Win for Wairoa shearer at Black Isle Show in Scotland

by Doug Laing

Wairoa shearer Bruce Grace has celebrated the end of his first season in the United Kingdom by winning a competition at the historic Black Isle Show in Scotland. 

Following in the footsteps of mentor, employer, 2017 world champion, four-times Golden Shears open champion, and former regular UK trekker John Kirkpatrick, the 20-year-old won the show’s senior final.

In a field of 25, he was the second-to-top qualifier from the heats and top qualifier from the semifinals. 

Finishing the final’s 12 sheep in 13 minutes and 12 seconds, he was almost a minute quicker than second-man-off Sean Cursiter, who was runner-up in the final count. Grace won by a wide margin of 5.267 points. 

Growing up in Wairoa, with parents Esther and Martin, a shepherd working on farms in the district, he developed an interest in shearing.  He got a job with “uncle and auntie” Johnny and Raylene Kirkpatrick (Raylene is his mother’s cousin). 

“I have always known Johnny as a really good shearer,” he said. “Growing up but when I was around 16 I started fulltime with Raylene and Johnny pressing and started fulltime shearing when I was 18. 

“I think I always wanted to be a shearer, growing up with my dad being a shepherd doing a little bit of shearing and my grandfather being a good shearer in his day.” 

Having first appeared in competition in 2021, when he reached finals at the Waimarino shears and Waitomo sports, he emerged from the disruptions of Covid in 2022-2023 to have his first win at the Stratford A and P Show’s Taranaki shears. 

It was to be the first of nine wins in 16 intermediate finals throughout the Central North Island, including titles at the Wairoa A and P shears final, the North Island championships in Marton, and New Zealand   shears intermediate final in Te Kuiti, where he was also acclaimed the top-ranked intermediate shearer in New Zealand for that season. 

Stepping up to senior grade last season he reached another six finals for two wins, in the prestigious Otago championships near Balclutha and at Aria in the Central North Island, was runner-up four times, including at the Wairoa shears, and was fourth in the Golden Shears senior final in Masterton in March. 

Heading to the Northern Hemisphere, he got work in Scotland with Stirlingshire contractor Dougie Steel, finding it was like learning all over again, shearing off a race trailer with such breeds as the ring-horned Scottish Blackface at the Lochearnhead shears. 

“It took a while to get my head around everything,” he said. “When I first got here, it kind of felt like I was learning how to shear. It was worse with the blackies and their horns. The amount of bruises on my legs and arms was unreal, but I also shore mules, blue-faced Leicester, Texel and Cheviots.” 

Asked what had been the highlights of his blossoming career, he said after the Black Isle win: “Probably making the Golden Shears final this year and coming to Scotland, just the experience I have got here and all the new people I have met out here has been a real highlight.” 

The Black Isle Show, at Muir of Ord, west of Inverness in the Scottish Highlands, was first held in 1836. 

Grace was in good Kiwi company at the show, with Wools of New Zealand national team members Jack Fagan, of Te Kuiti, and David Buick, of Pongaroa, having finished their series in Wales, finishing second and third in the open final won by Welsh shearer Llyr Jones. 

He is returning to New Zealand this week to start trade lamb shearing. He is likely to make the most of competitions in what he expects to be his last season in the senior grade before stepping up to open class.