Christchurch Man Wins Blade Shearing

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29989, 26 November 1962, Page 7

Christchurch Man Wins Blade Shearing

A 25-year-old Christchurch blade shearer, D. L. Hammond, won the second New Zealand blade shearing championship to be sponsored bv the Christchurch central committee for shearing and woolhandling in the King Edward Barracks on Saturday. The prize was a gold medal given by the Wool Board and £4O. Of stocky build, Hammond performed very consistently being first among seven shearers to qualify during the day for the final which was held in the evening. The son • of a shearer, he has been shearing for about eight years and now handles about 15,000 to l 16,000 sheep a season in the Mackenzie < ountry, Hororata, Springfield and Blenheim districts. He has shorn up to 204 sheep in a day.

Only a fraction of a point ber.oio han during the day •nd slightly more than half • point behind han in the final vaa T. E. Wilson, also of Christchurch, who was the fastest shearer among those to qualify and also the fastest in the final. He shore his five sheep in the final in 13 minutes 8 6 seconds and in the qualifying round he handled four sheep in 10 minutes 8.4 seconds. R. Perry, of Kaiapoi, who finished third m the championships held earlier in the year again filled third place in both the q ratifying round and the final.

There has been some criticism of shearing competitions for the emphasis that some competitor put on speed and on Saturday there was increased weighting of points in favour of the quality of work as opposed to mere speed. Halt of the points allotted by the four judges were for quality of work on the board and for the finished job and half of the points were for time. In addition on this occasion competitors were reo aired to score two-thirds of the points for quality of work before they were eligible to qualify for the final. This resulted in George Karaitiana. of New Brighton, v. ho is regarded as one of the fastest blade shearers in the world being excluded from the final. Karaitiana, who finished second in the first championships in March, showed by far the greatest turn of speed in the qualifying round to shear his four sheep in 8 minutes 11.5 seconds. This was almost two minutes faster than the fastest man to qualify but his work points totalled only 32, which was just short of the 33 1-3 required for qualification.

Had there not been this requirement Karaitiana would have been top qualifier more than five points ahead of Hammond as a result of the deduction of one point for every 15 seconds that a competitor was slower than the fastest shearer. High Standard Th* judges were unanimous in their high opinion of the work done by the shearers. The Wool Board's blade •hearing instructor, Mr W. J. Johnson, of Ashburton, said that he did not think that there would be a farmer who would complaiio about the work of any of the shearers. •'lt is the beat quality shearing I have seen in a competition,’’ said Mr R. H. Man-i

ning. of Hawarden, and Mr W. R. Pickering, of Richmond Brook. Marlborough, said he thought that the standard was much higher than in March.

But the judges were not in complete agreement on the speed of shearing. Mr Johnson said that there were some who had speed but did ’ not produce the finished and it was the quality of work that was of prime importance. Mr J. C. Winchester, of Ashburton, said that some of the shearers had worked faster than they were capable of doing although this could in part be attributed to nervousness. Mr Pickering, on the other hand, said that he had got the impression that some of the shearers were shearing for show rather than in conformity with their normal practice and that consequently they were not going as fast as they could ordinarily. It was the man who combined speed and neatness who was the backbone of the trade. Mr Johnson and Mr Manning noted that a fault was that a number of the shearers cut up the neck instead of cutting underneath and breaking it out.

A member of the New Zealand Wool Board, Mr C. H. Bethell, of Waikari, said at the end of the shearing that he hsd been particularly pleased at the number of young blade shearers in the competition and he recalled the successful course for blade shearers recently held in the province under board auspices. His remarks were greeted both with cheers and boos when he observed jokingly that he regarded blade shearing as the only real type of shearing—the other method just involved blowing the wool off. Team Event A well-known combination of Ashburton shearers and wool handlers won the CanterburyWestland final of the open machine shearing and wool handling competition. It comprised R. Snowball and R. I. Hight, of Willowby, as the shearers, and J. Shimmim, of Otematata, as wool handler on the board and W. Shimmim, of Tinwaid. on the table. Snowball, who came to New Zealand from county Durham In England about 10 years ago. and Hight shear between them about 35.000 sheep in a season. The Englishman does up to 290 a day and Hight’s best tally is 288. W. Shimmin has been shed classing for the last 26 years and in a season will work in 15 to 20 farmers’ sheds. His son, who is now a carpenter at Benmore, did three years’ fleece picking in the high country before taking up the building

