Stage set for 60th Taihape A and P Show Shears

The picturesque setting of the Taihape A and P Show's shearing pavilion, all spruced up for the 60th-anniversary celebration. Photo / Supplied

A small group of shearers have been busy crutching more than 1000 sheep in preparation for Saturday’s 60th Taihape A and P Show Shears - one of the biggest shearing and woolhandling competitions in New Zealand each year.

Around 150 shearers and woolhandlers are expected, which is about as big an entry as can be found at any one-day competition among the 60 shows on the Shearing Sports New Zealand calendar.

Taihape Shears convenor and shearing contractor Stu Munro said the sheep put up by farmer Graham Maher were regarded by many as some of the best for competition.

While strong fields are expected, the open shearing will be missing two of those who won last weekend.

Former World and Golden Shears champion Gavin Mutch, winner at Taihape in 2021 and who won last weekend’s Wairarapa A and P Show, is in the US for three weeks.

Meanwhile, Jack Fagan, who won the national crossbred lambs final at Winton, is in Australia for a wedding.

Another not competing this weekend is Mataura shearer Brett Roberts, who is out with a hand injury he suffered in the national lamb championship final on Saturday, just a day after winning the national full wool title near Lumsden.

Roberts had surgery on Monday and said it had gone well and he hoped to be back competing within three weeks.

The Taihape Shears were first held in 1962, less than 12 months after the first Golden Shears.

The marking of the 60th anniversary was to have been held last year; however, the show had to be cancelled because of pandemic restrictions.

The first competition was held on a stage mounted on 44-gallon drums, and the first open shearing final was won by Bing MacDonald, who won the Golden Shears open final four weeks later.

Over the years it has featured most of New Zealand’s top shearers, including late local heroes Ray Alabaster and Colin Bosher, and multiple World Champion Sir David Fagan.

The woolhandling has featured World Champions Joanne Kumeroa, Sheree Alabaster, Joel Henare, and Keryn Herbert.

Herbert won the last final in 2021.

Like many rural competitions, there is a small committee doing all the hard work beforehand, but a sizeable force on the day with mainly-local shed crew and judging officials from across the Central North Island.

The longest-running competition still being held in New Zealand is thought to be the Aria Sports on Waitangi Day - first held in 1956.

The Hawke’s Bay A and P Show staged what is thought to have been the world’s first machine-shearing competition in 1902, and a blade-shearing competition near Waipukurau in 1868 is thought to have been one of the first in New Zealand.

The Taihape Shears start on Saturday at 8.30 am with shearing and woolhandling from novice to open grades.