Woolhandling competition to be held at Easter Show

A crowd watches shearing at the Royal Easter Show in Auckland in 2016. This year they'll also be able to watch a woolhandling competition amongst some of the best in the World. Photo / Doug Laing SSNZ

An Open woolhandling competition is to be held at the 175th anniversary Royal Easter Show in Auckland this year.

The event will be held on Easter Sunday (April 1), the third day of the annual shearing sports competitions at the show, traditionally limited to the machine shearing which will take place mainly on Good Friday and Easter Saturday.

Phil O'Shaughnessy, an Auckland A and P Society show councillor, former shearer and competitions commentator, said it's thought it will be the first time woolhandling competition had been held at the show, and it's fitting that the competition can be held at the jubilee of one of New Zealand's oldest shows.

With free entry at the gates the show expects to attract over 30,000 people on the day, including hundreds of tourist and most of whom see the shearing at some stage of the day.

The winning purse for the Open woolhandling event, a second-shear competition, will be $900, matching that of the Open shearing final, and prizes will be paid down to 6th place.

With the recent cancellation of the Taranaki Shears, which were to have been held on March 16, the Royal Easter Show will provide the only woolhandling competition in the North Island in the five weeks between the Golden Shears and the New Zealand championship, which end the season in Te Kuiti on April 5-7.