To celebrate Country Life's 25th birthday we will be delving into the archives over the next few months.
This week, we go back to 2014 as expert fencers face off with their tools and technique at Golden Pliers - a competition that's part of the Fieldays agricultural show.
Photo: Carol Stiles
Nick Liefting's opponents thought they might have the jump on him in the 2014 Golden Pliers competition.
And it wasn't because he was the oldest in the event.
59 years old at the time, he was working off a new titanium knee and those competing against him thought it might slow him down. It didn't.
Nick, who had been competing in the New Zealand farm fencing championships for 39 years, was the first to finish in the previous 27 competitions. He had won the national title a couple of times but his goal each year was to be the first off the line and to make it through the heats to the finals.
The Golden Pliers competition has been held annually at the National Agricultural Fieldays, apart from when the large agricultural show was reduced to an online event in 2020 due to the pandemic.
Competitors erect a fence that is judged on quality, appearance, tension and its ability to withstand a two-tonne load. Judges scrutinise each staple, fencepost, knot and wire.
In 2014, 23 competitors, some not long out of school, were vying for the eight spots in the finals.
Nick said qualifying for the final is a huge thing in itself.
"There's a lot of kudos attached ... being a Golden Pliers finalist says it all because if you have been a Golden Pliers finalist, you are good."
In 2014, the final was a six-hour endurance event. Contestants had to put up a 50-metre-long fence with two strainer assemblies, 15 posts, nine wires and 40 batons. They also had to hang a gate.
There had been just 12 Golden Pliers winners over 46 years of competition and some people made the final 20 or more times.
Nick, a fencing contractor from Bombay near Auckland, said he didn't practice for the big event.
"Because in the earlier years we honed our skills by working this way. It's a bit like riding a bike, you don't lose it. The only thing that is important is fitness."
As a daily gym-goer "I treat it as a sport and a challenge", Nick says.
The 2015 event, his 40th, was his last and he now judges fencing competitions here and overseas. He's also written a book on the Golden Pliers.
