Welsh shearer Gethin Lewis on his way to winning the Taihape Shears open shearing final at Erewhon Station, east of Taihape, on Saturday.
Gethin Lewis has become the first Welshman to win an open shearing title in New Zealand in more than a decade.
Lewis, who works three to four months each year for Napier shearing contractor Brendan Mahony, surprised even himself with his win in the Taihape Shears open final at Central North Island’s Erewhon Station on Saturday.
He won by 1.8435 points over the runner-up, defending champion and 10-times Taihape open winner Rowland Smith, of Maraekakaho, also in Hawke’s Bay.
One of 43 in the open field, Lewis scraped in as the last man into the five-man final, and reckoned at the end he might have been good for third, fourth or fifth.
Third place went to reigning Golden Shears and New Zealand Shears open champion Toa Henderson, who, having already guaranteed a place at the World Championships in Masterton in March, opened the throttle big time for one of the fastest times shearing 20 adult sheep in competition in New Zealand.
Henderson blasted the 20 out in 14m 43.07s, beating Lewis to the final cord by 9.84s.
Smith was last to finish the five-man final, in 16m 22.78s, but underlined his hopes of another place at a World Championships with a display of true quality, both on the shearing board and with the finished product in the judging pens.
Lewis had one win to his credit in New Zealand previously as a senior at Pukekohe, claiming the first win by a Welsh shearer in a New Zealand competition open final since Richard Jones won back-to-back titles at the Inangahua A&P Show’s Reefton Shears in 2013 and 2014. Jones won the world title in France in 2019.
From Rhayader, Powys, Lewis has worked the Hawke’s Bay summers for almost a decade.
He has represented Wales in several home-and-away series against New Zealand over the last three years, but just missed selection in the Welsh team for last year’s World Championships.
He did, however, shear a British eight-hour ewes record of 696, and his last competition win was the Welsh lambs shearing circuit final in August, at the Cwmdauddwr Shears.
Lewis didn’t spare much time to celebrate the breakthrough, heading straight back to work on Sunday for shearing at Puketītiri.
It was a good day for Wales at Erewhon, with Rhys Davies, of Builth Wells, winning the intermediate final.
Ngaio Hanson, of Eketāhuna, sprang a big surprise by winning the Taihape Open Shears open woolhandling final, with a 2.6-point margin over runner-up Pagan Rimene.
Rimene was competing just four days after shearing 481 lambs in the eight hours of a four-stand women’s record in South Otago last Tuesday.
Hanson, a World Championships representative in 2023, only managed her first open final win, at Dannevirke, on January 31 last year.
The win on Saturday kept her hopes of another World Championships bid alive, helping her into a selection series final in Marton on February 7, with Rimene among the opposition.
Third place on Saturday went to multiple world and Golden Shears champion Joel Henare, who gained enough points to secure his place at the championships in Masterton.
It was a remarkable day for the Taihape Shears.
The event, with 219 shearers and woolhandlers competing, had been relocated at just two days’ notice, due to heavy rain which had made it almost impossible to get the 1500 sheep in and out of the regular town venue, Memorial Park.
The entries on Saturday comprised 161 shearers across five grades (open 43, senior 35, intermediate 30, junior 40, novice 13) and 58 woolhandlers (open 24, senior 14, junior 20), making it the biggest show of the season to date, as competitors gathered from around the globe ahead of the World Championships.
Shearing Sports New Zealand chairman Warren Parker, of Raglan, said he and others were in awe of the work done by Taihape Shears chairman Hayden Tapp and his committee in relocating the competition.
They had decided on the move only on Thursday morning, having realised less than 24 hours earlier that it would be near impossible to stage the championships at the town venue, where the 60th anniversary in 2023 was notable for the wet weather and the need to use tractors to haul the sheep trucks in and out of the park.
“It is not a case of simply transferring a rugby game from a sodden ground to something a little better,” Parker said.
They have to shift everything out of one venue, move it 20-30 km out into the country, work out how the sheep are going to get in and out, where the judges will do their job, where everyone will park and where will they be fed, he said.
“This is full-on rehoming for a day, and it’s amazing the way shows keep on stepping up to meet the challenges.”
One shearer said it comes with the nature of the game.
“Everyone just gets on and does it,” he said.
Tapp said station manager James Maher had no hesitation in making the 50-year-old woolshed available.
With only five stands available, instead of six at the park, extra competition heats were needed, stretching the day to over nine hours of shearing, with over 1500 sheep trucked in from two nearby properties.
Meanwhile, the weather also caused problems for the only other shearing competition in the country at the weekend, with a tractor used to haul a sheep trailer on to the domain for the Tapawera Shears, south of Nelson.
In contrast, there were just 23 shearers across four grades, with the open final won by Hugh de Lacy, from North Canterbury, as he and local hope Travers Baigent waged a two-man battle for time honours, each finishing the 20 in under 20 minutes, which de Lacy won by just under 40s.
The only competition this week is the Dannevirke A&P Show Shearing and Woolhandling Championships and speed shear on Friday, followed next by the Aria Sports on Waitangi Day, and the next day the North Kaipara A&P Shears at Paparoa, the Rangitīkei Shearing Sports in Marton and the Reefton Shears.
While there is no competition shearing on Saturday, there will be a multi-stand strong wool lamb record attempt at Waihelo Station, Moa Flat, West Otago.
