Golden Shears Contest Next Month

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30682, 23 February 1965, Page 10

Golden Shears Contest Next Month

In spite of its large sheep population and the hundreds of shearers working in the province, Canterbury has provided only six competitors of a total entry of more than 300 for the 1965 Golden Shears International Shearing Championships to be held in Masterton from March 3 to March 6. Of the six there are no entries in either the open or the junior classes. South Canterbury, with three open entries and one junior has a total entry of 10. Otago has entered 30 shearers, of whom 11 are in the open class, and Southland 18. The highest entry from any district comes from Wairarapa, where heavy entries in the intermediate and senior classes combine with seven in the open category to make a total of 69. Manawatu has entered 41 shearers and another 30 come from the King Country. In the open event the favoured competitors are: C. Bosher (King Country), M. McSkimming and B. Quinn (Central Otago), R. A. Macdonald and J. Ferguson (Waikato), S. D. Symon (Poverty Bay), I. J. Harrison (Southland), B. Waterson (North Auckland) and M. Potae (Wairarapa.) Bosher, the world recordholder for shed shearing, with a tally of 565 ewes shorn in Bhr 53min, has been a finalist in the Golden Shears four times. Macdonald won the 1962 championship and captained the New Zealand team which defeated Australia in the first shearing test series in 1963.

McSkimming, a member of the 1963 New Zealand team is a former New Zealand finewool shearing champion and has a shed tally of 532. Quinn was winner of the senior class, for shearers with a tally of 240-300 a day, in 1962. He has since advanced his tally to more than 400. Waterson won the event in 1963 and Symon, after winning last year, represented New Zealand at the first Golden Shears Championships of Great Britain and Eire, at the Bath and West and Southern Counties Show, at Swindon, last June. Harrison, Ferguson and Potae have

figured highly in the contest since its inception in 1961 and Potae was the winner of the New Zealand Maori Shearing Championship, at Hamilton last March. His shed tally is 529. The Golden Shears Championships begun as a project to improve the standards of shearing and wool-handling four years ago, have grown into a major sporting fixture with competitors from the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada.

The four-day shearing festival, in the Masterton War Memorial Stadium, is expected to attract 24,000 spectators, many of whom have reserved their seats months in advance. An accompanying International Wool Court, in the Masterton Town Hall is expected to attract another 20,000.