Yesterday a customwood floor was laid to cover the stadium floor, a stage was built, and shearing stands, chutes and stock pens constructed in preparation for the two-day New Zealand Merino Championships, which start today.
Workers from the shearing committee and other volunteers - including helpers from Peter and Elsie Lyon's shearing gangs - spent ''a good day'' piecing together the infrastructure needed, committee chairman Don Moffat said.
''It's just a matter of fitting everything together, in the right order.''
The contest is in its 53rd year, so most of the volunteers behind the scenes have had lots of practice at transforming the stadium into a shearing shed.
Farmer Richard Stephens, of Olrig Station near Alexandra, was among those working on the stands and sheep pens yesterday.
He admitted to being the designer of the set-up.
''It takes about eight hours to set it up ... but it comes down a lot quicker on Sunday morning.''
Mr Moffat said about 260 of this country's top shearers and woolhandlers, along with a crew of West Australian shearers, would vie for the national titles at stake and the $14,000 total prize pool.
Damien Boyle, of Broomehill, Western Australia, will make history if he wins the open shearing title this year as no other shearer has won it five times in a row.
Mana Te Whata, of Mossburn, has won it in four successive years, and six times in total. Boyle and Mark Buscumb, also of Western Australia, beat Grant Smith, of Rakaia, and Charlie O'Neill, of Alexandra, in an Australia versus New Zealand fine-wool shearing match in Perth last weekend. Australia won by two points. The four men would be among the top contenders for the open title in Alexandra, Mr Moffat said.
''There's probably about 10 shearers in contention for the national title and it could go any way.''
The open woolhandling title would also be hotly contested, he said.
Tina Rimene will face competition from within her own ranks, with her daughters, Pagan Rimene and Larnie Morrell, both entered in the open woolhandling section.
Mr Moffat said although overall entries this year were slightly down on last year, ''that's just the times, and it's happening at shearing competitions all over New Zealand.''
''On a positive note, it's pleasing to see good numbers in the junior woolhandling and senior shearing. I think what's happened is some of our older competitors, who have been going for a while, are not getting any younger so they've called it quits but there a good number of younger ones moving through the ranks.''
Many of the more experienced woolhandlers, who had competed in other years, were focusing on coaching junior and intermediate woolhandlers.
Heats begin today and competition continues tomorrow with the finals of the teams event, open shearing and open woolhandling events and the transtasman test tomorrow night.
About 1700 merino wethers from Earnscleugh Station will be shorn during the championships.
The event is the first round in the PGG Wrightson National Championship. The championship final is held at the Golden Shears in Masterton next year.
