SPARC and wool levy pool back Kiwi shears stars

Shearing Sports New Zealand is pleased all six members of its successful World Championships team are targeting repeats of their successes at the next championships in Masterton in 2012 - recognising SPARC and other funders’ support for shearing and woolhandling development as national sports.

Chairman John Fagan, who won a World teams title in England in 1984 and recalls the struggles for recognition of that era, was speaking after confirmation of two years of funding from Beef+Lamb NZ’s allocation of the residual wool levies pool.

B+LNZ chief operating officer Cros Spooner announced last month that Shearing Sports NZ would receive $70,000 over the two years to foster competitions which over the last 50 years have become a major part of developing woolcraft skills throughout the country. A further sum has been committed to wool-classing.

It came soon after SPARC confirmed all six members would receive Performance Enhancement grants, as part of the High Performance Strategy recognising the commitments and sacrifices made by elite athletes in achieving their international successes.

The Shearing Sports team won medals in all six events at their championships in Wales in July, including three wins - the individual machine shearing title to Cam Ferguson, of Waipawa, the teams title won by Ferguson and King Country icon David Fagan, and the woolhandling teams title win by Sheree Alabaster, of Taihape, and Keryn Herbert, of Te Kuiti.

All four have won events in the new domestic season, while bronze-medal winning blades shearers Brian Thomson and Allen Gemmell, both from Canterbury, have both been in good form on both sides of the Tasman.

All six expect to contest qualifying events leading to selection of the New Zealand team for the next championships at the 2012 Golden Shears.

John Fagan said the chance of representing their country had become a major motivation for improvement among New Zealand shearers and woolhandlers, who also as individuals develop considerable recognition of the New Zealand wool industry as they work and compete around the World.

"While we wouldn’t want to be seen as taking anything away from other sports, there is a number of countries where New Zealand is recognised by the singlets of our shears as much as it is by the black jersey of our All Blacks," he said.

"And then we have events like the Golden Shears, which in themselves are significiant New Zealand brands on the international stage, with benefits reaching out into tourism and other spects of the New Zealand economy."

The Beef+Lamb NZ grant came from a $2.8 million pool remaining from levies collected from wool growers until farmers booted the scheme out in a vote last year, resulting in major changes for the organisation, until that time known as Meat+Wool NZ, which had also supported Shearing Sports NZ.

After consulting farmers and considering 21 submissions mainly supporting proposed use of the pool, Beef+Lamb also allocated $1.8 million (at $450,000pa) for information and analysis, market access and farm activities supporting the wool sector through its economic service over the next four years, and established an $870,000 contestable fund for co-funded wool-specific projects beneficial to farmers.

Mr Spooner said in a statement last month his board consdidered the money should be used for activities consistent with the 2003 wool levy mandate.