Bronwen Tango is new World Champion Woolhandler
Thousands of supporters from across the UK cheered Welsh woolhandler Bronwen Tango, from Usk, Monmouthshire, to victory in the World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships at the Royal Welsh Show as she reclaimed the title for Wales for the first time in 12 years, defeating the reigning world champion, Sheree Alabaster, from New Zealand.
“All I could see was a mass of red shirts of supporters urging me on and the cheering was deafening,” said Bronwen. “It was a wonderful day, so emotional, which I’ll never forget.”
Bronwen, a shepherdess, who grew up on a hill farm near Corwen, came to the contest with impeccable credentials as a woolhandler. She was the reserve champion when the world competition was staged in Scotland in 2003, missing the title by half a point.
As well as competing on the Welsh circuit and in the UK and Ireland, she has taken on opponents in Norway, South Africa and Australia, where she was reserve champion in the team event, using skills and speed honed by experience gained by wrapping up to 1000 fleeces during a day’s work in the shearing season.
Meinir Evans from Wales achieved third place in the World Individual Woolhandling final and Bronwen and Meinir came second in the World Woolhandling Team event.
Bronwen’s triumph crowned a successful event for Welsh shearers at the showground’s Meirion Shearing Centre where contestants from 28 nations took part in the championships. The highlight was the hotly-contested battle for the coveted
Golden Shears World Machine Shearing Championship which saw 26 year-old New Zealander, Cam Ferguson beat his fellow countryman, David Fagan, aged 48, and five times the winner of the title, into second place.
Welsh shearers performed with distinction under Wales team manager, Bryan Pugh, with finalists in the Individual Machine Shearing Championships. Gareth Daniel, a 25 year-old farmer from Machynlleth who won the Champion Shearer of Wales competition on the Monday, came third behind the New Zealand pair, and Gareth Evans, aged 27, from Conwy, was fourth.
The Welsh shearers were also strong contenders in the Machine Shearing Team Competition, pressing New Zealand for first place but finally finishing second ahead of Scotland and Northern Ireland.
In the Blade Shearing competitions Elliot Ntsombo of Lesotho took the Individual World title for the fourth time. Wales was represented by Elfed Jackson and John Till. Elfed Jackson qualified for the semi-final but missed out on the final.
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