They live among us. 

They might be your father, your cousin, your uncle or even dear old pop. 

Hey they might even be that ‘OLD’ fella that lives next door. 

‘They are’ the ‘Golden Oldies shearers’. 

Dire Straits waltzed them onto the board on Day Two of the 2021 Coonamble Show, seventeen local shearing legends, the ones stories are told about.

‘The Golden Oldies’ were champing at the bit, ready to put on a display and wondering if they still have ‘it’!

In the stands a huge crowd waited in anticipation, hoping the ‘Old fellas’ could climb the stairs and show them their undimmed talents. 

Our judges for this contest needed no introduction - Darren, Willy, Evo and Timmy. Scoring systems in shearing are based on a combination of time job and quality penalties, the lowest score wins. 

The shearers are judged on three things, board, pen and time. Board is based on performance penalties as the sheep are shorn. 

Judges pay close attention to any second cuts or any wool left on the sheep. Points are deducted for each of these faults.

Pen is based on quality penalties by the judges after each sheep has been shorn and are in the count out ‘pen’, they look for a tidy and clean sheep. 

The quickest time is taken for the day, and each shearer will lose a point for every 20 seconds above the recorded time. 

With the shearers ready to attack, a call went out for a rousie. 

Coonamble’s answer to wonder woman soon responded, a quick change in the phone box and out jumps Gabbi Smith, KAPOW, ready for action. 

The ‘old fellas’ couldn’t believe it - for years they had been tripping over Flange, Larry and Jero and she proved Pat’s theory right, “Women are better in the shed’.

With over 290 years of experience between them Ian Tandy, Pat , Don Chad and Graham Tandy practically jumped onto the board to grab a sheep. 

Ian enjoyed his day, its been a while, but he still remembered the blows on the sheep. 

We’re not sure how he’s pulled up, he hasn’t been sighted around town since the show (so he may have gone out west catching yellow belly by the muddy old Barcoo).  

Graham ditched his Poultry Steward gear and after tangling with our feathered friends for two days, soon turned his hand to his woolly mates and showed he had not lost anything. 

He scored extremely low points on the board. 

Our quickest times were set by one of the oldest and youngest shearers, Pat ‘The Woodman’ and Drummo (Darren Drummond) - they had some sizzling times under 4.40 mins. 

Their times were low but sadly their points were high, speed was only one of the calculations in this shear off. 

Great board points were scored by Graham Tandy, Peter Cormie, Martin Mallon and Bucko (Chris Buckley), with Bucko only a blow or two off the finals tally. 

Neale Williams had an extremely low score for the board points and this catapulted him into the final. 

Bradley Shields and Tim Williams both shore well and received good points for their pen. 

They finished on equal points. 

Chaddy (Don Chad) matched young Bradley and Tim on times, but those few dagwood dogs beforehand didn’t help his pen points. 

Octo (Robert Thomas) enjoyed his return to the bog-eye, his time wasn’t too bad, but his other figures did blow out a tiny bit. 

Once he regained his breath his commentary and interviews were quite humorous. 

Ray Williams and Ian Tandy had a great day on the tube.

They hadn’t grabbed a handpiece for many decades but should be right for the next shed. 

They kept Dominic Spora under pressure and this showed when Dom’s pen points were ‘out the window’.

Lucky he had a swift time which gave him the bragging rights for the heat. 

The last shear-off in the first round were the Shire boys, Nicko and Binga (Phillip Ryan), who had the crowd cheering. 

Great times, both in 5 mins mark and low scores in board and pen. 

These two fellas were going through to the final, with Nicko on 28 points, Binga on 30 points and Neale on 31 points. 

Some blokes are consistent and that’s how the final played out.

Nicko was consistently good all day, scoring 28 points in the first round and 28 points in the final and that gave the young Gular fella the title. 

Next in line was Neale Williams.

By guest author GERARD BARRETT

He has described this as one of his greatest sporting moments. 

Neale was once an elite sportsman in cricket, rugby and snooker and it's no secret he kept the great wallaby, Marty Roebuck in second grade, while they were at school in Bathurst. 

Binga came in next. He shore well all day. 

He must consider himself unlucky not to win. 

Binga had a big cheer squad. He must be the biggest export to come out of Armatree but don’t tell the Malone boys that. 

Well done shearers, judges, rousies, Linda and Glen (the penner up crew) and the fantastic Fisher transport for keeping the sheep calm on their trip to town.

The Millstead shearing trailer worked a treat all day and the Golden Oldies enjoyed working on it, showing their craft. 

They live among us and we are richer for their presence.