Whanganui shearer Simon Goss breaks world shearing record with 732 ewes in nine hours

Simon Goss sets world nine-hour ewes record, shearing 732 sheep in Te Pa. Photo / Supplied

Whanganui shearer Simon Goss has claimed the ultimate shearing record in a dramatic day in a Central North Island woolshed.

Starting the day at 5am at Te Pa, between Raetihi and Ohakune today, the 29-year-old Goss, brother of women’s rugby legend Sarah Hirini, broke the world solo nine-hour strong-wool ewes record with less than 50 seconds to spare before the 5pm knock-off.

Averaging a tick over 44 seconds a sheep – caught, shorn and dispatched and including handpiece cutter changes on the quarter-hour – Goss finished with a tally of 732, beating the previous record of 731 shorn by former Northland and Hawke’s Bay gun Matthew Smith in England on July 26, 2016.

The new record-holder shore 166 in the first run of two hours to breakfast and then successive 1hr 45min runs of 141 and 140 in the morning, crucially, 144 in the first run after lunch, and came home with 141 in the last 105 minutes from the start of the last run at 3.15pm.

World Sheep Shearing Records Society secretary Hugh McCarroll, a veteran of the first Golden Shears in 1961 and watching live-streaming at home in Tauranga, said Goss had had two rejected by the panel of four referees in the third run, and needed the 144 that recovered the lost ground after lunch.

In his record, Smith had successive run tallies of 164, 142, 142, 141 and 142.

Timed right, shearers can boost their chances by getting the last catch each run any time up to the bell, as this event’s manager, Rod Sutton, did when he set a record of 721 in 2007, making the last, record-breaking catch just seconds before time was called, but under the rules being able to complete the sheep and add it to the total.

As the day wore on, conjecture started as to the possibility of the first time a record had been equalled in the nearly 60 years since the first formal rules were put in place in the late 1960s.

The crowd in the woolshed, including a support team of over 30 and including several others who have broken world shearing records, burst into spontaneous applause as Goss switched off the machinery for the last time.

But the record was not confirmed until the four World Sheep Shearing Records Society referees completed their job about 40 minutes later, satisfied the rules and quality standards had been met.

The sheep had to be at least 2 years old and carry an average of at least 3kg of wool each, as determined in a sample shear that took place on Sunday afternoon.

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