World record shearing hope and former Napier man Lou Brown yesterday at his base in Western Australia where he will attempt an an eight-hours ewes record on Saturday. Photo / Supplied
A former pupil of Napier's Colenso High School will on Saturday attempt to become the next shearer from Hawke's Bay to break a world record — shearing the hardened merinos of West Australia.
Lou Brown, now 31, was born and raised in Napier but moved to Australia when he was
13 and a student at Colenso, now William Colenso College.
He now lives in Bunbury, on the Western Australia coast and about 165km south of Perth. It is also about 180km west of where he will make the attempt on the solo eight-hour merino ewe-shearing record in a woolshed inland near Kojonup.
The record of 466 was set by Central North Island shearer Cartwright Terry, who set the mark in a two-stand record with brother Michael at Katanning, also in Western Australia, on February 22, 2003.
In a display of the shearing's camaraderie and sportsmanship, Saturday's bid is being organised by Cartwright Terry, who along with Brown flew across Australia to support New South Wales shearer Josh Clayton's ultimately unsuccessful bid for the same record.
In the record 16 years ago Terry shore consecutive two-hour run tallies of 114, 119, 118 and 113.
