One of the country’s most unique sporting migrations is underway as hundreds of farmers, shepherds and dogs head to Hawke’s Bay for the North Island and New Zealand sheep dog trial championships starting on Monday.
For some – among more than 500 dogs, and triallists aged from about 18 to 94 – it’s a two-three day trip.
Southland veteran and retired farmer Brian Dickison confirmed on Friday morning that he, travelling partner and fellow triallist John Macdonald and six dogs were on the way to the championships.
The event is hosted by the Te Aute Sheep Dog Trial Club and the New Zealand Sheep Dog Trial Association’s Hawke’s Bay Centre.
It’s a road trip of almost 1000km – 670km up the South Island and another 280km from Wellington to the venue – plus a Bluebridge inter-island ferry sailing of more than three-and-a-half hours.
They left home about 6am, he said, driving through Lindis Pass a few hours later, planning to hit “Blenheim or Picton I think” by nightfall, to board the ferry by 8.30am Saturday.
By the nature of the game, it’s not the sort of trip they do by flying, but they’re used to it.
Dickison has travelled all over the country, one example being in 2019 when the nationals were held at Ōhaeawai in the Far North district – a full 1550km from home.
He returned with a third placing in the North Island championship, and fifth in the New Zealand title runoff.
NZSDTA archives show he’s been in the runoffs – call that finals – at 22 island or national championships since he and a dog called Cole were third in the long head at his first national title runoff in 1990, at Garston, between Kingston and Lumsden, south of Lake Wakatipu.
He has claimed just one New Zealand championships title, with Cole II in the long head at home-club Greenvale in 2021.
But he comes to Hawke’s Bay with one of the in-form kennels, he and Jake having won the South Island championships short head and yard title in Southland on May 4-8.
Results highlight a uniqueness, as sports events go, at championships dating back to 1911: No winners from Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, and most from places the greater populace of the four main centres have never heard of.
Five of the six dogs in the back of the Ford Ranger are being run by Dickison, four of them heading dogs in both the long head and short head and yard classes, along with Clay, in the zig zag and straight hunts.
Among those also travelling are South Island long head winner Scott Hunter, and Lucy, of Omarama (North Otago), and straight hunt winner Hamish Parkinson, and Grit, of King Country club Kaitieke.
Three champion partnerships from last year’s event in North Canterbury are chasing back-to back titles, in Karioi triallist Leo Jecentho, and Jake, in the short head and yard, zig zag hunt winner Samantha Shaw, and Rogue, of Matawai, and straight hunt champion Steve Murphy, and Bridge, of Whangamomona.
Defending long head champion Lindsay Wink, of Weber, has two dogs, but not the champion Ghost.
While guys like Dickison, who trains with the dogs most days on the course near home, will be particularly busy, so too will be NZDTA president David Sheild, from Otope, between Waipukurau and Dannevirke.
Sheild is a Wairarapa Southern Hawke’s Bay centre member, who in addition to the near daily round of annual meetings, will be running heading dog Gov and huntaways Chime and Mate, part of the nine-dog team he has on the farm.
He’s been trialling about 40 years, he said, and first reached a New Zealand championships runoff with a dog called Claude, at Blenheim in 1998, and won a South Island long head title with Clyde at Warepa, South Otago, in 2017.
The only triallists from Hawke’s Bay, Poverty Bay and Wairarapa SHB in the South Island run-offs (top seven in each class) were Makotuku members Guy Peacock, and Scrap, runner-up in the long head, and Brent Matthews, and Guard, in the zig zag hunt.
Among Hawke’s Bay hopes is Waikoau farmer and Clark Chrystal, and Jude, a pairing that won the zig zag hunt title in South Otago in 2023, and host-club member Bob Bruce, whose two dogs include Abbo, with which he won the Hawke’s Bay Centre long head title at Ōmakere in February.
The New Zealand championships were last held in Hawke’s Bay, at Te Aute, in 2009, when Stu McNeill, of Te Pohue, won both hunts, giving him a rare three titles in two years, while the North Island championships were last held at Te Aute in 2018.
The course, at club headquarters on Brownrigg property off Te Aute Trust Road, Poukawa, is known for its morning fog.
With 4000 sheep lined up, the course fixtures and a marquee in place, Te Aute club secretary Craig Campbell, who is assistant championships secretary to centre secretary Brenda Duff, is hopeful the heading courses will be in action soon after 7am each day, and the hunts by 8.30am.
MetService forecasts line up a row of sunny faces through to the title runoffs next Saturday, the first day of the King’s Birthday holiday weekend, but don’t discount the misty mornings.
“I think the latest start we’ve had at a club trial might have been around 11am,” says Campbell, who says triallists stay with friends, in shearing quarters, or the more conventional sports team accommodation of motels, hotels, holiday parks and rented homes, with few worries for the organisers.
“Get us through to Saturday without any fog,” he says. “ We’ll be over the moon.”
It is sheep dog trialling’s week in the sun, and rates alongside other national tournaments in Hawke’s Bay this year.
Results from the South Island championships at Mataroa, Southland, on May 1-4, highlighting the array of isolated places from whence they come, were:
Long head: Scott Hunter (Lucy), Omarama, 195pts, 1; Guy Peacock (Scrap), Makotuku, 190.5pts, 2; Mark Copland (Don), Methven, 187.5pts, 3; Roger Tweed (Hope), Waitahuna, 183.5pts, 4; Bruce Parkinson (Chum), Raetihi, 181.4pts, 5; Brian Dickison (Jake), Greenvale, 178.5pts, 6; Roger Tweed (Kane), Waitahuna, 171.1pts, 7.
Short head and yard: Brian Dickison (Jake), Greenvale, 194.5pts, 1; Stuart Child (Diesel), Te Anga, 193.5pts, 2; Scott Hunter (Lucy), Omarama, 192.75pts, 3; Neville Hore (Frank), Omakau/Earnscleugh, 192pts, 4; Ginger Anderson (Jet), Omarama, 188.5pts, 5; Steve Murphy (Edge), Whangamomona, 178.75pts, 6; Allan Stewart (Ice), Omakau/Earnscleugh, 152pts, 7.
Zigzag hunt: Mckenzie Smith (Chub), Heriot, 193pts, 1; Brent Mathews (Guard), Makotuku, 189.5pts, 2; Lloyd Smith (Pitch), Waihemo, 189pts, 3; Matthew McMurray (Jew), Raetihi, 186.1pts, 4; Bruce Parkinson (Choice), Raetihi, 185.5pts, 5; Hamish Mackay (Mayhem), Whanganui, 181.7pts, 6; Jamie Shrubsall (Jed), Omatane Kawhatau, 174.2pts, 7.
Straight hunt: Hamish Parkinson (Grit), Kaitieke, 189.5pts, 1; Jamie Shrubsall (Rusty), Omatane Kawhatau, 188.5pts, 2; Trevor Rumbal (Jim), Parawera Cambridge, 186.25pts, 3; Clayton Rowland (Dixie), Greenvale, 185pts, 4; Fergus McLean (Suzie), Omihi, 182.5pts, 5; Jorge Story (Shaz), Wyndham, 178.25pts, 6; Brian Sparrow (Jerry), Gore, 174.75 7.
Doug Laing is a Hawke’s Bay Today reporter with more than 50 years in the news industry, the last 39 years consecutively in Napier since 1987 when he started a second stint at the Daily Telegraph, which was part of the merger that created Hawke’s Bay Today in 1999.