This team will go to Masterton early next year to compete in the national final with the prize a trip to Australia. They only narrowly headed off a team including two former Chatham Islanders as Its shearers. R. Pirika, now of Hororata and R Goomes. also of Hororata belong to a six-man gang which shears 80,000 to 90.000 aieep in a season. They had on tile table R. Woodward, of Christchurch, who is a wool supervisor at a wool scour and has been closing for 15 years, and W. B. Clarke, of Hororata, on the board who did two seasons as a shed hand in the Lake Coleridge homestead shed and two seasons wool rolling there before taking up sbear”fn the Young Farmers' Club section of the same competition two North Canterbury teams fought out the final and the North Canterbury A team will go forward to Masterton. with the prize also a trip to Australia. This team included three professional shearers. Shearing for the team were G. Vpston, of the Cheviot club, who shears 10.000 to 12.000 sheep a season and can do up to 230 in a day, and D. Dreaver. also of the Cheviot club, who shears about 15.000 a season with Ms best tally 206. Wool handler on the board was P. Stewart, of Cheviot club, who also shears about 10,000 a season, and on the table D. Palmer, of the Amberley chib, who is a farm hand. Work Praised Mr J. A. Addis, of Ashburton, who was one of the judges of the machine shearing in the open section said while there had been a little unevenness in the pens of sheep that some of the shearers had had to handle the standard had been high and in the final both sets of shearers had lost few points for their work on the board. Mr E. D. Hill, of Ashburton, who was also judging, said that the best of the young farmer shearers had been particularly good. “I would be very happy if they were working for me.” commented Mr L. Galloway, of Christchurch, one of the woolhandling judges, on the work in the open section. Mr Galloway. who judged with Mi- I. Miller, also of Christchurch, said that tlie work of the young farmers on the board had also been very good, with a particularly good job being made of the sorting of oddments. Some 400 mixed aged Corriedale ewes from the property of Mr W. J. Doyle at Te Pirita were used for the shearing, which attracted an unexpectedly small following of the public. Results were:—

flew Zealand Blade Shearing Championship. Qualifying round: D. L. Hammond 16 points for board work 20 for finished job, 48.25 for time (10 minutes 32.7 seconds), total 84.25 points, 1;, T. E. Wilson (Christchurch). 14.5, 19.62, 50 (lOmin 6.4 sec), 84.12 points. 2; R. Perry (Kaiapoi). 16.5. 22, 44.76 (llmin 25seci. 8326 points 3; A. Bell (Belfast). 17.25, 23.12 38.91 (12 min 52.9seci. 79.28 points. 4- A. Reid. 17.75. 23.50, 36.92 (13min 22.75ec). 78.17 points. 5; L. Rich«fds, (Rakaia;. 15. 19.62. 42.94 (llmin SZosec), 77.56 points 6: K. Stockdill (Ashburton) 16.75. 20.50, 39.67 (12min 41.4seci, 76.92 points 7. Final: Hammond 18, 18.3, 48.56 (13min 58.2 sec), 84.86 points 1: Wilson. 152 19.1, 50 (13min 36.65ec), 84.3 points 2; P*”’.'’., 17.6, 19.6 43.41 (ISmin 15.4 sec), 80.61 points. 3; Bell, 18.4 20.3, 40.97 (ISmin 52sec), 79.67 points, 4: Stockdill 17.4, 18.0. 42.30 (ISmin 32sec) 782 16 -®a A 38.88 (16mm 23.45ec), 76.88 points 6; Richards, 75 points. 7. Open Shearing and Woolhandling.—Qualifying Round: R. Snowball's team. 76J for shearing, 332 for woolhandling. 100 for time (lOmin 40sec) total. 263. 87.66 per cent., I; R. PiriEa’s te «n. 80J, 881, 882 (llmin ®sec). 20i.45. 85.82 per cent.. 2; W. Houston's team. 82J, 871. 86.4 (Hmm 48sec) 256.4 85.36 per JL CaTT Bro ’- <?. ®3-5, 1 9.8 (12min 21sec). 255.3, BJ.I per 4; R. Summerfield's team, 80.75 per eent. 5; J. RopSta’s team 74.3 per cent.. 6. Ttnal: &»wballs team 7«j. 84j, 100 (Mmin steec). ieSl, 88.42 per cent., 1; Pinka’s team. 761. 90j, 94.4 (llmin 20sec), 261.15, 87.05 per cent.. Z Young Farmers’ Shearing and Woolhandling Quaufodng Round: North Canterbury B, 70J. 911. 96.3. 258.06, 86.02 per cent., 1; North Canterbury A, 681. 91. 92.9, 252.65, 84.22 per

cent., 2; Christchurch A, 58 94. 100 (llmin 29sec>, 252? M per cent,, 3; Ashburton A 81.9 per cent., 4; Weet Coast, 81.43 per cent., 5; Christchurch B, 7578 per cent., 6; Ashburton B, 69.66 per cent. 7. Final: North CanMO (Hmin 20sec), 272.25 90.75 per cent., 1; North Canterbury B, 72j 911. 918 (12min 42sec). 256.05,' 83.35 per cent, 2.