Stratford has shorn the final 18 times at the Southern Shears in Gore, the last 16 in a row, but almost always in the shadow of winners from the North Island. He was four times the runner-up and five-times the third placegetter.
The closest he came previously was in 2006 when he was beaten by just 0.03 points when it was won by Tuatapere shearer Alton Devery, the last time it was won by a South Island shearer.
It was a surprise to the winner, who was fifth off the board, more than a minute behind first-man-off Casey Bailey, of Riverton, who shore the 20 in 17min 22sec.
“I thought I was too far behind but I had to wait around for the results,” Stratford, who then found he’d won with markedly the best quality points, said.
It was enough to give him victory by almost half-a-point from Wairarapa shearer David Buick, who maintained the second place in which he had finished the race, also more than a minute before Stratford.
Seven-times South Island Shearer of the Year winner and Napier gun John Kirkpatrick was third but nudged Buick out of second place in the Open final in which Smith recorded his 32nd consecutive win in finals in New Zealand since the start of February last year.
It was also last February in hometown Invercargill that Stratford won the World teams title with Kirkpatrick and finished third in the individual final won by his teammate.
Sir David Fagan, who also won the South Island Shearer of the Year title seven times, including twice in the last 20 years, was on hand again but in the role of Shearing Sports New Zealand chairman presenting Southern Shears life membership to chairman Richard Pearce and Mataura shearing contractor and show supporter Bill Elers.
A regular winner of other South Island events with more than 60 victories and Master Shearer status to his name, Stratford’s biggest wins were in the NZ Shears Circuit final in Te Kuiti and the Corwen Shears in Wales in 2012 and the PGG Wrightson Wool National Circuit final at the Golden Shears in 2014.
But he is yet to win either Te Kuiti’s NZ Championships Open final, after shearing nine of its finals, or the Golden Shears Open final in which he has shorn seven times.
In another feature of the last of the Southern Shesrs’ two days was the CP Wool Shearing Series win by Smith and Kirkpatrick over Welsh shearers, putting New Zealand up 3-0 with one test to go at Apiti next Saturday.