Former Golden Shears open champion Leon Samuels, of Roxburgh, reigning PGG Wrightson Vetmed National Circuit champion Paerata Abraham, of Masterton, and Shane Ratima, of Hunterville, will be attempting the eight-hour, three-stands record of 1976 shorn by Coel L’Huilier, Kaleb Foote and Daniel Langlands near Piopio six years ago.
Erewhon Station, Taihape, Saturday, January 24, 2026
Shearing:
Open final (20 sheep): Gethin Lewis (Wales) 14m 52.91s, 52.6955 points, 1; Rowland Smith (Maraekākaho) 16m 22.78s, 54.539pts, 2; Toa Henderson (Kaiwaka) 14m 43.07s, 54.6035pts, 3; Jack Fagan (Te Kūiti) 15m 33.81s, 55.5405pts, 4; David Buick (Pongaroa) 15m 37.75s, 55.7875pts, 5.
Senior final (10 sheep): Taelor Tarrant (Taumarunui) 10m 14.62s, 41.531pts, 2; Kaivah Cooper (Napier) 11m 2.62s, 44.831pts, 2; Dylan Young (Gisborne) 11m 21.06s, 45.553pts, 3; Luke Parkhouse (Devon, England) 11m 52.56s, 47.128pts, 4; Emma Martin (Wyndham) 13m 7.84s, 47.992pts, 5.
Intermediate final (8 sheep): Rhys Davies (Builth Wells, Wales) 10m 1s, 40.3pts, 1; Zakaia Lewis (-) 9m 44.34s, 40.842pts, 2; Joseph Scahill (County Mayo, Ireland) 10m 0.5s, 41.025pts, 3; Riley Norman (Eketāhuna) 11m 15.75s, 41.925pts, 4; Lachie Cameron (Kimbolton) 11m 32.35s, 42.8675pts, 5.
Junior final (4 sheep): Kinston Pue (Raetihi) 5m 37.22s, 22.361pts, 1; Alex Wrenn (Dannevirke) 5m 43.78s, 22.439pts, 2; Sean Dunne (Wicklow, Ireland) 5m 32.1s, 24.335pts, 3; Camden Bolton Smith (Woodville) 5m 59.97s, 27.4985pts, 4; Cian Dafis (Llanrwst, Wales) 5m 46.22s, 28.061pts, 5.
Novice (1 sheep): Oliver Bambry (Pahīatua) 4m 34.9s, 20.745pts, 1; Justine Eerden (Belgium) 5m 2.25s, 21.1125pts, 2; Rikihana Salmond (Te Kūiti) 4m 21.69s, 25.0845pts, 3; Ngahuia Salmond (Te Kūiti) 3m 51.06s, 25.553pts, 4; Connor Rose (Central Hawke’s Bay) 3m 15.72s, 26.786pts, 5.
Open Speedshear: Tiare Tipu (Pōrangahau) 17s, 1; Jack Fagan (Te Kūiti) 17.1s, 2; Simon Goss (Whanganui) 18.7d, 3; Chris Dickson (Masterton) 19s. 4; Brett Roberts (Mataura) 17.1s (DQ).
Woolhandling
Open final: Ngaio Hanson (Eketāhuna) 344pts, 1; Pagan Rimene (Alexandra) 37pts, 2; Joel Henare (Gisborne/Motueka) 37.126pts, 3; Te Anna Phillips (Taumarunui) 79.056pts, 4.
Senior final: Amy Bell (Weber) 31.704pts, 1; Tia Manson (Piopio) 40.15pts, 2; Whakapunake (Naki) Maraki (Flaxmere) 48.94pts, 3; Nohokainga Maraki (Flaxmere) 143.332pts, 4.
Junior final: Leah Tamainu (Nūhaka) 23.708pts, 1; Gemma Buick (Pongaroa) 32.34pts, 2; Caitlyn Murphy (Pongaroa) 43.38pts, 3; Paige Marshall (Kihikihi) 36.91pts, 4.
Near Nelson, Saturday, January 24, 2026
Open final (20 sheep): Hugh de Lacy (Rangiora) 19m 5.78s, 64.99pts, 1; Travers Baigent (Wakefield) 19m 44.56s, 68.43pts, 2; Timo Hicks (Tapawera) 24m 15.9s, 79.1pts, 3; Baden Barker (Tapawera) 27m 6.84s, 91.79pts, 4.
Senior final (8 sheep): Zion Smith (Christchurch) 13m 0.03s, 46.38pts, 1; Sam Hodgkinson (Tapawera) 13m 43.09s, 51.15pts, 2; Dylan Hamlin (Bainham) 16m 44.65s, 57.86pts, 3; Andrew Ferguson (Kaihoka) 17m 39.56s, 58.1pts, 4.
Intermediate final (4 sheep): Levi Beedles (Rangiora) 6m 43s, 26.05pts, 1; Ryan Hodgkinson (Tapawera) 5m 35.81s, 32.29pts, 2; Pam Irvine (Tapawera) 10m 34.59s, 43.98pts, 3.
Junior final (3 sheep): Mike Toshach (Rangiora) 6m 41.09s, 28.05pts, 1; Holly Crombie (Rangiora) 7m 42.28s, 34.11pts, 2; Katie Hicks (Tapawera) 9m 54.85s, 38.08pts, 3; Emma Sowman (Tapawera) 8m 9.5s, 45.48pts, 4.