HOT COMPETITION FOR CLONCURRY & MT ISA

Photo of Brad Pierce by Dave Ethell – www.dephotos.com.au

Photo of John McNamee by Dave Ethell – www.dephotos.com.au

Photo of Sonny Schafferius by Dave Ethell – www.dephotos.com.au

BRAD Pierce will travel from Tooma in New South Wales to compete against the best from Queensland in the August 5-6  Cloncurry Merry Muster.

Cloncurry is the third biggest rodeo in the Australian Professional Rodeo Association after Mt Is and Warwick and has attracted 350 nominations.

The rodeo is on Friday and Saturday and is the forerunner to the Mt Isa Mines Rotary Rodeo which had more than 600 nominations.

Cloncurry is one of only a few two-day rodeos in the APRA.

Pierce is a former world rookie all around and world rookie bull ride champion and won the saddle bronc title last year in the APRA.

He is a cowboy equally good in saddle bronc and the bull ride and could easily win both events at Cloncurry.

Pierce’s toughest opposition in saddle bronc will come from Millmerran rider John McNamee who is second in APRA standings after three months of the new season. Warwick pair Michael Maher and Mark Collins both competed in last year’s national finals and only need to draw a good horse to win at Cloncurry.

In the bull ride, Pierce will face his toughest opposition from current bull ride standings leader Sonny Schafferius from Dysart in Queensland.

Schafferius leads the standings from Central Queensland and former Beaudesert cowboy Jared Borghero.

Borghero is a bull fighter as well as a bull rider so has plenty of experience at guessing what the next move of a bull might be.

Ben Gooding won the bull ride at Cloncurry last year and is 7^th in the standings early in the new season.

After the Friday and Saturday rodeo at Cloncurry, many of the competitors will stay in the north-west for the August 12-14 Mt Isa Rodeo, the rodeo with the most prizemoney in the APRA.