A two-year-old from Masterton took out the top prize in the Golden Shears teddy bear shear on Thursday night in a field of five other child competitors – the youngest of whom was 18 months old. “I would definitely say it’s in the blood,” said shearer Joseph Gordon, the father of Kawariki, who placed first.
Gordon said his son first went in a shearing shed at about three days old and started shearing when he was one. “I let him do a few blows on the last side with me. He loves it – every morning he’ll wake up with me and tell me he wants to come to work.” It is the second time Kawariki entered the competition, which started last year.
“It’s all he talked about for the past week,” Gordon said. “It’s good for the future – it brings the kids along, and it’s a great family event.”
The Gordon family have competed in the Golden Shears international shearing and woolhandling contest for decades. “All my brothers and sisters do it, and Dad’s been doing it for years,” Gordon said.
Meanwhile, Golden Shears president Trish Stevens shared her expectations of tonight’s finals with the Times-Age. “It’s going to be huge. We have not got our previous eight-time winner Roland Smith, so it’s open to anybody. Troy Henderson has been doing very well around the competition. Anything can happen, but we will have a new champion.”
