World shearing champ lines up tally record bid

On behalf of Shearing Sports New Zealand

December 9, 2010

World shearing champ lines up tally record bid

Shearer of the moment Cam Ferguson has confirmed he will go for a place in woolshed history with a World tally record bid next month, less than six months after winning the ultimate competition goal, the World Championship.

The 27-year-old from Waipawa, who stunned the shearing World with a meteoric rise in competition shearing this year, including victories in the 50th Golden Shears Open in Masterton in March and the World title in Wales in July, will make his attempt bid for woolshed supremacy on Sourh Island-based Irish shearer's eight-hour lamb shearing record of 736 on January 10 at Motekenui, the King Country station used for a string of record-breaking performances in recent years.

A prolific Speedshear winner, with most of his 60-plus wins in the popular short competition version done with times under 25 seconds a lamb, will need to average about 39 seconds a lamb, including catching time, throughout the standard eight-hour day of four two-hour runs.

The date for the bid was confirmed this week with his application and payment of a $US1800 fee to the World Sheep Shearing Records Society which will appoint four judges to oversee the event, including one from overseas.

Also confirmed is a bid just a day later, on January 11, on the two-stand eight-hour ewe shearing record of 986 held for 11 years by brothers Hayden and Stacey Te Huia, formerly of Marton but now based in Te Kuiti.

The bid will be challenged by Hawke's Bay-based Far North brothers Doug and Rowland Smith, who have fronted with a $US2700 fee to stage their day at Te Pohue, between Napier and Taupo, where brother Matthew last last January broke the solo eight hour ewes record once held by Hayden Te Huia. Last month Stacey Te Huia confirmed he will be trying to get the record back into the family with an attempt on new mark of 578 on December 22, also at Motekenui.

Eight-hour lambs record holder Ivan Scott is yet to set a date for a bid for the glamour nine-hour lambs record of 866 shorn by Hawke's Bay shearer Dion King at Motekenui in January 2007, just 10 months after winning the Golden Shears Open final.
Rotorua shearing contractor Jeff Dorset said Scott's bid will take place in mid-January at Opepe, beside State Highway 5 southeast of Taupo. He said the vagaries of the season had led to uncertainty about when it could take place, relying on the lambs being able to reach the minimum average wool weight of 0.9kg per lamb.

ENDS

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