Merino shearing record broken by Waikato shearer Alexia Phillips

New Zealand shearer Alexia (Lexi) Phillips during her solo women's world eight-hours merino ewes shearing record in Western Australia on Saturday. She shore 367 to beat the previous record by nine ewes and fleeced almost 1.6 tonnes of wool. Photo / Hettie Davidson

Waikato shearer Alexia (Lexi) Phillips has become the latest world record holder after an official tally of 367 merino ewes in eight hours in a Western Australia woolshed on Saturday.

Needing an average of just under 45 an hour, Phillips was always ahead of target from the 7.30am start, shearing successive two-hour runs of 91, 92, 92 and 92 to beat the previous record of 358 held by New South Wales shearer Jeanine Kimm.

The record took place at Spring Valley Farm, Darkan, about 200km southeast of Perth.

Establishing the first mark for the solo women’s eight-hour merinos record in NSW on May 4, Kimm posted run-by-run tallies of 90, 86, 91 and 91.

Under World Sheep Shearing Records Society rules, the sheep needed to average at least 3.4kg of wool each according to a sample shear of 10 ewes the day before the record. While the sheep shorn by Kimm averaged 3.74kg, those shorn by Phillips averaged 4.35kg, resulting in a total clip of almost 1.6 tonnes.

There was plenty of Kiwi-Australian expertise in “Team Alexia”, including at least seven others who have set world shearing records.

Among them were brothers Cartwright and Michael-James Terry, who’ve helped at dozens of record attempts and were marking the 22nd anniversary of their own men’s two-stand record of 924 (466 and 458) that still stands.

Another was Sacha Bond, who last summer in Southland shore both the lambs and ewes strongwool solo women’s records for nine hours.

Phillips has shorn mainly abroad, branching out from shepherding to learn to shear mostly in the UK.

Employer and fellow record-breaker Floyd Neil, of Shear Pride, Boyup Brook, but from Taumarunui, said she shore for about two years around Bencubbin, about 275km northeast of Perth, but then sounded out Neil for work to the south.

“She approached me 16 months ago for a job, through Cartwright Terry,” he said. “From there she has always had intentions to do a record. I’m guessing we are the place to go if you want to do them, so one day she put the pressure on me to do something, I found some sheep for her and the rest is history.”

The attempt was overseen by a records society panel of four referees, convened by Piet Nel, of South Africa, assisted by Dave Brooker, of South Australia, and home-state officials Mike Henderson and Steve Potaka-Osborne.