Golden Shears finally back after two years of Covid disruption

Rowland Smith chats with judge Ken McPherson moments after finishing the last Golden Shears open final in 2020, and winning the title for a seventh time. Photo / Pete Nikolaison

More than 370 shearers, woolhandlers and wool pressers are gathering in Masterton for the three-day Golden Shears starting tomorrow.

The international championships are finally back after two years of cancellations due to Covid restrictions.

The Shears celebrated 60 years in 2020, just sneaking in as one of the last major events of the year before the first Covid-19 lockdown.

This year “the Goldies” features 22 titles across shearing and woolhandling and takes place at the Masterton War Memorial Stadium, which becomes a woolshed for the event.

This has been the case since its inception in 1961 when it comprised just three Golden Shears titles and a small number of Young Farmers Club events.

At its peak, the Stadium could house 2500 people for the open shearing final - the 20-minute glamour event, which takes place on the last night of the Golden Shears.

However, modern-day indoor seating limits and protocols have curtailed audience size for the final - often referred to as shearing’s Wimbledon.

With some late entries expected, 361 people had registered by Monday, including more than 80 from overseas, comprising at least 38 from the UK and 37 from Australia.

It reflects the reuniting of the global shearing fraternity after the border closures of the pandemic and subsequent tough times, with a shortage of shearers to clear the New Zealand fleece.

Golden Shears International Shearing Championship Society president, and Wairarapa farmer, Sam Saunders said it showed the Shears’ mana worldwide, along with the acclaim it brought Masterton and the Wairarapa region.

The Goldies has become a household name, along with being a destination for Prime Ministers and other politicians.

The event spawned the Golden Shears World Championships, first held in England in 1977 and set down for June 22-25 this year at the Royal Highland Show in Edinburgh.

It has also made New Zealand the only country in which competition shearing and woolhandling have government acknowledgement as a sport, with Shearing Sports New Zealand one of almost 70 national sports organisations recognised by Sport New Zealand.

The Golden Shears committee, including president Sam Saunders (fourth from left), seen here in 2021, before making the decision to cancel due to Covid-19. Photo / Pete Nikolaison

Partly as a result, New Zealand is the only country to offer formal betting on the outcomes, with the TAB having options on the open shearing and woolhandling finals, the PGG Vetmed National Shearing Circuit final, and shearing and woolhandling tests between New Zealand and Australia.

The TAB has made defending champions Hawke’s Bay shearer Rowland Smith and Motueka-based woolhandler Joel Henare, favourites to win their respective titles.

The winner of the open shearing final gets a place in the New Zealand team for the World Championships, as will the first two winners in a woolhandling selection series final, also being held during the Golden Shears.

Smith, seven-times winner of the open shearing title, faces challenges from regulars such as four-times winner John Kirkpatrick and 2015 winner Gavin Mutch, both also farming and shearing in Hawke’s Bay.

Among the other strong contenders is emerging hopeful Toa Henderson, of Kaiwaka, Northland - winner of seven open titles in the current season, which has 57 shows throughout New Zealand.

Henare is an even warmer favourite, aiming for his ninth consecutive Golden Shears open woolhandling title.

With 132 career wins, Henare is estimated to have about twice the number of wins accrued by the other 33 entered in his event so far.

Among those missing is fellow former World Champion and multiple New Zealand Shears open champion Sheree Alabaster, a full-time teacher who this week is away with her Taihape pupils on a school camp.

Alabaster said it will be the first time she’d missed the week in Masterton since she was “a little girl watching my dad”.

Australian shearer Daniel McIntyre, regular foe for New Zealand in the home-and-away transtasman shearing tests. As well as dominating the internationals in recent years, McIntyre won New Zealand's merino-shearing title in Alexandra in October. Photo / Pete Nikolaison

She’s still determined to be there on Saturday night, however, despite logistical difficulties in making it in time after netball during the day.

Minister for Rural Communities, Local Government and Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty won’t MC the event this year, as he has in the past. But he looks forward to attending as a guest.

Hopefully, the Shears will also debut the stars of the future - at the Teddy Bear Shear.

Here, children pretend-shear using teddies as sheep, with handpieces, or items such as wooden blocks, in their hands, and mock shearing gear including singlets, trousers, moccasins and bow-yangs - re-enacting the learning years of shearing families’ kids in the woolshed over many decades.

Listen to Jamie Mackay interview Golden Shears life member Greg Herrick on The Country below:

Teddy Bear Shears have become features of other shows, particularly in Otago.

Saunders said the Teddy Bear Shear, and other wool activities during the week, were one way of bringing back some of the aspects of the wool industry that had been lost over the years.

Lessons learned from a young age, including a commitment to “getting up early and going to work…and enjoying it,” were all part of the activities, he said.

Commitment to working as a team, despite the conditions, was another lesson gained from the experience, and the ultimate factor behind the strong interest in Golden Shears this year, Saunders said.

A good example of this was at the Apiti Sports Shears, north of Feilding, on Saturday, where 219 competitors turned up, despite the rain at the domain venue.

“The feeling I am getting is that people have been missing the Shears,” Saunders said.

“It shows people enjoy the company and the feel of it all and just can’t wait.

“It’s good to be back.”