New Zealand has claimed a 2-1 triumph in a night of trans-Tasman shearing sports test matches in Australia, however again missed out on the machine-shearing title.
The New Zealand world champion wool handling and blades shearing teams won their respective matches during the Australian national shearing and wool handling championships in Dubbo in New South Wales.
Veteran Fairlie shearer Tony Dobbs and trans-Tasman newcomer Allan Oldfield, of Geraldine, who together won a World title in France in July, maintained New Zealand's unbeaten record in blade shearing tests against Australia by beating Johnathon Dalla and Glen Isla by a wide margin of almost 43 points.
It was much closer for world champion wool handlers Sheree Alabaster, of Taihape, and series newcomer Pagan Karauria, of Alexandra, as they won the wool handling test by just 2.54 points from Australian World championships team Rachael.
It took New Zealand to 33 wins in 43 tests since wool handling was introduced to the series in 1998.
However, despite going into the machines test match with probably one of its better-experienced teams on merino sheep, New Zealand was still unable to break the Australians' run in the machine shearing category.
Daniel McIntyre, of Glenn Innes, NSW, Jason Wingfield, of Cobram, Vic, and Callum O'Brien, of Collie, WA, beat the New Zealand team of Southland shearers Nathan Stratford and Troy Pyper and new international and former Hawke's Bay gun Paerata Abraham, of Masterton, by a wide margin of over 27 points.
It was Australia's 5th consecutive win in the annual home-and-away machine shearing matches, including two at New Zealand home-leg, the Golden Shears, in Masterton.
Dobbs and new world individual champion Oldfield had another triumph by finishing first and second in the Dubbo Open blade shearing final, Karauria and Alabaster were second and fourth respectively in the Dubbo Open wool handling final won by Hutchison, and Pyper was runner-up in the Dubbo Open machine shearing final won by McIntyre.
