Toa Henderson roared to victory in the open shearing final and Pagan Rimene retained her national woolhandling title.
Hot sun made for classic woolshed conditions at Carterhope Estate, where 155 male and female competitors from New Zealand and around the world switched from shearing professionals to weekend athletes.
Junior, intermediate and senior shearers took from six to 13 minutes to shear four to 12 sheep, while in the open contest, Northlander Toa Henderson sheared his flock of 20 in 16min 48.76sec, fast enough to negate faults spotted by judges on the stage and under the shed, where they waited at the bottom of the chute.
"Upstairs we’re counting double-strokes, because if you shear the same line twice you’re shortening the fibres," Owaka judge Bruce Walker said.
"Downstairs, a perfectly polished sheep has no cuts or ridges of missed wool. Everything faulty is measured and goes into the computer to calculate with the shearer’s time, and the lowest score is the winner."
Competition classes are allocated from shearers’ professional numbers and it takes years to rise from junior to open class, where the furiously calm flow-state of shearers such as Henderson can polish a ewe in 20 seconds.
On the board before the stage, the top woolhandlers raced to keep the shearers clear and sort the wool into nine different buckets.
"To be the best you need an eye for detail, mental preparation and plenty of hard work," 13-time woolhandling champion Joel Henare, of Gisborne, said.
"Wool buyers want a product that’s as ready to go as possible, and faults with our grading could show up as imperfections in the carpet or clothing."
For the woolhandling final, Henare gambled faults against speed to finish by far the fastest, in 50.47sec.
But the steady grace of Alexandra’s Rimene materialised in clouds of effortlessly thrown and meticulously plucked fleece, her "board and oddment" professionalism offsetting her time of 1min 31.88sec to snatch a final points victory and put the Cameron Cup for New Zealand Open Woolhandler of the Year in her hands for the second time.
"These guys and girls generally get paid a certain amount of dollars for every sheep and they can shear hundreds every day," Otago Shears committee president Amber Casserly said.
"And there’s always shearing going on somewhere, so the competition circuit is really about the shearing culture and community.
"We’re really grateful for everybody coming together to make it all possible . . . The next stop is Southern Shears in Gore next week, all part of the build-up to the world championships in Masterton next year."
