Shearing: Kiwis clean-up in Warrnambool

Te Kuiti shearer Mark Grainger, who won the Open final at the Warrnambool show in Australia on Saturday. File Photo / Doug Laing

New Zealanders scored a near clean-sweep at Australia's top crossbred shearing competition on Saturday.

Competitors from New Zealand won the Open, Senior and Intermediate shearing finals, and the Open and Senior woolhandling finals at southwest Victoria coast city Warrnambool.

Home show representatives Glen Stephens, Tyson Scholz and Lee Harris beat the NZ Shears Te Kuiti team of Mark Grainger, David Buick and Dion King in a transtasman challenge which included merinos.

The six-stand Open shearing final (over 15 sheep each) was a near all-Kiwi showdown won by Te Kuiti gun Mark Grainger, son of the 1985 Golden Shears Open champion Paul Grainger, and a winner of five show finals in New Zealand over the last three years.

Grainger won his place in the NZ Shears Te Kuiti team by finishing fifth in last season's New Zealand Championships Open final.

He beat runner-up and 2014 and 2015 Warrnambool winner Buick, of Pongaroa, by 1.37pts. King, first off in just over 12-and-a-half minutes was a further eight-tenths of a point back third.

Fourth was Queensland-based Jovan Taiki, from Porangahau and the only finalist not based in New Zealand, fifth was Hayden Tapp, from Taihape, and sixth was South Otago shearer Jordan Boyes.

The Senior final was won by Victoria-based Karipa Tumohe, from Balclutha, and the Intermediate title was won by NZ Shears representative and 2017 New Zealand Intermediate champion Sean Gouk, of Hamilton.

Gisborne woolhandler Keri Henare, a cousin of World champion Joel Henare, had a surprise win in the Open woollhandling final, beating Alexandra sisters Pagan Karauria and Larnie Morrell, and the Senior woolhandling title was won by Wilz Marshall, from Port Waikato.

The Warrnambool has had a long-standing annual home-and-away exchange with the New Zealand Shears in Te Kuiti. This year the event clashed with the Australian national shearing and woolhandling championships in Bendigo, including the three transtasman test matches involving the Shearing Sports New Zealand machine shearing, woolhandling and blade shearing team.

There was further New Zealand success at the Katanning show in West Australia where the Open woolhandling title was won by Phoebe Nikora, from Dannevirke, and the Open Speedshear was won Cartwright Terry, from Cambridge.

Results from the Warrnambool Shears on Saturday October 28, 2017:

Shearing:

Transtasman Challenge (8 sheep): Warrnambool 218.28pts (Glen Stephens 10min 13.53sec, 69.43pts; Tyson Scholz 12min 42.78sec, 72.39pts; Lee Harris 12min 10.53sec, 76.4pts) beat NZ Shears Te Kuiti 229.18sec (Dion King 10min 42.34sec, 72.12pts; David Buick 13min 34.13sec, 76.46pts; Mark Grainger 14min 48.25sec, 80.66pts) by 10.9pts.

Open final (15 sheep): Mark Grainger (Te Kuiti) 13min 3.1sec, 46.89pts, 1; David Buick (Pongaroa) 12min 41.13sec, 48.26spts, 2; Dion King (Flaxmere) 12min 31,87sec, 49.06pts, 3; Jovan Taiki (Porangahau/Longreach Qld) 13min 31.97sec, 52.33pts, 4; Hayden Tapp (Taihape) 13min 26.74sec, 53.01pts, 5; Jordan Boyes (Owaka) 14min 6.21sec, 53.44pts, 6.

Senior final (6 sheep): Karipa Tumohe (Balclutha/Ararat Vic) 8min 52.21sec, 41.61pts, 1; Brett Caldwell (Heywood Vic) 8min 36.47sec, 44,49pts, 2; Alex Smith 10min 15.28sec, 45.33pts, 3; Rae Hokianga 9min 21.38sec, 46.4pts, 4; Phillip Edwards 8min 35.85sec, 46.79pts, 5; Pagan Karauria (Alexandra NZ) 9min 15.6sec, 48.61pts, 6.

Intermediate final (5 sheep): Sean Gouk (Hamilton) 8min 1.19sec, 40.56pts, 1; Lachlan Bryant (Rokewood Vic) 9min 53.96sec, 44.9pts, 2; Zac Malisse (Barraba NSW) 8min 55.6sec, 45.35pts, 3; Nathan Thompson 9min 39.43sec, 49.57pts, 4.

Woolhandling:

Open final: Keri Henare (Gisborne) 4.87pts, 1; Pagan Karauria (Alexandra NZ) 7.93pts, 2; Larnie Morrell (Alexandra NZ) 8.03pts, 3; Judith Ratana 11.78pts, 4.
Senior final: Wilz Marshall (Port Waikato/Moora W.A.)16.13pts, 1; Maureen Wainohu 16.55pts, 2; Georgia Jackson (Feilding/Naracoorte S.A.) 17.74pts, 3; Alayne Daysh (Pahiatua) 17.92pts, 4.