Shearing and woolhandling: New Zealand teams fall short in transtasman tests

The Shearing Sports New Zealand team in Katanning, Western Australia, for the Transtasman Machine and Blades Shearing and Woolhandling test matches on Sunday.

A gallant bid to claim New Zealand’s first transtasman machine shearing test win in Australia since 2010 has again fallen short, with a defeat by almost 29 points in the 50th-anniversary match of the series in Western Australia.

The Kiwis kept in touch with the pace over the six merinos, with King Country shearer Jack Fagan leading the chase after Australia’s Nathan Meaney.

Fagan passed the Australian on the last of the six crossbreds to win the race by five seconds.

Fagan is a transtasman series newcomer; his father Sir David Fagan sheared in 12 tests.

It was the last of three transtasman tests on Sunday — the last day of the Australian National Shearing and Woolhandling Championships at Katanning, 280km southeast of Perth.

Despite his success, Fagan and machine shearing teammates Leon Samuels, of Roxburgh, and Chris Vickers, of Shag Point, Coastal Otago, were still overcome by the fine wool class of Meaney (South Australia), Daniel McIntyre (New South Wales) and Josh Bone (Victoria), who made amends for a loss to New Zealand at the Golden Shears in Masterton in March.

Meaney won the Mark Conlan Memorial for best individual performance, with quality points, and was more than 10 points better than the best of the Kiwi trio.

Also making amends for defeat in Masterton, and helping Australia to a 2-1 triumph across the tests, were woolhandlers Alexander Schoff (Queensland) and Marlene Whittle (Vic), who beat New Zealand pair Pagan Rimene, of Alexandra, and Ngaio Hanson, of Eketahuna, by 4.05pts points in a contest of six merino fleeces and six crossbred fleeces.

New Zealand’s one win came in the blades shearing test of two merinos and two crossbred sheep each, with Tony Dobbs, of Fairlie, and Tim Hogg, of Timaru, beating Australians Johnathon Dalla (SA) and Andrew Murray (NSW) by 3.5pts, repeating a black singlets victory they scored at the Waimate Spring Shears a fortnight ago.

Earlier, Dobbs continued a string of open final wins linked to the test matches and the Australian Championships; when he won a six-man Katanning Show Shears Open blades final, in which three of the first four were from New Zealand.

The Kiwis led the race, Hogg finishing in 9 minutes 7 seconds, beating Dobbs by 8 seconds, with Murray next in 10 minutes 12 seconds.

Read more shearing and woolhandling stories here.

While Dalla had the best quality points, Dobbs had kept close and the time-point advantage was enough to beat Dalla by 4.7 points in the final count.

Dobbs, who had spent about a fortnight in West Australia, along with Hogg, described the merinos as “80kg beasts”.

Hogg was third overall and fourth was former New Zealand representative Mike McConnell, of Christchurch.

No New Zealanders reached the Kattaning Shears Open machine shearing final, which was won by Bone, with Australian teammates McIntyre and Meaney third and fourth.

The open woolhandling final was won by Australian team member Schoff, with second place going to 2014 Masterton Golden Shears junior champion Creedence Culshaw, from Raupunga, while Jacki Harmer, originally from Hastings, was fourth. Both of the New Zealanders are now based in Western Australia.

Samuels’ brother, Jimmy Samuels, of Marton, won the Katanning Show Shears speed shear, his 77th speed shear competition win.

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McIntyre, Schoff, and Dalla won their respective Australian titles to retain their national team places for tests next year in Masterton and Jamestown (SA).

Meaney also retained his place, with Jamie Boothman (NSW) as the third machine shearer, while Tiff Collins (Tasmania) is the second Australian woolhandler.

The New Zealand team remains the same for the machine shearing and woolhandling tests in Masterton on February 28-March 1.

Australia has now won 39 of the 72 transtasman machine shearing tests since the first at Euroa, Victoria, in 1974.

New Zealand has won 36 of the 48 woolhandling tests since 1998, and 16 of the 17 blades shearing tests since 2010.

Results of the Transtasman Shearing and Woolhandling Tests at the Katanning Show Shears and Australian National Shearing and Woolhandling Championships in West Australia on Sunday, October 27, 2024:

Machine shearing (12 sheep - six merinos, six crossbred): Australia (Nathan Meaney 17m 52sec, 69.35pts; Josh Bone 18m 40s, 71.67pts; Daniel McIntyre 19m 37s, 74.68pts) 215.7pts beat New Zealand (Jack Fagan 17m 47s, 79.93pts; Leon Samuels 18m 18s, 80.73pts; Chris Vickers 20m 6s, 83.38pts) 244.05pts.

Blades (four sheep – two merinos, two crossbred): New Zealand (Tim Hogg 19m 14s, 77.45pts; Tony Dobbs 19m 26s, 80.05pte) 157.5pts, beat Australia (Johnathon Dalla 19m 6s, 80.05pts; Andrew Murray 19m 34s, 80.95pts) 161pts.

Woolhandling: Australia (Alexander Schoff, Marlene Whittle) 46.22pts beat New Zealand (Pagan Rimene, Ngaio Hanson) 50.27pts.

Katanning Shears Open Championships:

Blades final (two sheep): Tony Dobbs (NZ) 9m 16s, 49.3pts, 1; Johnathon Dalla (South Australia) 11m 30s, 54pts, 2; Tim Hogg (NZ) 9m 7s, 58.35pts, 3; Mike McConnell (NZ) 12m 22s, 59.1pts, 4; Andrew Murray (NSW) 10m 12s, 69.6pts, 5; George Mudge (England) 14m 52s, 87.6pts, 6.