No surfing, no beers as Kiwi shearer tackles huge record

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From Doug Laing, media officer, Shearing Sports New Zealand

January 20, 2015

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No surfing, no beers as Kiwi shearer tackles huge record

It must have been hard for shearer and surfer Stacey Te Huia – two days at the beach, no surfboard, and barely a sheep in sight.

But the 36-year-old Australia-based father-of-two from Te Kuiti reckons it’s just what he needed after months of training for his crackon Thursday at the World strongwool ewes-shearing record of 721 in nine hours.

Taking place at Te Hape Station, east of Bennydale on State Highway 30 and midway between Te Kuiti and Mangakino, the record bid starts at 5am when Te Huia steps in from the morning dark needing a cracking pace of 80 an hour from the go.

With the standard shearing nine-hour day breaks of an hour for breakfast and lunch and a half-hour for morning and afternoon smokos, Te Huia will finish at 5pm, aiming to claim the record from Hawke’s Bay gun Rodney Sutton who in January 2007 beat the then previous record by a single sheep.

He shore a full day and two-half days from Friday to Sunday and then headed for Raglan. Resting at his parents’ home in Te Kuiti on Tuesday night before heading to the shed to start his last preparations, he said the two days off were just the way to round-off the fitness.

Already the holder of the eight-hour record and a two-stand record for nine hours, he’s not worried about the pressure in front of a packed crowd.

The pressure, he says, is a battle with the clock, for he must average under 45 seconds a sheep, which will be monitored closely at his side throughout by shearing records support crew guru Digger Balme, also of Te Kuiti.

Watching just as closely will be four judges appointed by the World Sheep Shearing Records Society, headed by Australian Mark Baldwin. The others are North Island panel member John Fagan and South Island representatives Paul Harris and Colin Gibson.

There’ll be a huge crew of others, including other record breakers and holders helping with the sheep and the shearing gear during the day, but whatever the result one thing is for certain, he says: “No beers.”

Alcohol will not be permitted on Te Hape, an Ahuwhenua Maori Excellence in Farming Award finalist two years ago, and afters will be in Bennydale.

But even then Te Huia will still be on the wagon. Thursday’s only half the job. On Sunday he flies to Australia where he will make a finewooled merino record bid next month.

ENDS

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