Schoolboy vies to be youngest Golden Shears winner

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A 13-year-old schoolboy could become the Golden Shears' youngest ever winner and provide a home-town triumph when the 50th anniversary of the Golden Shears, the shearing and woolhandling championships, start in Masterton on Wednesday.

David Gordon, 13, will line up in the novice event, with four wins in novice events in the lower North Island behind him.

At Masterton he has big mocassins to fill, following in the footsteps of sister Cushla who won the novice final two years ago.

Last year, David Gordon was one of three 12-year-olds in the event, thought to be the youngest to compete at the Golden Shears since late East Coast shearer Nuku Smiler first competed in 1970, at the age of 11.

The novice event will be the only title decided on the opening day of the championships which have been extended from three to four days to cater for veterans events, mainly on Thursday.

Altogether, 26 events will be held, including the junior, intermediate and open shearing competitions which were the basis of the original programme in 1961.

The two veterans shearing grades will include the very first Golden Shears champion, original junior final winner Melville McConnachy, of South Wairarapa, and the only-surviving first-year open finalist, Southlander Ian Harrison. But surviving first-year woolhandling champion Wairukuruku Maere, of Hastings, isn't contesting the veterans woolhandling event. She's now 92.

New Zealand will also compete in shearing tests against Australia and Wales, while there will also be a transtasman woolhandling test.

Almost 100 shearers will start in the opens heats on Friday afternoon, aiming first for places in the Top 30 shootout a few hours later, then the 12 for Saturday afternoon's semi-finals, and ultimately the six-man final in which King Country icon David Fagan is expected to be trying to win the title for a 17th time - the 30th and 40th anniversary titles included.

- NZPA