Caithness Shears competition

Charles McCombie (Junior & Intermediate), Hamish Mitchell (Open), Stewart Kennedy (Seniors)



The busy platform with 4 clippers at a time




Hamish Mitchell




Grant Lundie




Gavin Mutch




Simon Bedwell



Alan MacKay




Andrew Sinclair




Andrew Sinclair

 


The team of wool rollers

The annual Caithness Shears competition is part of the Scottish Sheep Shearing circuit and was held today at the Quoybrae auction mart near Watten. It attracted the best shearers from all over the world, including Gavin Mutch from New Zealand, who just missed out on becoming the 2010 Machine World Champion at the world championships in Wales last year. There were a few ex-Scottish champions competing.

There was big money to be had and the winner of the Open class won £350.  Andrew Sinclair from Wick made the finals of the Intermerdiate and Senior classes, but found the world class competition too tough.

Simon Bedwell clipped 16 sheep in 15 mins 1 sec in the open final and was the fastest, but still only came 3rd as there are points for technique and the finish of the sheep. The scoring system was computerised and the results were announced within minutes of the finish.

Winners;

Open - Hamish Mitchell, Norway (2nd Gavin Mutch, 3rd Simon Bedwell, 4th Grant Lundie)
Seniors - Stewart Kennedy, Aberfeldy (2nd Alex Riding, 3rd Ross Gibson, 4th Andrew Sinclair)
Intermediate  - Charles McCombie, Huntly (2nd Alex Riding, 3rd Ross Gibson, 4th Andrew Sinclair)
Juniors - Charles McCombie (2nd Alan MacKay, 3rd John MacAulay, 4th Allan Cowie)