Smith’s Shearing Success

Far North, New Zealand shearer Matthew Smith launched himself into the records book with a near perfect effort as he smashed the World eight-hour ewe shearing record northwest of Napier.  

The 25-year-old, who became one of the youngest men to set an official shearing record, breezed past the previous top tally of 560 about 3.45pm with about 15 minutes to go, and set a new mark of 578.  

Shearing in a remote shed on the hill-country, prospective windfarm Waitara Station, where he started with rain falling outside at 6am, Smith shore successive two-hour tallies of 149, 144, 143 and 143.  The new record was derived after the four judges ejected one during the     two-hour run to the lunch break.  

When Southland shearer Jimmy Clark set the previous record two years ago, he shore runs of 140, 141, 139 and 140, smashing the previous mark of 495, which had been set in 1999.   

Chief judge Peter Black, from Australia, said from the magical start Smith had improved during the day, and finished with a quality rating of 10.93pts, comfortably inside the limit of 12 which if breached at any time would have resulted in a warning and possible disqualification.  Just one sheep was rejected during the day from the tally because of poor quality.  

The World Sheep Shearing Records Society requires a minimum average weight of 3 kilograms per ewe fleece.  Smith's average fleece weight totalled 3.1kg for the 578 sheep shorn.  

Matt was unable to comment after his record because he had to undergo lactic acid replenishment treatment for physical exertion.   Smith, 2006 winner of the Golden Shears open plate, has, stacked-up an impressive list of geographic credentials in his young career, as he has been on the move since he first went abroad at the age of 17.  In addition to North America and the UK he shears each year in Estonia, Latvia and Finland, and says there are challenges wherever he shears.           

Te Kuiti shearer Stacey Te Huia failed in his bid to challenge Smith the following week when he hoped to be the first to shear 600 ewes in eight hours since official World record structures were first put in place more than 40 years ago.