The Southern Series
Sport with purpose
The Southern Series is taking the sport of sheep shearing to a new, global audience as part of the growing push to promote wool as the best, most sustainable alternative to synthetic fibres.
The wool industry is united in its recognition of the need for an ongoing campaign to boost the awareness of wool’s environmental ‘soft footprint’.
A repeatable series of sporting events creates a repeatable platform to tell that story.
Through its media reach — featuring the athletes, the story of wool and its products, and the host locales — the Southern Series can offer event organisers and their partners hugely increased global exposure.
In the news
Wool is in the news, again, as any internet search will show. This, from The Guardian, aligns very much with the ‘horror’ video above. And, as 2023 Peninsula Shears champion Ant Frew says, the time for renewable resources is long overdue.
The Southern Series is dedicated to the ‘soft footprint’ of wool. Keep an eye on this space for more.
Ant Frew at the Duvauchelle Show.
Duvauchelle first for Taumata
January 13, 2024
Southland shearer Lionel Taumata won his first-ever open title today at the Peninsula Shears at the Duvauchelle A&P Show, the first shearing event in New Zealand for 2024.
“I’m ecstatic, it’s unreal,” Taumata said. “Ant Frew is here and he’s a real good open shearer so it was good to get my first win. It was definitely no gimme.”
Taumata beat Frew, local veteran Shaun Burgess and the up-and-coming Brayden Clifford in the four-stand final.
The win gave the man sometimes dubbed ‘the King of the Speed Shears’ the perfect start to what will be a busy schedule over the next few weeks. “I’ve got the Lumsden shears and Winton shears on Friday and Saturday and there’ll be three speed shears on that same weekend,” Taumata said, “so yeah it’s a good way to start the year.”
Defending champion Frew was also happy with his first outing of the year. “A few nerves at the start as always, but it’s good to get the first one out and get a good score on the board,” he said before the final. “I’ve been coming here for three or four years and it’s a good show nice and small. Defending a title, it’s pretty hard, really mentally so we’ll see what happens.”
Taumata was the only shearer to take less than a minute per sheep in the four-man final.
Burgess, Clifford, Frew (and Frew minor) with first-time Open winner Taumata.
Local wool, global solution (1)
At the Duvauchelle show in January we caught up with Ian Robinson of the Banks Peninsula Wool Growers who talked about many things including the Duvauchelle event, the shearing competition and the absurdity of synthetic carpets in schools. And, how farmers on the Peninsula have come together to effect change.
Check out the video or for more info go to www.bankspeninsulafarms.com
Quality time ahead on the Peninsula
January 8, 2024
The Southern Series (TSS) is heading to Banks Peninsula and the Duvauchelle Agricultural and Pastoral (A&P) show on Saturday January 13 for the first event of 2024.
Troy Pyper
Luis Pincol
The Duvauchelle crowd
Ant Frew
The Duvauchelle show’s shearing section has a history of producing quality champions, including Sir David Fagan in 2014 and, in more recent times, Troy Pyper (2019-20-21), Chilean Louis Pincol in 2022 and, last year, Ant Frew.
“It’s only a four-stand event, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less exciting and there’s usually a great crowd,” says TSS Event Manager Hugh de Lacy (snr).
“And, of course Banks Peninsula is hill country, a bit like the central North Island, so the sheep are open-faced and clean-pointed strongwool types; not a Corriedale in sight — we promise.
“We’re hoping to see 2022 Banks Peninsula champion Luis Pincol back again after really starting to make his presence felt in the open ranks in the past couple of years. Luis shears mostly in South Canterbury where he’s lived for years, but his Chilean background definitely brings an international flavour to the event.”
Duvauchelle A&P President James Dwyer calls it the “biggest little show in the country”, with the bonus of being located in the heart of one of New Zealand’s prime tourist destinations. “It’s a beautiful location; hills, water, fishing, boating, dolphins. Magical.” For the shearers, Dwyer says, “it’s a chance to clear out the cobwebs after a good solid Christmas and New Year”.
The show will also provide the first part of two Canterbury “book-ends” to the TSS year, along with the New Zealand Corriedale Championships at the New Zealand A&P show in Christchurch in November.
Local wool, global solution (2)
The 2023 New Zealand Agricultural Show featured a comprehensive display of wool at its finest. James Dwyer, a man who wears many hats, wandered around in some choice headgear with a microphone in his hands and met one exhibitor, Brad Stuart from Terra Lana.
Christchurch-based Terra Lana have been harnessing the unique qualities of New Zealand wool since 1999, creating natural products that, as they say, “are better for our people, land and future”.
Check out the video (right) or go to www.terralana.co.nz
The 'silent assassin' cleans up
November 17, 2023
Southland shearer Nathan Stratford, labelled “the silent assassin” by event commentators, showed all his renowned class to win the 2023 Corriedale Championships at the New Zealand Agricultural show in Christchurch today.
Stratford, one of New Zealand’s most decorated athletes, is noted for his clean shearing and was, typically, not the fastest finisher in the six-man final. Wairarapa shearer Paerata Abraham led throughout to finish ahead of 2021 champion Angus Moore and last year’s winner Jack Fagan on times. The “silent assassin” finished fourth on times, but leapt ahead of his rivals by virtue of having fewer penalty points.
