Moore captures all-wools title

A five-season slog climbing the open class shearing ranks bore fruit for former Golden Shears senior champion Angus Moore when he won New Zealand's top all-wools shearing prize at the Golden Shears in Masterton on Saturday afternoon.

The former Marborough College head boy, now aged 27 and due to marry woolhandler and long-time girlfriend Ratapu Paikea at Otamatea Marae in Northland next month, won the PGG Wrightson National final.

His victory followed five preliminary rounds over five different wool types, starting with the New Zealand finewool championships in Alexandra in October, and all five wool types were used in the 16-sheep final, the 40th for the McSkimming Memorial Triple Crown.

Moore scored probably the biggest win ever by a shearer from the top of the south, comparable only with Blenheim shearer Percy Barrett's Alexandra win in 1977.

From the farming locality of Ward, where parents Don and Sue still run the family farm, Moore won the Golden Shears senior final in 2007, but said at least as big a highlight prior to today's triumph was his second placing in the National series last year.

"He hadn't given himself a chance of winning then," but on the back of some good form he was more confident in this year's final, which he made without making the top three of any of the qualifying shows at Alexandra, Waimate, Christchurch, Raglan or Pahiatua.

Moore's success ended the run of Rakaia shearer Tony Coster, who was going for a fourth National series title in a row, but finished fifth. It also ended an anxious moment for the TAB, which had accepted $1000 bets on three of the other finalists, including Southlander Darin Forde, who Moore beat by just 0.37pt and on whom that single-bet payout would have been $13,000.

The PGG National is regarded as possibly the ironman event of New Zealand shearing and the second most sought New Zealand open shearing title after the Golden Shears Open, won on Saturday night by Napier's John Kirkpatrick.