Shearing: Te Huia in record attempt

Stacey Te Huia will make another attempt on Hawke's Bay shearer Rodney Sutton's world record of 721 for strongwool ewes next week. Photo / File

Like most sports, it will be a game of numbers when Te Kuiti shearer Stacey Te Huia tackles the ultimate shearing record next Thursday - Hawke's Bay shearer Rodney Sutton's 721 strongwool ewes in nine hours set eight years ago.

The record attempt, originally set for Waitara Station, north of Te Pohue, but now taking place at Te Hape, east of Bennydale, starts at 5am, and comprises five runs separated by meal and smoko breaks. The runs are 5am-7am, 8am-9.45am, 10.15am-midday, 1pm-2.45pm and 3.15pm-5pm.

Sutton's record at Mangapehi, between Bennydale and Te Kuiti, on January 31, 2007, started with 158 in the first run of two hours to breakfast, and was followed by successive 1hr 45min runs of 140, 142, 140, and 141.

The suspense was there all day. The now South Island-based Sutton securing the record only when he made the record-breaking catch from the pen just four seconds before the chief judge called time.

The previous record of 720 held by Southland shearer Darin Ford had been unchallenged since it was set in a shed near Tuatapere on January 28, 1997, starting with an imposing 161 before breakfast, still a record for any two-hour run in a ewes record attempt.

Te Huia will have to average more than 80 ewes an hour. While the required rate is a sheep every 44.875 seconds, that does not take into account the catching time of about five seconds per sheep, and the regular gear maintenance - a change of cutter about every 15 minutes, taking 10-15 seconds, and quick zaps on the juice, mean the average shearing time will be under 38 seconds a sheep.

There have been four successful bids over 700, the first being on February 23, 1994, when King Country shearer David Fagan shore 702 at Brunel Peaks, Southland.

Te Huia, based mainly in Bathurst, NSW, first tackled a record when he was 20 in 1999, and currently holds two of the World Sheep Shearing Record Society's records.

He set the eight-hour record with a tally of 603 shorn at Moketenui, Bennydale, on December 22, 2010, with tallies of 146, 152, 153 and 152, over the four two-hour runs of that day, an average of a sheep every 47.761 seconds

Along with Sam Welch, of Waikaretu, he also shares a two-stand nine-hours record of 1341, shorn at Te Hape three years ago on January 17, 2012, when he shore a then personal best of 674, with run tallies of 149, 133, 131, 133, and 134.

Just over a year later, he made a first attempt on Sutton's record, but little went right from the start on the day and, with just 149 in the first run again, the target was never going to be seriously challenged. Hopes of a record were abandoned after the fourth run and the judges withdrew, but Te Huia shore on for a new personal best of 703.

Te Huia's fitness levels established in the shed, on the roads, in the gym and in the pool and the ocean will be put to good use again soon. He returns to Australia next month and tackles a finewool record on the merinos around Dubbo, NSW.