Watch: Jack Fagan set for crack at two-day-old shearing record

Jack Fagan in action during his attempt to break the eight-hour strong wool lamb shearing record. Photo / Supplied

Te Kuiti shearer Jack Fagan is boring down on a new world solo eight-hour strong wool lamb shearing record, with just 183 needed in the last two hours to beat the current record.

So far the Te Kuiti shearer has had successive runs of 191, 183 and 190 to clock up 564, in the six hours to the afternoon tea break in his bid to break the record of 746 set by Taihape teenager Reuben Alabaster on Tuesday.

Alabaster’s shearing run tallies of 188, 183, 187, and 188, added just two to the previous record of 744, which was held by Irish shearer Ivan Scott for almost 11 years.

Scott’s record was set near Taupō in January 2012, in turn breaking Hawke’s Bay shearer Cam Ferguson’s record of 742 shorn in 2011.

In Fagan’s first run he shore 191 of the open-faced Romney lambs in the two hours from 7 am to 9 am - an average just under 37.7sec a lamb caught, shorn and dispatched; a pace which could have seen him break the record by about 20 lambs.

Watch the action on Twitch or on Facebook - Jack Fagan – World 8hr Lamb Shearing Record Attempt.

About the attempt

The scene is set for a second attack on the world eight-hour strong wool lamb shearing record, with sheep and shearer ready to go today in the King Country.

Te Kuiti shearer Jack Fagan will be attempting to beat the record of 746 set on Tuesday by Taihape shearer Reuben Alabaster.

Fagan began his attempt at 7 am this morning at Puketiti Station, which is 25 km by road west of State Highway 3 township Piopio.

Fagan will shear the standard eight-hour woolshed day of four runs, from 7 am to 9 am, 9.30 am-11.30 am, 12.30 pm-2.30 pm and 3 pm-5 pm.

He needs an average of under 38.55 seconds per lamb caught, shorn and dispatched, or over 23.44 lambs a quarter-hour or 93.375 per hour.

The pace will be a step up from the 176 he shore in the two-hour 5 am-7 am run at the start of a five-stand record a year ago, finishing with 811 in nine hours, an average of 90.111 per hour.

With rain dogging the King Country area and its shearing over recent weeks, the big hurdles were overcome today when the dry lambs were brought in to cover for the night, and 20 were shorn in a pre-record wool-weigh late-afternoon with an average of 0.947kg of wool per lamb, meeting the World Sheep Shearing Records Society minimum requirement of 0.9kg.

A four-man World Sheep Shearing Records Society judging panel will officiate, convened by David Brooker, from South Australia, and assisted by South Island judge Paul Harris, of North Canterbury, and North Island judges Ronnie King, of Wairarapa, and Bart Hadfield, of Northern Hawke’s Bay.