Shearing: World record attempt falls short in Wairarapa

International help as world nine-hour solo lamb shearing record holder Stuart Connor (left), of England, discusses proceedings with Welsh international Gethin Lewis, the timekeeper Llyr Jones.

A veritable royalty of New Zealand shearing has packed a remote Wairarapa woolshed for the first trans-global attack on a world shearing record.

But the ultimate prize proved beyond all the effort and all the willingness, as Kiwi hopeful Paerata Abraham and Welsh speedster Llyr Jones fell 15 short of the goal in challenging a world two-stand, eight-hours strong wool lambs record of 1410.

A year ago the pair were opponents in international test-match shearing.

Abraham and Jones knew they were off the pace for much of the day but battled on to the end with an official tally of 1396.

Current record holders Simon Goss and Jamie Skiffington were among the throng at Whitespurs, near Gladstone, east of Masterton, and Abraham had his brother-in-law and fellow New Zealand representative David Gordon watching the clock, while Jones had his Welsh national teammate Gethin Lewis at his side.

They opened well enough with 351 in the opening run from 7am to the morning break at 9am.

This is three more than Goss and Skiffington achieved in the first two hours of their record northeast of Whanganui in January 2023.

With 695 by lunch, the 354 best run of the day after the break was not enough to get onto the average of 353 a run needed to break the record.

As a result, they went into the last two hours from 3pm to 5pm needing 362, six more than the best run in the existing record.

In the end, Jones claimed the individual bragging rights with 708 for the day, and Abraham was credited with 688, compared with the 715 and 695 of Goss and Skiffington respectively.

Shearer Paerata Abraham with brother-in-law and fellow 2023-2024 New Zealand team member David Gordon at his side during the unsuccessful two-stand lamb shearing record attempt on Tuesday.

The green light for the record to go ahead was given on Monday when a sample shear of 20 lambs produced an average of 0.937kg of wool each, safely over the minimum requirement of 0.9kg.

Among those present were at least four who held individual world shearing records, three individual world champions, and Jones’ parents who had travelled from Wales.

Llyr Jones' parents travelled from Wales to support their son at the shearing record attempt.

The helpers in the pens included English shearer Stu Connor, who in England in 2021 set shearing’s pinnacle world nine-hour solo strong wool lambs record of 872, which Skiffington, from Rotorua, will be challenging in one of two other record bids in New Zealand in the next few weeks.

An attempt will be made on the three-stand strong wool lambs record for eight hours near Hunterville on December 18, and Skiffington’s nine-hour attempt will take place near Dannevirke on January 20.

In Australia on December 21 an attempt will be made on the women’s eight-hour merino lambs record of 395 which was established on November 17.