Championship in France in 2019.

Read more shearing and woolhandling stories here.

New Zealand manager Neil Fagan said Henderson took it hard and had to be reminded of the challenges he’d had to face.

“Getting to the final of the open on his first day of competition in the UK was a big achievement,” Fagan said.

The team will work in the UK over the next week, heading towards the tour’s next test, against England at the Great Yorkshire Show on July 9.

Key results from the 30th Lochearnhead Shears and Scottish Blackface Shearing Championships

Lochearnhead Shearing Championships

Lochearnhead, Scotland, Saturday, June 28

International, Joe Te Kapa Memorial Trophy (14 sheep): Scotland (Gavin Mutch 9m 47s, 37.992pts; Calum Shaw 11m 23s, 40.65pts) 78.642pts, beat New Zealand (Jack Fagan 9m 58s, 38.971pts; Toa Henderson 9m 40s, 42.571pts) 81.542pts.

Open shearing final (20 sheep): Gavin Mutch (Huntly, Aberdeen/ Dannevirke, Hawke’s Bay) 13m 44s, 49.3pts, 1; Calum Shaw (Saline, Scotland) 15m 1s, 53.3pts, 2; Denis O’Sullivan (Kerry, Ireland) 15m 16s, 53.75pts, 3; Toa Henderson (Kaiwaka, NZ) 15m 4s, 57.4pts, 4.