Kiwis win second shearing test
Welsh team pipped by just 1.9 points at Autumn Shears
Although they lost to their Kiwi rivals, Welsh shearers Gethin Lewis and Llyr Jones indicated a first win for Wales in a shearing test match in New Zealand might not be too far away, when they were pipped by just 1.9 points at the new Hawke’s Bay Autumn Shears in Waipukuraulast week.
The New Zealand team of Masterton shearers Paerata Abraham and David Gordon made it two from two in the Wools of New Zealand International Shearing Series, on the eve of the three-day New Zealand Shears shearing and woolhandling championships in Te Kuiti.
Having won the first test by more than 6 points in Raetihi on March 16, Abraham and Gordon are in the process of avenging a 3-0 series loss to Wales in Wales last July.
Abraham won the race in yesterday’s match over 20 sheep each to finish in 16m 13s, beating Lewis off the board by four seconds.
Gordon, last to finish, had the best quality points.
The Waipukurau shearing board again proved a happy hunting ground for Gordon, who won the Autumn Shears Open final.
Last November, Gordon won the Central Hawke’s Bay A&P Show open final on the same shearing board in a quality-points countback after tying with Hawke’s Bay veteran, 2017 world champion and four-times Golden
Shears open champion John Kirkpatrick.
Kirkpatrick, who with wife Raelene was behind the establishment of the new competition, was in the final again but had to settle for third place, in his 30th season of open-class shearing.
Northland shearer Toa Henderson
claimed the runner-up position and fastest time (15m 33s for the 20 sheep).
Henderson will head into the New Zealand Shears hoping to go one better than his second placing in the open final last year and to secure a 13th win in the 2023-2024 Shearing Sports New Zealand season.
Having also won the Waimarino
Shears open final a month ago, Gordon shapes as a genuine challenger in Te Kuiti.
Gordon claimed his New Zealand team singlet by placing in the open final at the event 12 months ago.
Southland shearer Nathan Bee yesterday scored his fifth win of the season and his second in the North
Island to beat Golden Shears winner Forde Alexander, of Taumarunui, by more than 3 points in the senior final.
Patea shearer Blake Mitchell won the intermediate final by just 0.05 points from Te Awamutu shearer and happy traveller Ethan Fladgate, who