Shearing: Colin King Challenge Shield at Marlborough A and P Show

Former champion shearer and MP Colin King (second from right) with other shearers at the Golden Shears 50th year celebration in 2010. His name is now given to a near teams challenge shield for shearing in the South Island. Photo / SSNZ

A trophy named after a champion shearer, who then became a Member of Parliament, will go on the line for the first time at the Marlborough A and P Show shearing championships in Blenheim on Saturday.

The Colin King Challenge Shield, set to become the Ranfurly Shield of South Island shearing, will be contested between Marlborough and North Canterbury in a relay, with one shearer, from each grade, in each team, to decide the inaugural holder.

It will be limited to teams in the South Island.

King, from Canterbury, is the only left-handed shearer to have won the Golden Shears open, having triumphed in 1982, 1987 and 1988, along with six wins in the final of the National Shearing Circuit, incorporating the McSkimming Memorial Triple Crown.

In 2000, he was awarded the MNZM for services to shearing and the wool industry. King then turned to politics and served three terms as National Party MP for Kaikoura from 2005 to 2014.

The Marlborough Shears also serve as a round of the junior and intermediate grades' Beef+Lamb NZ Canterbury and Marlborough Development Circuit, from which two shears in each grade will get paid travel, accommodation and entry to the New Zealand Shears in Te Kuiti at the end of the season.

Events in Blenheim on Saturday will be run under level 2 conditions, without general public admission and with competitors being asked to bring their own refreshments because there won't be any food stalls.

Shearers face a busy week in the South Island, despite multiple cancellations throughout the country due to the pandemic.

The Pleasant Point Shears is also on Saturday in South Canterbury, and the Canterbury Shears New Zealand Corriedale Shearing and Woolhandling Championships will be held in Christchurch on Thursday and Friday next week.

Canterbury Shears convener Dave Brooker hoped districts throughout the South Island would start lodging challenges for the Shield.

He said it would help increase competitor numbers and interest in being in the teams, particularly in some of the smaller shows.