“That was one of the toughest finals I’ve ever been in,” Stratford said “There’s a lot of good competitors in there, especially those young guys. They’re coming up and giving us a hard time. It feels really, really good.”
Stratford, a two-time champion on the PGG Wrightson/Vetmed national shearing circuit, is known for time spent in the gym and acknowledged that fitness edge. “You do a lot of miles, you put the hard yards in and you get the benefit out of it,” he said.
The Corriedale Championships was sponsored by The Southern Series for the first time last year and the 2023 event is a pre-cursor to a larger international shearing tour in 2024.
Lights, cameras, action: Sights and sounds from the 2023 Corriedales.
Presents
Good Yarns
Why sheep must be shorn
And, why farmers farm
TSS takes aim at synthetics
August 24, 2023
The battle to get woollen carpets into public buildings in New Zealand has taken another step with the launch of this year’s Southern Series (TSS) elite shearing competition.
TSS aims to build a global audience for competition shearing and help raise the profile of wool, particularly strongwool, which comprises 85% of the New Zealand clip. Strongwools are mostly used in the carpet and furnishings sector where they compete against oil-based synthetic carpets.
“It will be part of the TSS strategy to highlight the rationale that wool carpets should be used in public buildings and schools in New Zealand because they are made of a natural fibre with a much lower carbon footprint, are fully bio-degradable and perform and last as well as or better than synthetics,” says TSS Event Manager Hugh de Lacy (snr). “We can help do that by being part of the conversation — the education programme — regarding wool and all its natural goodness.
“Synthetic fibres, by contrast, made from the world’s biggest global pollutant, oil, exude a range of chemical toxins both while in use, and also in landfills for years, which clearly poses the threat of this material getting into the food chain,” he says.
James Dwyer, New Zealand Corriedale Championships Chairman, says one of the reasons he supports the TSS initiative because he’s “had enough of wool being ignored”, most recently when the Ministry of Education gave the contract to supply carpet to 800 small and remote schools to an American synthetics manufacturer. “We keep looking for support for this amazing natural product, and when even your own government won’t back you, you’ve got to start wondering why?”
Dwyer’s local primary school is one of those being offered the synthetic carpets by the ministry, and he says the community is not happy. “How can they keep feeding us crap about carbon neutrality, yet they will not back the natural product? They talk about cost, but you’ve got to wonder how you can afford to bring that synthetic problem product in from America on a boat, and in 15 years’ time it’s going to be our headache because we’re going to have to dump it in one of our landfills polluting our food chain.”
2023 Rankings
|
|
Name
|
Points
|
Country
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
1
|
Nathan Stratford
|
25
|
|
|
2
|
Angus Moore
|
15
|
|
|
3
|
Paerata Abraham
|
12
|
|
|
4
|
Jack Fagan
|
10
|
|
|
5
|
David Gordon
|
8
|
|
|
6
|
Brett Roberts
|
6
|
|
|
7
|
James Ruki
|
2
|
|
|
8
|
Hugh de Lacy
|
2
|
|
|
9
|
Duncan Leslie
|
2
|
|
|
10
|
Willie McSkimming
|
2
|
|
Updated November 17, 2023
Fagan eyes title defence
November 14, 2023
In-form Te Kuiti shearer Jack Fagan is set to defend his New Zealand Corriedale Championships at the New Zealand Agricultural Show in Christchurch on Friday. Fagan, who won the open shearing final at the Poverty Bay A&P Show in Gisborne recently, made a personal breakthrough at last year’s Corriedale Championships, for his first-ever southern title.
“I’ve been down to this show for the thick end of the past ten years and this is actually my first win in the South Island, so to do it on these Corriedales, which I’ve never shorn at work, I’ve only shorn them at shows, is very special,” he said.
What draws the crowds? Corriedale Championships chairman James Dwyer explains.
Here’s another quick look ahead to the 2023 Corriedales. Catch the live stream here on Friday November 17.
Fagan’s Gisborne win came a week after he was runner-up in the New Zealand Winter Comb Championship and sixth in the Waimate Spring Shears.
Corriedale Championships chairman, James Dwyer, says he expects the open event to be highly competitive, with support from The Southern Series significantly boosting the prize pool.
“This year we’re increasing the prizemoney this year, with a payout down to 12th place, which gives the top competitors more certainty about making some money,” Dwyer says.
There will also be a more entertaining “woollen package” for visitors, with show organisers keen to showcase the industry. “This year we’ve got a more rounded display of wool,” Dwyer says. “We’re centralising everything wool into one area so people can see the sheep being shorn, you can see the different breeds of sheep and all the things that wool can create, not just clothing but a whole range of new products.”
The Southern Series Events Manager Hugh de Lacy (snr) says this year’s Corriedale Championships are another step in establishing a truly global shearing circuit. “Speed and quality are the key elements on shearing competitions, and the pursuit of both is what makes shearing such an exciting spectator event, as we’ll see on Friday at the show,” de Lacy said.
The public can expect most of last year’s leading competitors to feature. Former winner Nathan Stratford has already confirmed along with another 2022 finalist, local shearer Hugh de Lacy (jnr), and semi-finalists from 2022 David Gordon, Duncan Leslie and Paerata Abraham.