Diminutive Napier shearer Steve Stoney said he was ready for his crack at the ultimate record, despite the enormity of a task of shearing almost 100 lambs every 60 minutes for nine hours, and being both the eldest and smallest to ever give it a go.
Stoney is 41 and stands
just 1.6m tall but is determined to break the record of 866 lambs set in January 2007 by fellow Hawke's Bay gun Dion King, who at the time was the reigning Golden Shears open and PGG Wrighton National series champion aged just 31.
Stoney's record bid will take place on open-face romdale-cross lambs at Kauranaki Station, south of Havelock North. It will start at 5am with the traditional five runs of the nine-hour work day which sees shearers work two hours to 7am, take an hour-long break for breakfast, and then work four runs of 1 hour 45 minutes each. Thirty-minute breaks are taken for morning and afternoon tea and an hour for lunch.
Shearing Sports New Zealand chairman John Fagan, the first to break the 800-lamb barrier in 1980, will keep a close eye on Stoney as one of four judges appointed by the World Sheep Shearing Records Society.
His world record attempt is the first of two in New Zealand confirmed for this summer with Te Kuiti shearer Stacey Te Huia challenging Far North shearer Matthew Smith's eight-hour strong wool ewes record of 578.
Two more record bids are expected in January with Doug and Rowland Smith of Far North planning a bid for the two-stand eight-hour ewes record and Golden Shears open and world champion Cam Ferguson of Waipawa targeting the solo-eight hours lamb record of 736.
