NZ Shearing Championships: Paerata Abraham wins open speed shear for the third time

Welsh shearer Llyr Jones (left) gets to the button first in the NZ Shearing Championships open speed shear final. However, his 41-second time for two lambs was disqualified by the judges. Photo / Shearing Sports New Zealand

It was a bit of a case of the boss always wins in Te Kūiti last night, as Wairarapa shearing contractor Paerata Abraham won the New Zealand Shearing Championships open speed shear for a third time.

Abraham had to wait nine years to add to his back-to-back wins in 2015 and 2016.

His victory came with a cost for Welsh shearer Llyr Jones, who worked for Abraham in the summer down under.

Jones received the dreaded “DQ” [disqualified] after looking like he was winning, with 1.29 seconds over his boss, and shearing the four-man final of two sheep each in 41 seconds.

The demise stopped what would otherwise have been a UK clean sweep in the three events on the opening night of the three-day championships in Te Kūiti’s Les Munro Centre.

A similar fate befell the third-fastest, Taihape’s Reuben Alabaster.

Abraham thus claimed the $1000 prize by almost six seconds from Mataura gun Brett Roberts, who had otherwise been last to finish the final.

An early exit was local hope Jack Fagan, eliminated in the heats and missing out on a place in the top eight for the semifinal.

However, he secured just enough points to win the five-round JR Speed Shear Circuit, beating runner-up Forde Alexander, of Taumarunui, by just two points.

Jones, who had the fastest single-lamb time of the night with a 19.06 second flyer in the semifinals, got one back when he and Welsh teammate Gethin Lewis beat a King Country selection of Digger Balme and Kelly Brill in a relay of two lambs per team.

The Welsh finished in 41.97 seconds, the Kiwis in 48.72 seconds, easing-up after realising the game was gone, in what was a big boost for the Welsh ahead of the final Wools of New Zealand series test match against Fagan and David Buick tonight.

English shearer Callum Bosley, who shears for Balme in King Country, defied his claim that he wouldn’t be fast enough by winning the senior final with the fastest two–lamb time of 50.72 seconds in beating runner-up Taelor Tarrant by 2.64 seconds.

Bosley also had the fastest time on a single lamb in the senior semifinals.