Transtasman Shearing Sports: Blade test win for NZ’s Tony Dobbs and Scott McKay

The colours may be deceiving, but the New Zealanders, with the blue ribbons, did win the transtasman blade shearing test match on Saturday at Jamestown, South Australia.

Canterbury blade shearers Tony Dobbs and Scott McKay held up New Zealand’s end in a three-test transtasman shearing sports series at the Australian National Shearing and Woolhandling Championships in South Australia.

Dobbs, from Fairlie, and McKay, of Culverden, extended the black-singlet dominance in the annual home-and-away blade shearing tests by beating Australian pair Johnathon Dalla and Andrew Murray, by almost 12 points in the test at Jamestown, 218km north of Adelaide, on Saturday.

While Dalla was first to finish, taking 11min 28sec and beating next-man-off McKay, it was the Kiwi who claimed best points overall.

Making it 2-0 this season, after victory at Waimate two weeks ago, NZ has won all but one of the blade shearing tests since 2010.

But it was the Shearing Sports NZ team’s only win, with Australia winning the machine shearing and woolhandling tests.

In the shearing test, Australians Daniel McIntyre, 2025 NZ Merino champion Jamie Boothman, and Nathan Meaney defeated the NZ team of David Buick (Pongaroa), Angus Moore (Seddon), and Chris Vickers (Palmerston) by almost 46 points.

It marked Australia’s third consecutive win in the machine shearing tests, after victories at Katanning, Western Australia, last year and the Golden Shears in Masterton last March.

Best of the New Zealanders was Moore, who was a surprise second finisher, shearing the 12 merino and crossbred sheep in 18min 7sec, just six seconds behind McIntyre.

The New Zealanders arrived late after a storm disrupted travel plans.

Buick didn’t arrive in Jamestown until more than 30 hours after leaving his farm at Pongaroa in northern Wairarapa on Thursday morning,

The Kiwis were hammered in shearing penalties on the board.

The woolhandling went to the Australian pair Alexander Schoff and Tiffany Collins, with victory by almost nine points over the New Zealanders Joel Henare, of Motueka, and Ngaio Hanson, of Eketāhuna.

In the Jamestown Open finals, Dobbs and McKay were second and third to Dalla in the blades shearing, and Henare was fourth to Schoff in the woolhandling.

The home woolhandling and machine shearing tests are usually held at the Golden Shears.

However, a cramped programme, as the Shears host the 2026 World Championships on March 4-7, has resulted in decisions to stage the woolhandling test at the Otago Shears and the machine shearing at the 60^th anniversary Southern Shears in Gore, a week apart in February.

Transtasman Shearing and Woolhandling test results

Held at the Australian National Shearing and Woolhandling Championships at Jamestown, South Australia, on Saturday, October 25, 2025.

Machine Shearing (12 sheep): Australia (Nathan Meaney 18m 35s, 80.42pts; Daniel McIntyre 17m 59s, 80.87pts; Jamie Boothman 19m 34s, 91.28pts) 252.57pts, NZ (Angus Moore 18m 7s, 92.35pts; Chris Vickers 19m 20s, 93.92pts; David Buick 24m 27s, 112.18pts) 298.45pts. Australia won by 45.88pts.

Blade shearing (three sheep): NZ (Scott McKay 11m 40s, 56.17pts; Tony Dobbs 13m 5s, 71.42pts) 127.58pts, Australia (Johnathon Dalla 11m 28s, 61.57pts; Andrew Murray 15m 17s, 77.85pts) 139.42pts. NZ won by 11.84pts

Woolhandling (eight fleeces – four merino, four crossbred): Australia (Alexander Schoff, Tiffany Collins) 28.48pts, NZ (Joel Henare, Ngaio Hanson) 37.23pts. Australia won by 8.75pts.