Shearing: Third speed shear win in a row for Gore’s Lionel Taumata

Lionel Taumata, winner of the Waiau Rugby Club Open Speed Shear in North Canterbury on Saturday, pictured in one of his first open show-competition heats, at Waimate, in 2019. Photo / SSNZ

Gore shearer Lionel Taumata could be crowned the “Unofficial Speed Shear King of the South” after winning the Waiau Rugby Club’s open speed shear final in North Canterbury on Saturday.

Taumata boasts nine senior show competition wins, and was Shearing Sports New Zealand’s No 1-ranked senior shearer in the 2018-19 season.

Read more about shearing and woolhandling events here.

He has had just four open speed-shear wins in his fifth season, in a class dominated by the likes of North Island guns Jimmy Samuels, Jack Fagan and Paerata Abraham.

However, he has now won the last three in a row; at the Railway Tavern in Rakaia on October 27, the Woodbourne Tavern, near Blenheim on November 4, and at Waiau, where the $1500 first prize takes him to $5000 in prize money in just over three weeks.

Taumata is now headed north to work and chase more speed shear prizes at such places as the Toko Tavern in Taranaki, after the Stratford A and P Show next Saturday; the Matiere Cosmopolitan Club on December 1; and his old hometown of Taumarunui for a speed shear on December 23.

Meanwhile, the opposition is hotting up with the top guns returning from Australia.

This includes Jack Fagan and Jimmy Samuels.

Fagan won A$15,000 at the Mundijong Open Quick Shear in the outer suburbs of Perth on November 4, and Samuels finished second.

Samuels went on to win at the Dinninup show in the southwest region of West Australia on November 7.

On Saturday, he won the A$10,000 first prize at the Harden Red Devils Rugby Club Quick Shear, between Canberra and Sydney; with an unofficial fastest time for a sheep in the fast-form competition in Australia - a slick 16.78 seconds.

Results from the Waiau Rugby Club Speed Shear on Saturday, November 18, 2023

Open: Lionel Taumata (Gore) 1, Lyall Windleburn (Rangiora) 2, Taare Edwards (Ashburton) 3, Scott Wilson 4, Toko Hapuku 5, Sam Thomson 6.

Intermediate: Jason White (Waimate) 1, Aaron Magee (Ireland) 2, Alice Watson (Seddon) 3.

Women: Penny Bell (England) 1, Kelly McDonald (Domett) 2, Hannah Knox (Cheviot) 3.

Farmers: Roger Marsh 1, Ross Dobby 2, Wayde Waller 3.