World shearing champs set for Ireland in 2014

The next Golden Shears World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships will be held near the small market town of Gorey in County Wexford , in May 2014.

The venue was decided at a Golden Shears World Council meeting during the 15th World Championships which ended in Masterton , New Zealand , on Saturday(march 3).

Gorey was the venue for the 1998 championships, and Ireland is one of eight countries to have staged the World Championships which were first held in England in 1977, on the back of the success of the Golden Shears International Shearing Championships held annually in Masterton since that event’s inception in 1961.

George Graham who took the application to the Council, and who competed in Masterton representing Ireland in the woolhandling championship, said planning would begin immediately with the establishment of a committee and structure, expected to use all local resources as well as the expertise developed by others who have run the championships.

The Golden Shears in Masterton, a town of about 20,000 people northeast of the New Zealand capital city of Wellington , established a broad volunteer base from the start and is regarded as a model for a small town staging a big event.