Axeman Tyson Rowe hails from Deddington.
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It’s easily missed driving by – even before knowing the sleepy hollow is a town.
There’s just about half a dozen properties there. Not too many more people.
It’s about as quiet as anywhere else in the state. The 17-year-old Rowe fits right in.
But on Saturday afternoon, the shy teenager was centre stage and fronting the media after convincingly winning Australia’s richest handicap woodchopping event.
He was lost for words when asked what it meant to be the newest Eric Reece Memorial Thousands 300mm standing block champion.
“I just can’t tell you at the moment,” Rowe said.
“But it means a lot.”
Cutting off a seven-second handicap, Rowe upstaged his more fancied rivals that included current state champions and past winners.
It was the forestry worker’s first-ever thousands final.
“My chop went pretty good,” he said.
“I had a couple of hits I didn’t need, but it (the block) came off when I wanted it to.”
Rowe had only recently returned back to chopping, but the timely comeback netted him a hefty $5000 cash prize in clearly his biggest win in his short career.
But 2018 isn’t the first time the Rowe name has been etched onto the prestigious cutter’s trophy.
His uncle David Rowe won the Launceston event in 1990 just as did his cousin Nathan Rowe in 2001.
But Rowe felt he was lucky earlier advancing from the C-grade final to the big one.
“My heats were actually pretty messy for me,” he said.
“I kept missing where I placed my axe. But in the final, it was a pretty good cut.”
George Town chopper Matthew Mathers finished in behind Rowe coming off the 11-second mark ahead of Launceston rival Matthew Arnold off 21 seconds after claiming the B-grade final.
Thousands backmarker Gerald Youles gave up 21 seconds to Rowe, the Queenslander starting off a massive 28-second handicap.
The Harry Mulcahy Memorial Tasmanian 375mm standing championship was another highlight of the woodchopping program at the Inveresk Showgrounds.
Gowrie Park cutter Kody Steers won from defending champion Dale Beams, of Winkleigh, and Victorian Laurence O’Toole junior.
The thousands victory capped off a great day for Rowe, who earlier won the 250mm standing handicap on the support program, beating out Launceston axeman Mitch Arnold and Cygnet’s Mitch Direen.
But Direen edged out Rowe, who finished third behind Huonville rival Blake Lovell, in the Don Langdon junior 275mm underhand handicap.