Osborne leads Arapohue to victory

Dargaville shearer enjoys a better day’s work

DARGAVILLE shearer Neville Osborne had one of his better days at the Kumeu Shears, despite his last northern show of the season being dominated by invaders from Hawke’s Bay and south.

The winner of 43 open finals in mainly small fields in Northland over the past 25 years, Osborne made it into a topquality Kumeu final on March 10 but, most importantly, led Arapohue to victory in the final of the first ANZ Northland Shearing Championship.

Arapohue had been in second place after the previous rounds at Kaikohe, Warkworth, Arapohue, Paparoa and Pukekohe, the series contributing to an improved Kumeu show entry of 37 shearers.

While there was an invasion from the Hawke’s Bay region in the show classes, Northland could claim some bragging rights with open winner Rowland Smith and his nephew and junior winner Brook Hamerton, backing-up from their Golden Shears wins in Masterton a week earlier, originally came from kumara capital Ruawai, about 30km south of Dargaville.

Smith’s win by 0.568pts from runner-up Mark Grainger, of Te Kuiti, was his 38th open final win in a row in New Zealand. Reigning world champion John Kirkpatrick was third, Digger Balme, of Te Kuiti, fourth, and Osborne fifth.

Balme shore the 20 full crutched-and-bellied ewes in 14min 37.65sec, beating nextman-off Smith by more than 40 seconds. ■

Kumeu Shears results:

WINNER: Dargaville shearer Neville Osborne, who has won 43 open-class shearing finals in Northland over the last 25 years. He led his team to a new Northland shearing championship win at the Kumeu Shears.