SOUTH Australian blade shearer John Dalla was the best performed Australian at the 14th Golden Shear World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships in Wales last week.
The 21-year-old placed sixth in the blade shearing final at the Royal Welsh Show, a two place improvement on his eighth at his first world championships appearance in 2008.
The blade shearing event was won by Lesotho shearer Zingisele Elliot Ntsombo, shearing seven sheep in 16 minutes and 25 seconds, Lesotho’s Sokesele Doba second and Brian Thomson from New Zealand third.
New Zealand shearer Cam Ferguson won the individual machine shearing title at the championships, shearing 20 lambs in 11 minutes and 45 seconds, just seven seconds ahead of teammate and second place David Fagan. Welsh shearer Gareth Daniel was third.
Australian team manager Jim Robinson headed a contingent of about 40 Aussies at the event among a lot of Kiwis and very patriotic Welshmen and women.
“John Dalla managed to sneak through to the blade shearing final which was quite a thrill for us,” Mr Robinson said.
“We were very, very pleased with that performance – blade shearing in Australia is not very common.
“Johnny does most of his blade shearing work in Australia on Merino sale rams and there is a big difference between them and the Welsh sheep,” Mr Robinson said.
“It was a very, very good performance by John.”
John’s father Dennis Dalla said he was “very proud” of his son’s efforts at the championships. His son shore seven sheep in 21 minutes and 29 seconds in the final.
“It’s nice to get some recognition for all the hard work that he has done,” Mr Dalla said.
Australia’s other blade shearer Nick Denniss was placed 19th after round two, but failed to get into the semi final.
Mr Robinson said South Australian woolhandler Tina Denholm also did very well by getting into the semi final of the wool handling event.
The wool handling final was won by Welsh wool classer Bronwen Tango with 56.8 points, from Sheree Alabaster of New Zealand on 60 points and Menir Evans of Wales on 79.8 points.
Mr Robinson said the Welsh wool was “a different ballgame” to what the Australian wool handlers were familiar with.
“It was very different and very difficult,” he said.
“They were Welsh speckled sheep and the fleeces varied from cotted to open springy ones – quite hairy – 12 months wool.
“You didn’t really have to skirt it but you had to roll it into a tight ball and tie a knot in the ball so the ball wouldn’t come undone,” he said.
“To get the hang of tying the knot takes a bit of doing.
“Tina unfortunately got a couple of big springy fleeces which makes it harder still to tie the knot.”
Mr Robinson said Victorian shearer Jason Wingfield missed out on getting into the machine shearing semi final.
“Unfortunately 12 went into the semi final and he was just a whisker off that in 13th place.”
Mr Robinson said the other Australian machine shearer Bill Hutchison from Gilgrandra, NSW, finished in the top 20 shearers. His sister, Australia’s other woolhandler Rachael Hutchison, placed 10th in round two, but did not get a semi final berth.
Mr Robinson said the world championships was a tremendous experience.
“It was mind-blowing the crowd there, the atmosphere, all the Welshies and then the Welsh girl winning wool handler final, so they all went berserk.
“If the Welsh shearer had of got up it would have been mayhem.”