National sports shear competition heads to Jamestown

The competition will be held on October 21-22, to allow New Zealand participants to be included after their Merino shearing earlier in the month.

SA Sports Shear secretary Steph Brooker-Jones said the last time SA hosted was at Millicent in 2005.

"We're actually going to run two events in this Jamestown competition," she said.

"Jamestown is going to run a local shearing competition event that's open to anyone and then our national champions have come from the six states that have gone through a selection criteria to get the opportunity to represent their state.

"We have open shearers and open wool handlers with three of each from every state - they will compete to represent Australia at The Golden Shears in New Zealand in March 2024."

Jamestown Sports Shear committee chair Matt Scharkie said one of the goals with building the Heiniger training centre was to host the National Sports Shear competition.

"Obviously, the training centre was a big start for us, as it was something we wanted to do at Jamestown just to help get more people into the industry," he said.

"And use it for the show as well, but the plan was to get the Nationals and build a facility that was semi suitable for that.

"Luckily enough after a trip to Dubbo, NSW, and after putting all the applications in to be able to host the Nationals, they were pretty keen to come to Jamestown."

Ms Brooker-Jones said the competition would be judged on a combination of quality and time.

"The fastest time obviously sets the pace, but it's also a mixture of quality," she said.

"If they go back and they leave bridges of wool on or there are some superficial skin cuts, they'll be penalised.

"They get penalised for the wool they take off, if they take it off in two pieces because obviously you're damaging the staple length if you cut the staple in half and that's called the second cut.

"That is judged out the front and then out the back, the sheep are tipped over and assessed for wool left on.

"If they've left too many ridges or they have got the odd superficial cut or missed wool, then they are judged on that as well."

Jamestown Shearer Beau Growden has represented SA at the national competition twice with the first in 2019 in the senior category and last year in open.

He said he has been shearing for eight years and has just finished his first season in the open category.

"That is as high as you can go, so I am just trying to get better and better in that category now," he said.

"Being in your hometown changes everything, the atmosphere changes with the hometown advantage.

"To do well would mean so much more, especially with all your friends and family watching.

"It's definitely special to have it back in SA."

Mr Growden said the state finals would be hosted at the Royal Adelaide Show to compete to get through to the national finals.

"It's the first year having it back so obviously, there's a bit more at stake," he said.

"You're not just representing how well you go in the show - you are representing your whole career with potential employers watching.

"The hardest thing is doing your first show so the only way to get into it is to just dive into it, even though it's tough the first time around."