Smith all set to tackle nine-hour world mark

Hawke's Bay shearer Matt Smith, in the UK where he now lives and where he will on July 26 attempt the World nine-hour strongwool ewes shearing record.

England-based Hawke's Bay shearer Matt Smith has taken a break from world record preparations in the UK by winning the All Nations title at the Royal Ulster Show in Northern Ireland.

The 32-year-old Smith, now farming in England with wife Pip, last week won the six-man final for a second time, having previously won in 2009.

Brother and Maraekakaho farmer and shearer Rowland Smith won the title two years ago, a week before winning the Golden Shears World Championships 2014 title in Gorey, Republic of Ireland.

Matt Smith, who grew up in Northland and moved back to Hawke's Bay where he set a world mark of 578 ewes in eight hours in 2010, is now preparing to tackle the ultimate world shearing record of 721 strongwool ewes in nine hours.

There have been three unsuccessful attempts on the record set by Porangahau shearer Rod Sutton in a King Country woolshed in 2007, and Smith's will be the first time the record has been attempted outside New Zealand.

World Sheep Shearing Records Society secretary Hugh McCarroll confirmed the attempt will take place on July 26 at the Smith farm on Bodmin Moor, near Launceston, Cornwall.

But Mr McCarroll is still awaiting news on whether a second record bid will go ahead on the same property three days later, with Irish shearer Ivan Scott, a regular in New Zealand each summer, contemplating an attack on the nine-hour lambs record of 866 held by Dion King, of Hastings, also since 2007.

Scott holds the eight-hour record of 744, which he set at Opepe, 10km east of Taupo on State Highway 5, in 2012.

Matt Smith during his January 2010 World record of 578 ewes in eight hours. He's now set to tackle the nine-hour record of 721 in Cornwall, England, on July 26.

There's a multinational crew lining up to help Smith's bid on sheep selected from about 6500 romney ewes in the region, and among those will be Hawke's Bay Sports Awards finalist Rowland Smith, who will have just completed a CP Wool New Zealand team tour with fellow Hawke's Bay shearer John Kirkpatrick, including four tests against Wales.

Also on hand will be third Smith brother and Hawke's Bay-based shearer Doug Smith, who with Rowland holds the two-stand record for eight hours, while big support is coming from Brendan Kelly, from Northern Ireland, and Welsh shearing commentator Huw Condron.

Meanwhile, South Canterbury shearer Allan Oldfield, 25, has scored a unique treble by winning the blades finals at the Leinster Championships in Ireland and at the Royal Ulster Show, and a junior machine-shearing title at the Connacht Championships.

His father won the Leinster title two years ago.