Shearing: Northland’s Toa Henderson wins Royal Welsh Open title, but Kiwis lose the test

Toa Henderson (left) fist pumps as reigning world champion Gwion Lloyd Evans is named second place-getter in the Royal Welsh Show Open All-Nations Shearing final, confirming Henderson as the winner, on his first tour in the UK. Photo / Wales Shearing livestream

Northland shearer Toa Henderson has scored a big win in claiming the Royal Welsh Show All-Nations title as he and Wools of New Zealand teammate Jack Fagan did their best to slam the Welsh on their home stage today.

Henderson blasted through the 20 Welsh speckle lambs in under 12m 38s to be first off the board in the six-man final.

The time and quality points gave him a comfortable win by 2.3 points over Welsh shearer and reigning world champion Gwion Lloyd Evans, who shore the 20 in 13m 23s.

Henderson won the Golden Shears and New Zealand Open Championships double in March, and has won all three events to date in a 2026 World Championships New Zealand team selection series.

Meanwhile, defending champion Fagan, of Te Kūiti, was third, just 0.15 points further back, in his bid to win the title for a third time.

Sixth was a third New Zealand shearer, Matt Smith, from Northland and Hawke’s Bay.

Smith is farming in Cornwall and is set to represent England in the world championships in Masterton next March.

However, the tactic of trying to blow the Welsh away with speed in a test match soon afterwards fell short of the ultimate goal.

Despite Fagan claiming the time honours in a close battle, the Kiwis were beaten by the World Championships-bound new Welsh team of Evans and Llyr Jones.

With barely five seconds separating Fagan, Evans and Henderson at the end of another 20-lambs shear, the Welsh quality carried the day, for a win by 6.4 points.

This brings the Welsh team to a 2-0 lead in an annual series last won by a New Zealand team in Wales six years ago, although Wales have not won a series in New Zealand.

But the margin was inflated by a five-point penalty against Henderson for a single cut on his last lamb.

The Kiwis had got off to a great start in the all-nations heats of 69 shearers, mainly from Wales.

Fagan headed the 24 qualifiers for the quarter-finals, with Henderson in sixth place.

Team manager Neil Fagan, a former senior title winner in Wales and on his first visit in 22 years, said that without the blemish, New Zealand would have gone close to winning the test.

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He was looking forward to the black singlets dominating on Saturday at the Corwen Shears, where Fagan will be again defending an all-nations title.

Henderson won the recent French Open but failed to qualify for the Cothi Shears open final in Wales last Saturday.

He told the crowd it felt “pretty good” to make the final after missing out in Cothi, and he was rapt to win at the Royal Welsh in his first tour in the UK.

It was the 50th anniversary Royal Welsh Championship. Henderson’s father, Mike Henderson, was in the crowd, and it was his wife Phoebe Henderson’s birthday.

“I did it for us,” Toa Henderson said, as he raised the Godfrey Bowen Memorial Trophy.

It was also a big day for Llyr Jones, who shears in New Zealand for Wairarapa contractors Abraham Shearing.

He won the Champion Shearer of Wales final and claimed a place in the Wales World Championships team for the first time.

Evans claimed his place in the team for the March 4-7 championships in Masterton by winning the Welsh Shearing Circuit final.

The 2019 world champion, Welshman Richard Jones, who, with Evans, won the team title in Scotland two years ago, reached both finals today, but missed selection in the team.

Amid the fever-pitch passion of the Welsh setting at Llanelwedd, near Builth Wells, in Powys, Mid Wales, the test match was introduced by a Welshman singing the New Zealand anthem in Māori and English.

This was followed by the haka Ka Mate, with more than 20 answering the near-royal command call to put up the challenge in front of at least 2000 spectators.

Results

International (20 lambs): Wales 97.35pts (Gwion Lloyd Evans 12m, 47.5pts; Llyr Jones 13m 4s, 50.2pts) New Zealand 103.75pts (Jack Fagan 11.56s, 49.2pts; Toa Henderson 12m 1s, 54.55pts). Wales won by 6.4 points and lead the series 2-0. The last test is at the Corwen Shears on Saturday.

Royal Welsh All-Nations Open final (20 lambs): Toa Henderson (New Zealand) 12m 38s, 44.7pts, 1; Gwion Lloyd Evans (Wales) 13m 23s, 47pts, 2; Jack Fagan (New Zealand) 13.m 8s, 47.15pts, 3; Gareth Daniel (Wales) 13m 55s, 49.35psts, 4; Richard Jones (Wales) 14m 7s, 49.8pts, 5; Matt Smith (New Zealand/England) 13m 33s, 50.3pts, 6.