Lloyd Rees (right) and health and fitness coach and trainer Matt Luxton after Rees' British breeds record of 902 lambs in nine hours in Wales. Photo / Supplied
Lloyd Rees (right) and health and fitness coach and trainer Matt Luxton after Rees' British breeds record of 902 lambs in nine hours in Wales. Photo / Supplied
Welsh shearer Lloyd Rees has beaten a British breeds nine-hour lamb shearing UK record - only seven days after it was shattered by his English counterpart Nick Greaves.
Rees, (29) shore 902 lambs in nine hours at Blaenbwch Farm, near Builth Wells, in Wales on August 19.
This smashed Greaves'881, which he shore a week earlier on August 12, in Staffordshire, during a two-stand record with brother-in-law and Welsh shearer Llyr Jones.
Rees' effort was the first time an average of more than 100 lambs an hour had been exceeded in any official record attempts, including world or British.
Rees also had a record-breaking two-hour breakfast run of 203 from 5 am to breakfast at 7 am, followed by 1 hour 45mins runs of 174, 171, 177 and 177 to finish at 5 pm.
However, catering for the different breeds and smaller flocks in Britain, the conditions for UK records do not require a top knot, and only an average 0.8kg of wool per sheep is required.
Nine-hour days in the UK were a rarity, due to the difficulty of getting sufficient numbers of tally sheep at one time.
Despite this, the world record has twice been set in the UK, as well as two ewe-shearing records by New Zealand brothers Matt and Rowland Smith
"The lambs came from a few different flocks to get enough sheep and it would be only the second proper structured nine-hour day I've done in the UK," Rees said.
"Some days I've had to shear for longer just to finish off a farm.
"We don't do set working days here. It's more about trying to shear one or two people's flocks each day."
Rees is no stranger to shearing in New Zealand, having started in South Taranaki with contractor Brendan Iremonger and also working three seasons for Jamie McConnachie at Winton.
In 2019 he sheared 907 in a nine-hour blow-out at Otanapae, near Taupō.
This was set up by Bay of Plenty contractor Jeff Dorsett, for whom Rees worked six of his 10 seasons in New Zealand.
World Shearing Records Society judge and UK-based New Zealander Johnny Fraser said the record lambs Aberfield X and Scottish black face Aberfield X, weighed about 34-35kg.
English shearer Nick Greaves in setting the British breeds record of 881 lambs in nine hours, a record he was to hold for just one week. Photo / Supplied
The world record nine-hour lamb shearing of 872 was shorn by Oxfordshire's Stu Connor in England last year, beating 867 shorn by Irish shearer Ivan Scott in Cornwall in 2016.
The highest official tally in New Zealand remains the 866 shorn by Hawke's Bay gun Dion King, in a King Country woolshed in January 2007 - the world record for more than nine years.
Records society chairman Paul Harris said that, while conditions for the world and British records were different, the British guns had "thrown out a challenge" to the best New Zealand could muster.
The society currently has four world record bids on its books, starting this Thursday when English shearer Marie Prebble, who has also worked several years in New Zealand, plans to establish a women's strong wool ewes record for eight hours at Trefranck.
In New Zealand, Reuben Alabaster, of Taihape, and Jack Fagan, of Te Kuiti - on December 20 and December 22 respectively - will make separate attempts on the men's eight-hour strong wool lambs record of 744, set by Ivan Scott in New Zealand almost 10 years ago.
On February 4, 2022, King Country-based shearer Sacha Bond will attempt the women's eight-hour strong wool lambs record in Southland, targeting the mark of 510, shorn by mainly New Zealand-based Canadian shearer Pauline Bolay in a Port Waikato woolshed in 2019.
There have been several bigger lamb-shearing blow-outs over 900 in non-record conditions in New Zealand over the years, including 1103 by Southern Hawke's Bay shearer Rodney Sutton in a Bay of Plenty woolshed in February 2006.
