Golden shear gets Roberts junior title

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Mataura teenager Brett Roberts has written himself and his hometown into the Golden Shears record books after winning the junior title at this year's 50th anniversary event.

The 16-year-old earned Mataura its fourth Golden Shears junior trophy in five years when he beat a class field, emulating this cousins the Rangiwai brothers – Maaka, Phillip and Jake – who won the title in 2006, 2007 and 2009 respectively.

Roberts went into the Golden Shears as favourite for the junior championship, with six titles under his belt this season, including the Southern Shears and Otago championship.

An accomplished sportsman on the rugby and rugby league fields as well, Roberts said yesterday he had to lift his game against some strong competition. "I knew it was going to be hard but I got a fright when I got up there."

Nevertheless, he was the top qualifier from a field of 62 of the country's youngest shearing hopes and in the final beat Gisborne's Henare Niania, by only 0.378 points.

Roberts admitted he did not expect to win and was "pretty stoked".

Shearing has been a major part of Roberts' life, with his extended family involved in the industry and his uncle, Choppa Waihape, a Golden Shears senior championship winner.

Roberts paid tribute to the support of his family, especially his grandmother, Nanny Constance Waihape, who accompanies him to every event, and his tutors at the southern shearing school.

Roberts has his last junior event, the New Zealand championship, in Te Kuiti next month, and intends to continue shearing competitively, maybe one day clinching a Golden Shears open title.

However, the Southland age-group rugby representative and former captain of the Southland under-15 rugby league team confessed he has his eyes set on a career in rugby.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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