Two shearers set to dominate N.Z. Golden Blades champs

Press, 12 November 1985, Page 38

Two shearers set to dominate N.Z. Golden Blades champs

Two men who have dominated blade shearing competitions this season will clash once again in the New Zealand Golden Blades Championship at the Canterbury show this week. The friendly rivalry between Tony Dobbs, of Fairlie, and Peter Race, Timaru, will add interest to the championship which is New Zealand’s premier blade shearing event. Dobbs won the title in 1983 as a 21-year-old, but last season bowed to two more experienced rivals, Bruce Davidson and Bill Michie.

Race, aged 27, fared badly at last year’s show and failed to make even the semi-finals, but the two shearers, who work for the Aorangi Shearing Company in south Canterbury, have hit top form this season.

Both are renowned for their ability to shear neatly and they receive few faults for second cuts on the shearing board. Dobbs won this season’s Waimate Shears (on Romneys) ahead of Race and also won the Rangiora blade event (Corriedales). Race headed Dobbs in the Alexandra competition (Merinos), but faded at Rangiora where he finished fourth. Dobbs has placed more emphasis on improving his speed this year and this has already paid off with his competition wins. At Waimate, he was the shearer who received the fewest faults for time as well as second cuts.

“Things seem to have fallen together this year and I have got my act together better,” said Dobbs last week.

“Last year I seemed to be shearing alright, but I was only getting mostly seconds and thirds.” Such was the ability of other shearers, there was usually very little difference in time or quality between winning or finishing further down in the placings, said Dobbs. This is Dobbs’ sixth season shearing and in 1982 he won the intermediate section at the Canterbury show. This season, he is in a virtually unassailable position to win the Mark Marshall Memorial Trophy, decided over a circuit of five blade events. The trophy goes to the shearer with the four best sets of points and was won last year by Dobbs. Dobbs is a full-time shearer, as he works in a blade gang from June

through to the end of November and spends the rest of the time on the machines.

Race regards himself as the underdog to Dobbs for the Canterbury event, but feels he is shearing well. “I don’t mind being the underdog and I am quite pleased with my form, apart from the result at Rangiora,” said Race. Although second top qualifier for the final at Rangiora, Race could not work up sufficient speed on the Corriedales and finished a disappointing fourth. “But I will be trying pretty hard at Canterbury.” Race has been blade shearing for eight years and was second to Dobbs in the 1983 Canterbury show. He spends about four months shearing during the freezing works’ off-season.

The blade shearing circuit for 1985 will finish with the Clayton Shears at Fairlie on November 30 where Dobbs and Race will be able to continue their rivalry. Another leading contender for top placing at Canterbury is Nobby Giles, of Ohoka, who has qualified for the major blade finals this season along with Dobbs and Race.

Giles agrees that this is his best season of competitive shearing. He has been working on improving the quality aspects of his shearing on the board by keeping down the number of second cuts. He has been blade shearing for 12 seasons. The experienced Alex Sole, Timaru, John Kennedy, Timaru, and Dave Gillespie, Rangiora, are other top shearers who will keep the pressure on.