Shear Brilliance of Shearing and Wool Handling on display at the Royal Highland Show

The long awaited 2023 Golden Shears Shearing & Wool Handling Championships took place at the Royal Highland Show in Edinburgh during June.

British Wool were proud to be mainline supporters of the Golden Shears and many of the competitors have been on a British Wool training courses in the past.

The Golden Shears is the pinnacle for shearers and wool handlers, with 30 countries competing for the top prizes this year. Teams came from as far afield as Chile, South Africa, and New Zealand to compete. This is only the second time the Golden Shears has been held in Scotland.

The Golden Shears was first held in 1977 and takes place every few years in different locations around the world, including South Africa, New Zealand, Ireland, Norway, and France. The last time the event was held in the UK was in 2010 at the Royal Welsh Show. Organised by Golden Shears World Council, the aim of the championships is to promote and encourage interest in wool and the art and skill of sheep shearing and wool handling.

The Royal Highland Show took place as normal across four days with a range of activity and competitions for all to enjoy.  The World Championships took place on the Saturday and Sunday with the best competitors from around the world competing.  The competitions are based around three disciplines that being machine shearing, blade shearing and wool handling.  Each nation had a team of six, two competing in each discipline.

The UK was proudly represented by Wales taking three of the six titles and Scotland taking the individual Wool Handling title.

The top individual titles were Gwion Lloyd Evans from Wales for Machine Shearing, Rosie Keenan from Scotland for Wool Handling and Bonile Rabela from South Africa for Blade Shearing.

In the team's section, Wales took the titles for both Machine and Wool Handling and South Africa triumphed in Blade. 

At the end of this year’s event, it was confirmed that New Zealand will host the 20th Golden Shears World Championships in Masterton in 2026.

Jim Robertson, Chairman, British Wool said: “On behalf of British Wool I’d like to offer huge congratulations to all the winning individuals and teams. It takes an enormous amount of hard work and skill to reach this level and represent your country on the world stage.  The event showcased on a global stage the quality of shearing and wool handling we have here in the UK with the home nations taking four of the six titles. Well done to all competitors and organisers.”

Watch back on all the action from Golden Shears on demand on RHSTV - RHS TV Live! | Royal Highland Show.

The full list of results can be accessed here.