Hugely determined attempt but Tiraumea’s Amy Silcock falls short of world shearing record

Any Silcock averaged about one sheep per 45 seconds.

A courageous and hugely determined attempt by Amy Silcock, of Tiraumea, to break the World Women’s Solo Strongwool Ewes shearing record at Ballance on Friday fell sadly short, despite her outstanding effort when “not a lot went her way”, according to one of the judges.

Amy started the day at Ross Na Clonagh Farm with a highly trained team to help her in the bid to average almost 93 sheep in each of the four two-hour runs to beat the record of 370 set by Marie Prebble in England last August.

The record attempt started at 7am and finished at 5pm, comprised the standard eight-hour shearing day of four two-hour runs, with half-hour breaks for morning and afternoon tea and an hour for lunch.

She also had an enthusiastic and vocal crowd of more than 50 that doubled as the day went on, and made sure they applauded every ewe that was sent down the chute.

An enthusiastic crowd urged her on and a big beatbox kept up the momentum.

Outside the shearing shed, Ballance School supplied lunch to the crowd raising $500 as a school fundraiser that was quickly converted to the cause of office lady Sam Steminger and her husband Dylan whose daughter Marley has been diagnosed with leukaemia.

However, right from the start, she was consistently behind the target, with runs of 87, 84, and 87, before finishing with 90 in the last two hours to the 5pm finish, with a tally of 348 for the day.

It was a day in which little went her way, the big sheep making the task difficult. A sample shorn for a pre-attempt wool weigh on Thursday showed the fleeces averaged 4.084kg of wool a head, well above the minimum requirement of 3kg.

Four judges had been appointed, convened by obligatory overseas representative Ralph Blue and South Island official Alistair Emslie, joined by North Island judges Neil Fagan and Ronnie King, and they praised her for making the attempt and her tenacity in continuing when the target was out of reach.

Her final two-hour run tally of 90 was her best when normally tallies drop off, her sheer grit ensuring it matched that of world champion Marie Prebble. To confirm Amy’s skill, not one of her sheep was rejected by the judges.

After the event, there was a presentation of flowers by her team followed by a speech from Jimmy Samuels, its spokesman, who said he was sorry it did not all quite work out, but they were ready and willing to do it all again for Amy in the future.

Amy thanked everyone, especially her huge number of sponsors who had made it all possible, her team, some of whom had come from the South Island and Australia, and the crowd who had kept up the constant support.

Australian Judge Ralph Blue said the team was “a fine group of young people who had learned a lot from this experience”. He said a world record attempt involves pushing a team to its highest point when “all the stars must line up to bring success”.

He said he looked forward to Amy having another go at the record when “the sheep are a little more forgiving”.