Last weekend, Gilgandra shearer Andrew Murray helped Australia break the dry spell when it comes to beating New Zealand, scoring the first trans-Tasman shearing win in his category since its inception in 2010. 

When it comes to shearing competitions, the title tends to go back and forth between New Zealand and Australia, both sharing in the glory of the skill. For those who choose hand shearing with a pair of shears - known as blade shearing - taking the win from New Zealand has proven impossible. 

That was until last weekend’s Sports Shear event in Jamestown, SA, where Andrew Murray and his teammate John Dalla achieved a history-making win, taking the trans-Tasman Blades Test for the first time since it was added to the series thirteen years ago. 

“It feels pretty bloody good,” Mr Murray said. 

Making a career out of machine shearing locally helps, of course, but the blade shearing competition requires an entirely different technique. 

“Before a competition, I’ll come down to John’s place in South Australia and just be shearing anything I can get my hands on.”

“Months out, I might do one occasionally, and as we get closer it’s basically a week straight of just blade shearing.”

While it might seem like an unusual hobby, for Andrew it runs in the family. 

“I saw my dad doing it and a few others at the Sydney Royal Easter Show when I was 15 or 16. I thought it was really cool and just started doing it.”

“The current Australian champion John Dalla took me under his wing way back then. He trained me up, and now we’re here,” he said. 

Nine years on from that first Sydney Royal Easter Show, he scored 88 in the weekend’s test match. 

In the competition, each shearer had three Merino sheep to shear. Points are awarded by a combination of speed and quality of the shear, including damage to the hide of the animal and the fleece. 

Andrew will defend the title next year at Waimate in New Zealand.