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Kaiwaka shearer Toa Henderson has been crowned the Royal Welsh Show All-Nations Open champion.
According to Shearing Sports New Zealand, Henderson claimed the title after blasting through 20 Welsh speckle lambs in 12 minutes and 38 seconds last week.
The performance in the six-man final delivered him a comfortable win over Welsh shearer and reigning World Champion, Gwion Lloyd Evans, who shore the 20 in 13 minutes 23 seconds. Kiwi Jack Fagan finished third.
Henderson, who won the Golden Shears and New Zealand Open championships’ double in March, is currently on a six test match/four-nations tour of the British Isles, with Fagan.
He told the crowd in Wales that he was rapt to win at the Royal Welsh in his first tour of the United Kingdom.
It was the 50th anniversary of the Royal Welsh championship, and Henderson’s father Mike was in the crowd.
“I did it for us,” he said, as he raised the Godfrey Bowen Memorial Trophy.
In a separate test match between Wales and New Zealand, the Welsh team of Evans and Llyr Jones defeated Henderson and Fagan.
Shearing Sports reports that the tactic of trying to blow the Welsh away with speed in the test match fell short of the ultimate goal. With barely five seconds separating Fagan, Evans and Henderson at the end of another 20-lambs shear, the Welsh quality carried the day, for a win and a 2-0 lead in an annual series, last won by a New Zealand team in Wales six years ago.
