Chrystal clear star in big charity shear

Hawke's Bay shearer Kalin Chrystal during his marathon effort of shearing 1974 lambs in 24 hours as part of a charity fundraiser in Central Otago over the weekend. Photo / Shawn McAvinue, Otago Daily Times

Hawke’s Bay shearer Kalin Chrystal’s emotional burst as a star act in a major shearing fundraiser in Central Otago has given him a new lease on shearing life, which is already sparking a possible shot at a world record.

Shearing in support of the Talk Peach Gynaecological Foundation, he shore 1974 lambs in what were three back-to-back eight-hour woolshed shifts from the time he and seven others first hit the Wohelo Station, Moa Flat board at 6am on Saturday to when it finished, at 2pm on Sunday – effectively an average eight-hour-day tally of 658, which compares with the world-record eight-hour tally of 754.

It was comfortably more than any of the other four shearers who did the same slog, and the tallies of any of the other three stands which were rotated among “guest” shearers.

Altogether, 13,138 lambs were shorn - two to three thousand more than anyone anticipated - but it was not so much the tally that counted as the money in the bank, with over $125,000 estimated to have been raised for a variety of charities in a day out sparked by what last year was a more targeted fundraiser putting a similar figure into the coffers of the Southland Hospice.

The 32-year-old Chrystal – from Tutira, who had three years of 1st XV rugby at Napier Boys’ High School and Te Aute College, with games for several Hawke’s Bay representative age group sides and dreams of becoming an All Black – was a “retired” shearer until just a few months ago, when he set himself on the charity cause mission.

The motivation was there in photos on the pen door at Moa Flat: his mum, a cancer sufferer; the mother of his three children, who died young from cancer; and the three young ones. Being a solo dad for them meant he had put aside any thoughts he might once have had of returning to full-time shearing after taking to managing the family shearing business.

To get ready for the shear-athon, he concentrated on fitness – 40 lengths of the 25-metre pool at Onekawa, and 10 kilometres on the rowing machine at the gym.

“I didn’t do a lot of shearing,” he said back in the Bay this week, recalling how the fitness carried him through the first eight of the 12 two-hour runs, and how those photos on the door with him carried him through the rest as fatigue set in.

The “do-it-as-you-go” fitness regime had already proven itself on January 24 when he shore 852 lambs in a nine-hour blowout at Omahaki (off Taihape Rd) – 21 more than his previous best shorn at Kahurānaki 12 years ago, and just 20 short of the official record shorn in England in July 2021 by English shearer Stu Connor, who has been working in Hawke’s Bay this summer.

Such numbers have sparked thoughts of an official solo record bid, perhaps next summer, though whether that would be at eight or nine hours is still to be considered.

He has been in the frame before, having set a three-stand ewes world record in 2015 with uncle Errol Chrystal and workmate Shelford Wilcox.

Kalin Chrystal, pictured in 2015 as his uncle Errol Chrystal and workmate Shelford Wilcox shear a three-stand world ewe-shearing record. Photo / NZME

A third-generation shearer, Chrystal first shore more than 100 in a day 18 years ago, when just after turning 14, he did a tally of 201 in seven and a half hours, when the gang cut out the shed half an hour early.

Two years later, he shore his first 400 in a day, and in November 2009, aged 18, he shore 731. He has shorn only sparingly in competitions, but a month after that record, he claimed a $2000 winning purse at the Te Puna Speedshear in Bay of Plenty, with a time of 17.88 seconds for a single lamb.

Kalin Chrystal as a 16-year-old, shearing 400 sheep in a day for the first time. Photo / NZME

As for the rugby, his dreams turned to vapor when he “did my ACL” in his first game of Premier rugby, although he has continued playing as the young buck in an Taradale social team mostly made up of over-35s.

Chrystal shore over 100 more sheep than anyone else in the weekend blitz, with South Island-based Alex Clapham, from England, shearing 1860, Paul Hodges from Geraldine shearing 1817, and Waikaka shearers Brodie Horrell and Matt Hunt shearing 1709 and 1571 respectively.