NEW Zealand claimed a 2-1 triumph in the trans-Tasman shearing sports test matches at Dubbo in New South Wales last Friday.

But while New Zealand’s world champion wool handling and blade shearing teams won their matches during the Australian national shearing and wool handling championships in Dubbo,the Kiwis were again shut out in the machine shearing match.

It was Australia’s fifth consecutive win in the annual home-and-away machine shearing matches, including two at New Zealand home leg, the Golden Shears, in Masterton, last March.

Veteran Fairlie shearer Tony Dobbs and trans-Tasman newcomer Allan Oldfield, of Geraldine, who together won a world title in France in July, maintained New Zealand’s unbeaten record in blade shearing tests against Australia by beating Johnathon Dalla, of Warooka, SA, and Ken French, of Glen Isla, Victoria, by a wide margin of almost 43pts.

Close contest on the wool tables

Trans-Tasman wool handlers at Dubbo were, from left, New Zealanders Pagan Karauria and Sheree Alabaster, the Australians Mel Morris and Rachael Hutchison.

It was much closer for world champion wool handlers Sheree Alabaster, of Taihape, and series newcomer Pagan Karauria, of Alexandra, as they won the wool handling test by just 2.54pts from Australian world championships team Rachael Hutchison, of Gilgandra, NSW, and Mel Morris, of Longford, Tasmania. It took New Zealand to 33 wins in 43 tests since wool handling was introduced into the series in 1998.

New Zealand went into the machines test match with probably one of its better experienced teams on Merino sheep, but was still unable to break the Australians’ run, which took the commonwealth to 36 wins from 66 tests since the first formal trans-Tasman shearing test in 1974.

Daniel McIntyre, of Glenn Innes, NSW, Jason Wingfield, of Cobram, Victoria, and Callum O’Brien, of Collie, Western Australia, beat the New Zealand team of Southland shearers Nathan Stratford and Troy Pyper and new international and  former Hawke’s Bay gun Paerata Abraham, of Masterton, by a wide margin of more than 27pts.

Dobbs and new world individual champion Oldfield had another triumph by finishing first and second in the Dubbo open blade shearing final, Karauria and Alabaster were second and fourth respectively in the Dubbo Open wool handling final won by Hutchison, and Pyper was runner-up in the Dubbo open machine shearing final won by McIntyre.

Results of tran-Tasman shearing sports test matches at Dubbo, NSW, on Friday, November 29, 2019:

Machine shearing (12 sheep each – 6 merino, 6 first cross border leicester): Australia 190.87pts (Daniel McIntyre 13min 19.8sec, 55.32pts; Jason Wingfield 13min 36sec, 63.38pts; Callum O’Brien 13min 9.91sec, 72.16pts) beat New Zealand 218.22pts (Troy Pyper 13min 31.1sec, 57.89pts; Nathan Stratford 14min 21.55sec, 64.66pts; Paerata Abraham 12min 56.72sec, 95.67pts) by 27.35pts.

Wool handling (8 fleeces): New Zealand (Sheree Alabaster/Pagan Karauria) 26.9pts beat Australia (Rchael Hutchison/Mel Morris) 29.44pts, by 2.54pts.

Blade shearing (4 sheep each): New Zealand 171.87pts (Tony Dobbs 14min 29.22sec, 84.71pts; Allan Oldfield 12min 23.18sec, 87.16pts) beat Australia 214.81pts (Johnathon Dalla 16min 44.98sec, 104.75pts; Ken French 16min 31.22sec, 110.06pts) by 42.94pts.