The winners of the 2025's Golden Pliers fencing competition doubles were Tim Stafford (left) and Jeff Joines.
The winners of the 2025's Golden Pliers fencing competition doubles were Tim Stafford (left) and Jeff Joines.
A Rangitīkei farmer and fencer by trade has won the 2025 Golden Pliers Singles Championship.
Tim Stafford previously won the competition in 2015 and this year, aged 49, claimed his second title.
The Golden Pliers fencing competition is an annual event held at Mystery Creek, Waikato, as part of theSouthern Hemisphere’s largest agricultural event, the Fieldays agriculture show.
The competition is run by NZ Fencing Competitions.
Stafford won the 2025 Wiremark Golden Pliers Singles Championship, as well as the best-quality fence award and the Fieldays Silver Spades Doubles Championship alongside his partner, Kāpiti Coast fencer Jeff Joines.
Stafford operates his sheep and beef farm, based in Turakina Valley in the Rangitīkei District, and runs his own fencing business.
He is a former president of NZ Fencing Competitions and is currently on the committee.
Stafford estimated that he began competing around 2008 and attended every year until 2018 after suffering a shoulder injury the previous year.
His injury ruled him out until 2023 and he was unable to compete in 2024 because of farm commitments.
Rangitīkei's Tim Stafford has regained the Golden Pliers fencing title in 2025 after last winning it in 2015. Photo / Roz Anderson Photography
Stafford said he was stoked to regain the title, considering it was such a hard competition to win.
“If you know anybody in the fencing industry, the Wiremark Golden Pliers is the pinnacle so if you win that, you are pretty much a world champion,” he said.
Fencing competitions in New Zealand are said to be the toughest in the world.
“People probably didn’t expect me to win, I was competing against 21-year-olds, so they were a fair bit younger and fitter, but experience is a big thing in fencing too.
“Even in day-to-day fencing, experience is massive to whether you are efficient and productive on the job.”
A high level of fitness is required for the endurance sport that can take up to six-and-a-half hours to complete.
“There are a lot of people who would be running half-marathons for the event, at least,” Stafford said.
“It’s quite a unique sport, you work incredibly hard for that time as well as completing a precision product with the fence to the millimetre.
“Barbara Kelly from Xalt/Event Ready Bodies has helped fine-tune my fitness this year. She was instrumental in making sure I was physically ready for the event.”
Stafford said competitors were judged on the time taken to complete and the quality of the fence, as well as how it fared under tension.
Judges try to pull posts and strainers out of the ground and check the wire tension so everything has to stand structurally.
Half-point penalties are incurred for every minute after the first person finishes and full-point penalties are applied in the doubles.
About 30 competitors were in the heats at this year’s event and two doubles from the United States and United Kingdom competed after qualifying in their countries.
Stafford is looking to keep up his fitness as he and Joines will head to the US later this year to compete.
