Te Huia Set To Go On Big Shearing Record Bid

January 17, 2012

Te Kuiti shearer Stacey Te Huia was taking things all in his stride as he prepared to tackle the World nine-hour ewe-shearing record in a King Country woolshed tomorrow (Wednesday, January 18).

Te Huia is targeting a mark of 721 set five years ago and has to shear at under 44.937 seconds a sheep to add the record to the eight-hour record of 603 he set in December 2010.

He and Waikato shearer Sam Welch will also be tackling the two-stand record of 1335 in nine hours which has gone unchallenged for 16 years.

Te Huia stayed away from this afternoon’s wool-weigh held in front of a World Shearing Record Society judging panel at Te Hape, west of Benneydale on State Highway 30.

“We shore a few of the rejects earlier in the day, and they were good,” he said from night-quarters nearby.

Fleeces at the weigh had to average more than 3kg each and, confident the standard would have been met, Te Huia said: “I haven’t heard any bad news, so it must be still on.”

The current record was set by Porangahau shearer Rodney Sutton at nearby Moketenui in 2007, opening with 158 in the two hours from 5am to breakfast, three behind the pace of Southland shearer Darin Forde when he set the previous solo record of 720 in 1997.

Sutton got onto the pace with successive 1hr 45min runs of 140, 142, and 140, finishing with 141 and making the crucial record-breaking catch just four seconds from the scheduled end at 5pm.

The chances of a serious challenge to the solo record will emerge in the first two hours, when Te Huia wants at least 160.

He shore 153 in the best of four two-hour runs during his eight-hour record 13 months ago and, not keen to make any predictions, said: “These sheep are 10 times better, so we’ll see how we go.”

The first goal however will be the two-stand record, set by Forde (688) and Wayne Ingram (647) in 1996.

The weather’s been fine at Te Hape this week, unlike the rain last week when Te Huia’s sister, Kerri-Jo, set a women’s eight-hour lambshearing record in the same shed.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) she will be one of her brother’s woolhandlers, Welch will be assisted by women’s nine-hour lambs record-holding wife Emily, and another closely involved with the bid is King Country shearing icon David Fagan, who 18 years ago became the first to beat 700 in a nine-hour record bid.

NB: Both the nine-hour and eight-hour days are traditional work days in New Zealand shearing sheds.

ENDS

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