Reuben Alabaster breaks eight-hour strong wool lamb shearing record

Taihape shearer Reuben Alabaster points to his new solo world strong wool lamb shearing of 746 lambs in eight hours at Te Pa Station, near Raetihi and Ohakune, on December 20, 2022. Photo / SSNZ

Taihape teenager Reuben Alabaster had to wait until the last minute to break a world shearing record which had gone unchallenged for almost 11 years.

After shearing a new solo eight-hour strong wool lamb shearing mark of 746, Alabaster now faces the possibility he could be the holder for just 48 hours - as Te Kuiti shearer Jack Fagan is in line to tackle the same record.

Alabaster broke the record yesterday at Te Pa Station, south of Raetihi and Ohakune, and Fagan’s attempt will take place in a woolshed near Pio Pio on Thursday.

At 19 years of age, Alabaster is the youngest to set a solo record, and a year ago, at the age of 18 and in the same woolshed, he became the youngest to hold a shearing record, as part of a five-stand triumph.

With these achievements behind him, the possibility of just a two-day stay at the top was the least of concerns amid the euphoria of breaking a record of 744, which had been shorn by Irish gun Ivan Scott near Taupō in January 2012.

With rain pouring outside, and temperatures down to 14deg in Ohakune 20km away, the woolshed doors were closed to keep the heat in, a far cry from an average December 20, where it would have been in the range of 30deg with the doors open to let some heat out.

The woolshed was more than packed to capacity and pumping big-time for most of the last two-hour run, which was always going to be touch-and-go if Alabaster were to break the record.

Needing an average of over 93 lambs an hour, or quicker than 38.7 seconds a lamb caught, shorn and dispatched, Alabaster got off to a good start, with 187 in the opening run from 7 am to the morning-tea break at 9 am.

His 183 in the two hours to lunch, after having one rejected by the World Sheep Shearing Records judging panel, guaranteed a tough afternoon, but he recovered with an all-counted 187 in the next two hours to go to afternoon tea needing 187 to break the record in the run to the 5 pm finish.

He did it in the last minute and plucked an extra on the count of time to finish with 188.

“I actually thought the last one was for 745,” he said.

“I was relieved.”

Anxious dad Ricky sat alongside him, and cousin, and world champion woolhandler, Sheree was among the large crew of helpers.

Alabaster said they were the ones who did “90 per cent of the work,” after blasting his way through the last hour, carried by the constant chanting and music from supporters which resembled the final minutes of a close match between the All Blacks and Wales at Cardiff Arms.

Reuben Alabaster and dad Ricky Alabaster in the emotional moments after Reuben broke the solo world eight-hour strong wool lamb shearing record. Photo / SSNZ

Among others in the crew was event manager Justin Bell, a Southern Hawke’s Bay farmer who once held both the eight and nine-hour records.

Of his last 50 lambs, more than 30 were through the porthole in under the 38.7 seconds-a-sheep threshold, a dozen at least three seconds quicker.

There were emotional scenes all around at the end, with a father-son hug for the ages, after an effort the equivalent of running two back-to-back marathons, according to scientific monitoring of a world record breaker in Australia about 20 years ago.

Alabaster learnt to shear before he was 10, and he’s since also been a successful competition shearer, including in 2018, when he was runner-up in the Golden Shears junior final in Masterton, and winner of the New Zealand Shears junior title in Te Kuiti, at the age of 14.

Judging convener Dave Brooker, from South Australia, confirmed there had been just one lamb rejected during the day, and said it was a good day’s shearing, Alabaster having an average quality rating of 11.23, inside a threshold of 12 penalties.

Afterwards, Alabaster was doing some judging of his own, looking remarkably fresh and assessing that for pain ratio it rated “11 out of 10″.

But he’d still be up at seven in the morning, even if only for a possible early media engagement if needed.

“That’s what shearers do,” one of the crew said.

Fagan’s bid on Thursday at Puketiti comes 30 years to the day after his father Sir David Fagan shore a nine-hour record 810 in Southland on December 22, 1992.

It’s also the first anniversary of another day at Te Pa when Fagan shore 811 and Alabaster 774 in a five-stand record for nine hours.