TOUGH COMPETITION AT NZ FIELDAYS
In June each year the Fieldays event takes place. It’s New Zealand’s largest agricultural show with over 1000 exhibitors and includes fencing competitions organised and run by New Zealand Fencing Competitions (NZFC).
With the singles and doubles qualifying heats held on Monday, a total of fifteen judges and technical judges were required. The chief judge was Owen Petersen, himself a former Golden Pliers by WIREMARK winner.
The heats then produced eight finalists for the Golden Pliers by WIREMARK singles championship. The Fieldays Silver Spades doubles championship involved six teams, including a team from NZ South Island and the winning team from the East Coast Rivalry U.S. Platinum Strainer Doubles Championship. There were also six finalists in the Bill Schuler competition.
On Wednesday, the Bill Schuler competition consisted of a 40m 3-wire electric fence, including one diagonal stay assembly and one breasted strainer. The winner of this competition was Michael Trott.
Thursday saw the Golden Pliers by WIREMARK singles championship, which involved two diagonal stay strainer assemblies and 50m of fence with nine 2.5mm high tensile wires. Posts were spaced at approximately 4m apart or as determined by the contour of the ground.
“It’s a five and a half hour handwork marathon,” explained Debbie White of FCANZ, “with modified competition post hole borers. Mistakes can be made, as evidenced by a failure in the strainer push test for four-time previous winner Tony Bouskill.
“For the results to have just over half a point between them was excruciating for the second-place finisher Jeff Joines, himself a consistent top 2 finisher in previous years. The winner was Tim Garrick,” she added.
Friday’s Fieldays Silver Spades doubles championship consisted of a 40m 1900mm H netting deer fence, a top wire and an electric outrigger wire, two diagonal stay assemblies, and swinging a 1900mm H deer gate off the top strainer. Tim Garrick took top spot again alongside Cory Twigley, both from Gisborne.
For more information, visit Fieldays’ website.
