Scoop has an Ethical Paywall
Work smarter with a Pro licence Learn More

Art & Entertainment | Book Reviews | Education | Entertainment Video | Health | Lifestyle | Sport | Sport Video | Search

 

All go for NZ shearer Smith’s record in the UK

New Zealand shearer Matt Smith will today step-out where no one else has before him to tackle the supreme sheep shearing record of 721 strongwool ewes in nine hours – in England.

Raied around Ruawai in Northland and having shorn extensively in Hawke’s Bay, 32-year-old Smith will be the first to attempt a World shearing record in the Northern Hemisphere.

He will make the attempt at Trefrank Farm, St Clether, near Launceston in Cornwall, where the 32-year-old lives with English wife Pippa, whom he married in Cornwall two years ago.

The attempt starts at 5am local time (4pm New Zealand Time) with Smith needing to quickly get onto an average of under 45 seconds for the Romney and crossbred sheep, caught, shorn and despatched, if he is to beat the record set by Southern Hawke’s Bay shearer Rodney Sutton near Central North Island township Bennydale, in the King Country, on January 31, 2007.

Sutton started unpromisingly with 158 in the first two hours to breakfast, but clawed his way back during the day with successive 1hr 45min runs of 140, 142, 140 and 140 to catch the record-breaking sheep with just seconds to go before the clock struck 5pm.

In January 2012, Smith set a since-broken eight-hour record of 578 (49.8 seconds a sheep over four runs of two hours each) at Waitara Station, northwest of Napier.

Among those on hand to help will be Smith’s brother, World Champion Rowland Smith, who completed the CP Wool Shearing Sports New Zealand UK tour with a test match win over Wales at the Corwen Shears on Saturday.

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading

Are you getting our free newsletter?

Subscribe to Scoop’s 'The Catch Up' our free weekly newsletter sent to your inbox every Monday with stories from across our network.

It will be the first of two World record attempts at Trefrank Farm, with Irish shearer Ivan Scott tackling the nine-hour lambs record on Friday. The record of 866 was set by Hawke’s Bay shearer Dion King, also in 2007. Scott, who shears in New Zealand most southern summers, holds the eight-hour record of 744, set in January 2012 at Opepe, near Taupo.

The record is run under the auspices of the World Sheep Shearing Records Society which sets a minimum clip of 3kg per sheep, which has been met in a sample shear of 10 sheep earlier today before an international judging panel, comprising Ian Buchanan, of New Zealand, Mark Baldwin, from Australia, and Welsh official Arwyn Jones.

It will be live-streamed at https://agricamera.co.uk/world-record-live-stream

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading
 
 
 
Culture Headlines | Health Headlines | Education Headlines

 
 
 
 
 
 

LATEST HEADLINES

  • CULTURE
  • HEALTH
  • EDUCATION
 
 
  • Wellington
  • Christchurch
  • Auckland
 
 
 

Join Our Free Newsletter

Subscribe to Scoop’s 'The Catch Up' our free weekly newsletter sent to your inbox every Monday with stories from across our network.