She's shear class!
The rise and rise of top-class female shearers is a growing phenomenon in NZ – especially during recent times.
The two and shearing contracting partner Tony Clayton-Greene are organising The Cavalier Woolscourers Ltd eight-hour, five-stand World Lamb Shearing Record attempt for the unclaimed eight-hour tally record at Cashmore Farms in Kawakawa Bay, between Clevedon and the Firth of Thames, on December 10. This is the closest to Auckland an event like this has ever been held.
Sam Welch will tackle the record with brother Richard, South Island shearer and 2012 PGG Wrightson National Series winner Angus Moore, Te Akau shearer Cole L'Huillier, and Peter Totorewa, from Huntly.
Welch, 35, reckons he's finally ready to have another go, having taken more than a year to get over the January 2012 day in which he shore 667 sheep as he and Te Kuiti shearer Stacey Te Huia set a World two-stand record of 1341 ewes in nine hours in a King Country woolshed.
His wife, however, is happy to take her place in the event management and support crew, with no serious thought of repeating the effort she put into shearing a women's record of 648 lambs in nine hours in November 2007.
The scale of the event means extra lambs will have to be transported from Waikaretu to supplement the Romneys available on the property where the big shear will take place, and there'll be a mixture of ewe and wether lambs.
"They're going to be tough lambs," Welch says, "and anything over 600 (by any of the shearers) will be pretty good. It'll be overwhelming if we get to 3000 all-up."
But he believes at least two are capable of shearing over 600 on the day: Moore, to whom Emily Welch was runner-up in the March 2007 Golden Shears senior final, and L'Huillier, who on the same day was third in the Golden Shears intermediate final.
The record will take place over the standard eight-hour shearing day, starting at 7am, with four two-hour runs, morning and afternoon smoko breaks of 30 minutes, and an hour for lunch.
At least one judge from overseas will be in a panel of officiators appointed by the World Sheep Shearing Records Society.
It will be the biggest shearing record bid in New Zealand since a six-stand nine-hour record in Southland in 2005. Earlier this year, also in Southland, a four-stand record of 2556 was set by four shearers averaging 639 each in eight hours.
