New Zealand shearer Reuben Alabaster will be one of two shearers to attempt a new eight hour strong wool lamb shearing record this year. Image – Doug Laing, Shearing Sports New Zealand.

NEW Zealand sheep shearers plan to mount separate attacks on the world eight hour strong wool lamb record this year.

Shearing Sports New Zealand said two shearers who partnered in a five-stand world lamb shearing record five months ago are now planning to go almost head-to-head in attempts to bring a solo record back to New Zealand just before Christmas this year.

Teenager Reuben Alabaster, of Taihape, will tackle the strong wool lamb record on December 20 at Te Pa Station, between Ohakune and Raetihi, and, whatever the outcome, the record will be targeted again two days later by Te Kuiti shearer Jack Fagan at Puketiti Station, near Pio Pio.

At stake is the eight hours record of 744 held for more than 10 years by Irish shearer Ivan Scott and set at Opepe Station, near Taupo, on January 9, 2012.

Under the watchful eye of an international panel of judges, including one watching on-line from Wales, Alabaster and Fagan were among a gang of shearers who set a five-stand record of 3740 in nine hours on December 22 last year, also at Te Pa Station.

Fagan topped the individual tallies on the day, shearing 811, one better than the personal best of father, global shearing legend Sir David Fagan, shorn 29 years earlier, to the day. Alabaster, aged 18 at the time, shore 774.

The new record attempts were announced on the website of the World Sheep Shearing Records Society, that will appoint international panels to monitor the quality of the shearing and ensuring all other rules are met.

Meanwhile, an English shearer who shore more than 700 in a blow-out in some of the toughest shearing conditions will be part of a two-stand British record for nine hours on his family’s farm in England on August 12.

Nick Greaves shore 763 lambs in nine hours in the pumice country at Tarawera Station between Napier, in January 2020, in what was also an extreme test of the gear. He went through 42 combs and more than 200 cutters — each more than five times the equipment norm in most conditions in New Zealand. He will be shearing the record attempt with Welsh shearer Llyr Jones, who has also shorn in New Zealand.

Source: Shearing Sports New Zealand.