National Blade Shearing Title

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31835, 13 November 1968, Page 28

National Blade Shearing Title

Two national blade shearing championships, the Canter, bury machine-shearing title, and a shearing and woolhandling competition for young farmers will be staged in Canterbury Court on Thursday and Friday. These have proved very popular in recent years.

The major event will again be the national blade-shearing championship for the Caltex Golden Blades Trophy and $440 in prize money.

A national junior blade shearing title, also sponsored by Caltex, is an addition to this year’s competitions. The shearing contests will begin on Thursday at 9.30 a.m. with the Young Farmers’ Club section. This has drawn 12 teams from Nelson to Waimate. The winning senior team will qualify for the national final of the Golden Shears contest at Masterton next year, also a trip to Australia at the expense of the Wool Board. The leading intermediate team will also qualify to compete at the Masterton contest. The machines and wool press for Thursday’s shearing and wool handling competition are being supplied by McEwans Machinery, Ltd. The firm will also give a handpiece for the best pen of shorn sheep in the young farmers’ section. Each competitor in the young farmers’ section will be allowed to shear two trial sheep, and for the competition each will be required to shear eight sheep. Judging the machine shearing will be Messrs C. Waite (Wellington), W. Lister (Chertsey), J. McPhail (Middlemarch), E. Hill (Ashburton), A. Black (Hawarden), R. Gallagher (Mayfield) and R. Taylor

(Winchester). Messrs K. Thompson and L. Galloway (Christchurch), with M. A. Collins (Ashburton), and P. Carr (Waikari), will decide the winners of the wool handling section. Prizes worth $l5O will go with the Canterbury machine shearing title which has drawn 35 competitors. The preliminaries will be run on Thursday afternoon, and the final at 2.45 p.m. on Friday. Well - known competitors include last year’s winner, G. Cartney (Ashburton), R. Kidd (Albury), S. Ryan (Pleasant Point), N. Rutherford (Alexandra), R. Gould (Pleasant Point) and R. Pirika (Hororata). Competitors will shear one trial and four competition sheep in the preliminaries, and one trial and five competition sheep in the final. Twenty - six competitors have entered for the New Zealand blade shearing

championship, the premier event on the programme. The winner will take $2OO in prize money, and the Caltex Golden Blades worth $5O. Second prize is worth $lOO, third $6O, fourth $4O, fifth $2O and sixth $lO. Among the competitors are four shearers who have previously won the title. They are L. Richards (Belfast), J. Paisley (Ashburton), W. Karaitiana (Oxford) and D. Hammond (Christchurch). N. Bay non (Rangiora), who won a blade contest at Waimate at Labour week-end, has entered, and another good shearer will be R. C. Perry (Rangiora), who has been

placed in every national blade final. The final of the blade shearing title will, be run at 3.45 p.m. on Friday. Sheep to be used for the blade shearing will again be Merino wethers from the Yaldhurst run of Mr G. C. Pannell. The judges will be Messrs M. V. Prouting (Mesopotamia), W. Johnson (Ashburton), A. C. Loffhagen (Scargill), R. 1 F. White (Hororata), A. Reid (Rangiora), W. Pickering (Seddon), and A. J. Bell (Waikuku). Junior Blades Prizes worth $lOO will go to the first four placegetters in the New. Zealand junior blade shearing title. This event has drawn 10 entries. Three heats will be run early on Friday after-

noon with the final at 3.15 p.m. the same afternoon. Each competitor will be allowed to shear one trial sheep before shearing three sheep in the competition..

The annual shearing and wool handling contests at Canterbury Court are organised by a group known as the Christchurch central committee for shearing and woolhandling. This committee includes representatives from the Department of Agriculture. the Young Farmers’ Clubs, Federated Farmers, agricultural and pastoral associations, wool brokers and scourers, and shearing instructors. During the noon break in the shearing competitions, judging will be held in the regional pastoral queen contest. The winner will represent Canterbury at the Wool Exposition in Dunedin next May.

The contest is confined to country girls, and they will be judged on deportment, grooming, personality, as well as knowledge on farming matters.