New Zealand takes top prize in sheep shearing world championships

Forget next month's football, for sharp-shearing farmers everywhere the most important world cup just ended in Wexford, with 6,600 sheep losing their wool before you could say 'bah'.

In the end it was victory for the dominant Kiwis as Rowland Smith became the new world machine shearing champion, claiming the ultimate prize from this four-day event in Gorey.

Also on the podium were South African Mayenzeke Shweni, the new champion of the traditional blade shearing and Hilary Bond from the UK for wool handling, the art of rolling up the material after it comes off the animal.

Mr Smith's canny blade work put to bed the dreams of Ivan Scott who planned to become the first ever Irish world champion.

Ireland were winners though; the Golden Shears World Shearing and Wool Handling Championships came off like a slickly-trimmed fleece with 32,000 visitors and 102 competitors from 27 countries, a new record to compliment the event's growing appeal.

"It was live-streamed around the world and there was 77,000 hits. To New Zealand, Australia and China it's like their rugby world cup," said an event spokeswoman.

“It’s probably because they need to treat it like an Olympic sport; it’s a livelihood. Most of the shearers travel the world shearing sheep. There aren’t enough in Ireland to shear sheep so you get people from New Zealand coming on the shearing circuit.”

The championships cost €700,000 to host with the volunteer organisers lamenting the fact that just €50,000 of that came from the Government through the Department of Agriculture. Most financing, they say, came from private sponsorship despite the obvious global appeal.

For the foreseeable future, the Kiwis look set to maintain their grip. This year’s winner is from New Zealand; the next world championship, in 2017, will be held there. And while the previous champion was Scottish, there’s no prizes left for guessing where he lives.