Veteran shearers ensure competitions survive

They are called classics, shearing competitors aged over 60, and their longevity is helping keep the sport alive at country shows.

Sheep, and consequently shearing numbers, have dropped, but there is no stopping some of the ol’ timers who fronted up at the annual Golden Bay A&P Show in Tākaka this month. Reefton’s Sam Win is coming up 70 and has been shearing for 55 years.

Sammy, or the “Master Blaster” as the commentator was calling him, has never won the Golden Bay open title, but keeps coming back to support the event
He won his own Reefton Shears 10 years in a row, until his son Jason pipped him.
“I used to compete against the greats of the sport, David Fagan and Colin King. I was right up there when I was younger and I still like doing it,” recalls a still-spritely Sam.

Now Sir David Fagan KNZM, ONZM, and MNZM, and former three-term Kaikōura MP Colin King MNZM, both were honoured for their services to the sport.
You would hope Sam, who also organises this week’s Reefton Shears, could still be recognised.

“The headlines used to read – ‘Sam Wins Again’.”

What about the bling around his neck?

“Attached to it is my wedding ring with a piece of gold in it. I used to wear the ring, but it got in the road of the shearing comb,” explains Sam.

A year younger, Frank Bint says the camaraderie keeps him going: “I had a knee replacement six months ago. I have to have the other done too, as they wore out with arthritis,” reveals the now part-time Motueka Valley shearer.

Frank’s been coming to the Tākaka event for 20 years, and still remembers ‘the Wins’ beating him in the open final that first year.

The classics lined up against event organiser Nick Nalder in the plate final, and it wasn’t a close shave, with the 51-year-old winning comfortably.

“I reckon we should have got a 10 second head start for every year older we were than Nick,” quips Sam.

Nick, a Tākaka shearing contractor with his trademark mullet, is just pleased they keep coming back to the local show to ensure they have enough numbers to keep it going.

“It is great the public can get close and see what shearing is. I still like getting up and competing. It is a bit of fun,” enthuses Nick, who has won the open final once in his 25 years. One of his employees, Floyd Haare, upset the defending champion Travers Baigent in the open final.

Floyd was listed as being from Ohai, in Southland, but has been in Golden Bay for four years. “I have been shearing for 20 years but I am not much of a competitor these days. I am just a guy that turns up and shears,” insists the modest 38-year-old.

In the final, he shoe 20 cross-bred lambs in 16 minutes and 44 seconds and his boss reckons that is pretty slick going.

So how did Floyd wind up in the bay?
“My wife’s sister owns the Collingwood Tavern,” he grins.