KEY POINTS:
BJERKREIM, Norway - New Zealand enjoyed its biggest day at the World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships by winning four of the six titles.
On the final day of competition, Paul Avery, 41, a farmer from Toko, near Stratford, and fulltime Napier shearer John Kirkpatrick, 38, were first and
second respectively in the glamour event, the machine-shearing final, after earlier winning the teams title.
Both were won by Australia at the last world championships in Toowoomba in 2005.
Taihape schoolteacher Sheree Alabaster, 32, won the woolhandling title, consigning teammate and 2003-2005 champion and Australia-based Wanganui woolhandler Joanne Kumeroa, 39, to second place, with the pair also winning their teams event final.
The triumphant Avery and Alabaster were each presented with cash prizes, and 30cm high saue bjelle (crrt), the gold-coloured sheep bells which became popular as Norway representation items at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehamer.
Blade shearers Peter Race and Bill Michelle, both 50 and from Timaru, also added to the baggage on the way home by finishing third in the blade-shearing teams event won by Lesotho shearers Sokosele Doba and Piete Sekete.
Race was fifth in the individual blade-shearing final won by 1998 and 2000 champion Zwilelile Hans, of South Africa.
Kirkpatrick started the machine final equal favourite with Taranaki-based Scotsman Gavin Mutch, 29, after winning 15 titles in New Zealand last summer, and being top qualifier today.
But it was Avery, who was unbeaten in five competitions on tour with Kirkpatrick to Canada and Wales this year, who took charge from the start.
There was still concern about whether he had got his gear right after preparing for a month on Norwegian slaughterhouse shearing boards.
But Avery quickly mastered the five spelsau breed of sheep, and then took off on the 15 Norwegian whites which followed and cut out his pen in 15 minutes 6 seconds - 41sec ahead of Kirkpatrick, who was second off.
The Mutch challenge never materialised, the Scotsman struggling to settle his sheep, ultimately to be the last man off in 17min 38sec.
Earlier, Avery and Mutch enthralled the crowd of over 1000 in the last stages of the teams final in which each shearer shore 10 sheep - an appropriate warm-up process where temperatures outside dropped below 5degC.
A partner with the great David Fagan in a teams victory in 1998, Avery told the crowd after his victory: "I've waited 10 years for this."
He and Kirkpatrick arrive home on Thursday, both planning to head for Whangarei where their daughters have been representing Taranaki and Hawke's Bay respectively in the Collie Trophy schoolgirls hockey tournament.
But the 26 pupils at tiny Taoroa school near Taihape will have to wait until the end of November before they can welcome back Alabaster, who is taking a safari tour of Africa before heading home.
Her win was hugely popular, and reward for the way she had supported Kumeroa in the darkest moments of being a reigning champion struggling in 20th place in the first round of the heats.
Kumeroa's climb out of the hole to qualify for the semifinals and final may have been the inspiration for what followed.
The results are a huge boost for Shearing Sports New Zealand which had to do without Sparc funding for the trip, chairman John Fagan conceding money was still needed to pay some of he bills.
"This is a great day," he said. "It proves we are serious sport, and proud to represent the country."
- NZPA
