Veteran shearer makes world record attempt

Shelford Wilcox, with cousin, Golden Shears and 2012 World woolhandling champion Joel Henare, gathering the fleece during yesterday's record day at Big Hill Station. Shelford shore 488 ewes in a three-stand tally of 1347 in eight hours. Photo / Warren Buckland

At the age of 44, Errol Chrystal had had almost 20 years on nephew Kalin and fellow shearer Shelford Wilcox as the trio tackled a world shearing in a remote Big Hill Station woolshed west of Hastings.

He's also got a crook back, but to do the record he had to abandon the shearing sling he usually wears to support it.

And he'd lost about a fortnight of the crucial preparation after hacking his hand with the handpiece one day at work, and then having it infected after getting rid of the stitches so he could get ready for the big day.

"This is all about survival now," he said as he entered the last of the four two-hour runs during the day, which started at 7am and finished at 5pm.

After staggering to the end, with 373 of the trio's 1347 sheep, establishing a three-stand ewes record for an eight-hour day, he said: "This is a dream come true."

He'd always wanted to do a record.

"It's the ultimate ... a whole day at work," he said.

But for the hardy 71kg veteran of almost 30 years' shearing it was more about an opportunity for the youngsters, with Wilcox, aged 26, topping the tallies with 488, and Kalin Chrystal, who turned 25 last week, finishing with 486 of the romneys, weight 55-60kg each. Current records range from solo to eight-stand eight and nine hour tallies, but yesterday was the first attempt at the three-stand ewes record for eight hours.

"It's a stepping stone," said Kalin Chrystal, who first had his name in the paper for shearing in January 2005, when he shore 200 lambs in eight hours at the age of 14.

They expect that now a standard is set others will be out to beat it, but Kalin Chrystal said he and Wilcox would like to do a two-stand record attempt next, maybe as early as next season.

Yesterday had served as a learning curve under the watchful eye of five World Sheep Shearing Records Society judges, headed by Australian judge Ralph Blue.

There was plenty of support at the generator-powered woolshed, at an altitude of about 600m, and an hour by road and farm track from Hastings, in temperatures soaring above 30C outside.

There were at least 30 helpers - woolhandlers, pressers, men in the pens, farmer Bill Glazebrook's staff, cooks and, among them all, the Golden Shears and 2012 World woolhandling champion Joel Henare, Wilcox's cousin.