Catherine ended the first time period at morning tea at 9am with 116 ewes shorn. She had maintained a good quality rating of 10.25, comfortably under the threshold of 12.
Her tally at that point was 21 more than Amy Silcock in the 7am-9am run when Amy set a then new record of 386 near Pahiatua on Sunday.
Despite the struggle against some sheep described by onlookers as “stroppy”, at that stage Catherine was headed for a tally close to 460, possibly more than the current nine-hour record of 452.
That record has stood for six years.
At her lunch-time break she had reached the halfway stage with a total 233 ewes shorn.
She finished with 116 in the first two hours from 7am-9am, then 117 from 9.30am-11.30am, both more than any woman has ever shorn in a two-hour run in a ewe shearing record bid.
Referees panel member Neil Fagan said the sheep averaged about 60kg in weight — 4-5kg lighter than those shorn by Amy Silcock when she broke the record on Sunday.
The sheep were, however, carrying slightly more wool.
Catherine’s relentless run towards smashing a world record continued after her lunch break.
In the first hour after lunch she sheared 58, taking her to 291, leaving just 96 in the remaining three hours to break Silcock’s record of 386.
When the final two-hour stint started at 3pm she had shorn 349 in the six hours up to the afternoon tea break.
At that point she had been shearing 58 an hour.
The record fell at around 3.40pm.
Catherine kept at it until the end of the bid at 5pm.
Her final tally had not come through when the Herald went to print last night, but would have been well in excess of 400 at the pace she was going.
One thing is for certain — she can now add world record breaker to her list of achievements.
A panel of four World Sheep Shearing Records Society judges, headed by Scotsman Andy Rankin, oversaw Catherine’s bid.
In 2014, with seven wins in 17 finals — including fourth at the Golden Shears in Masterton and fifth at the New Zealand Shears in Te Kūiti — she became the first woman to attain the top spot in any grade in more than 20 years of Shearing Sports New Zealand annual rankings.
Catherine Mullooly first featured in New Zealand shearing competition results in 2011.
That year she won junior finals at the early-season Poverty Bay and Hawke’s Bay A&P shows, among a season’s record of nine finals, three wins, two second placings, and a third placing at the New Zealand Shears in Te Kūiti.
She has been a high performer in women’s shearing sports since.
