Double-handed relay feature of sawing

Press, 12 November 1985, Page 43

Double-handed relay feature of sawing

A double-handed sawing relay between South and North Island teams will be staged at the Canterbury show on Thursday evening. The relay will be a feature event of the woodchopping and sawing programme which returns to the Canterbury show after an absence of several years. Each relay team will be made up of six two-man pairings which will have to saw through a 450 mm log. Each pair should take an average of 10 seconds to saw their log. As well as the inter-island relay, Thursday evening’s sawing entertainment will include races between seeded pairs. Many of New Zealand’s leading sawyers and axemen have entered the contest, and although numbers are not high, the standard of competition is expected to be top class. Except for the interisland and pairs sawing contests which will be held in the main ring, the site for the woodchopping and sawing events will be adjacent to the sheep pens on both Thursday and Friday. The contests will include underhand and standing chopping events, double and singlehanded sawing, and treefelling (or jiggerboards).

Competitive sawing has made a come-back in popularity in recent years largely because of the availability of racing saws. Previously, racing saws had been hard to obtain, but they are now being made in New Zealand and even exported. The competitions have been organised by the Canterbury Axemen’s Centre. The strong North Island relay team includes the pairing of Cliff Hughes, Auckland, and Brian Trow, Thames, present New Zealand champions. Mark Hughes and Eddie Hall, both Tokoroa, and Rugby Edwards, Opotiki, and John Goodwin, Raglan, are two top-ranking sawing pairs in the North Island team. Other members will include Pae Wynyard, Murupara, and Jim Wass, Rotorua, two experienced sawyers who have formed a relatively new pairing, and Les Bellamy (former New Zealand champion) and Alistair Taylor, both of Taranaki, who form another new pairing. The North Island team will be completed by Jock Bentley, Featherston, and Noel Dickinson, Palmerston North, a former New Zealand champion and runner-

up in world championships at Sydney five years in a row several years ago. Many of the North Island sawyers are also top axemen who will be taking part in the individual woodchopping events. Trow, Mark Hughes, Edwards and Bentley have been New Zealand champions and Edwards recently won a major event at the Melbourne show. These four axemen, along with John Goodwin, have represented New Zealand in team competitions at Sydney. The South Island sawing team will include Ross Spicer, Ashburton, and Jack Paterson, Invercargill, current South Island champion, and a Westport pairing of Brian and Gregg Hateley. Bill Kirton, a long-serving New Zealand representative axeman, and Joe Kirton, both Christchurch, and a pairing of two promising axemen, Murray Hocquard, Blenheim, and John Morris, Reefton, are other South Island team members. The South team will be completed by David Hocquard and Bernie Macdonald, both of Blenheim, who have been placed this year in New Zealand championships, and Jim and Bob Hunt, Woodend, former New Zealand champions.