World champion Hawke's Bay shearers Rowland Smith and John Kirkpatrick have kept their hopes alive for another bid at the ultimate glory by being the top qualifiers for a New Zealand team selection series trial next month.
The two were the machine shearing representatives at the last championships in Irelandin 2014, when Smith won the individual final but was beaten by Scotland and Wales in the teams final.
Kirkpatrick had already won two World teams titles, in Norway in 2008 and Masterton in 2012.
Their chances for the 2017 championships in Invercargill, from February 8 to 11, hinge on a nine-month series of six points rounds which culminated in the naming of the six for the series final at the Canterbury Show in Christchurch on November 11.
First and second in Friday's Great Raihania Shears final in Hastings, confirming their one-two finish in the points rounds, they will have to finish winner and runner-up in Christchurch to represent New Zealand in the championships three months later.
They will be joined in the Christchurch final by Nathan Stratford (Invercargill), David Buick (Pongaroa), Aaron Haynes (Feilding) and Darin Forde (Invercargill), who at 51 and a World championships runner-up in South Africa in 2000, kept his hopes alive with all that was needed in Friday's competition, a fifth placing to head fellow Southland shearer Troy Pyper who thus missed out by one point.
A woolhandling series final, dominated by 2012 World woolhandling champion Joel Henare, of Gisborne, had an even more nail-biting end as Gisborne's Maryanne Baty snatched the sixth position only on a countback of best placing after near maximum points on the day.
Others for the woolhandling series final, on November 10, are Pagan Karauria (Alexandra), Sheree Alabaster (Taihape), Tia Potae (Milton), Keryn Herbert (Te Kuiti) and Maryanne Baty (Gisborne).
Karauria, daughter of former World teams champion Tina Rimene and former record-breaking shearer Dion Morrell, took the commitment up a level by crossing the Tasman for Friday's event and flying back to Australia immediately afterwards to get back to work.
