An apprentice, but still the World's best

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On behalf of Shearing Sports New Zealand

January 10, 6.40pm

Shearing record:

An apprentice, but still the World's best

Kerri-Jo Te Huia may be just an apprentice, but today she became the new face of the shearing World today as she smashed an eight-hour record in a remote King Country woolshed.

The 30-year-old from Te Kuiti, in only her fifth season of shearing and nearing the end of a Modern Apprenticeship with industry trainers Tectra, she shore 507 lambs in eight hours at Te Hape, east of Benneydale, becoming the first woman to do 500 in an eight-hour day.

She hammered the founding record 470 set in a nearby woolshed by university graduate and Wairoa shearer Ingrid Baynes three years ago.

Despite an aching lower back, tended between runs by eight-months-pregnant sister Natalie who flew from South Australia for the event, Te Huia had no problems maintaining the required speed and quality, shearing constantly over 60 an hour with run-tallies of 124 in both morning runs, 7-9am and 9.30-11.30am, accelerating with 133 from 12.30-2.30pm and came-home with 126 in the last two hours to 5pm.

She broke the record just before 4.26pm, and reached her goal of 500 with six-and-a-half minutes to go.

The lambs constantly clipped more than 1.1kg each and with the average weight per animal estimated at 32kg, Te Huia hauled about 16 tonnes of lamb onto the board throughout the day.

"I wouldn't want to go through that again in hurry," she said, culminating more than nine months of preparation and rolling her eye at the suggestion of a crack at the ultimate nine-hour, five-run record of 648, set by Port Waikato shearer Emily Welch four years ago.

Baynes was present to see the last moments, as were Welch and several other record breakers, including King Country icon David Fagan who mastered the gear for the day, including combs used at the rate of two a run, and cutters at about eight a run.

Also present at the end was Irish shearer Ivan Scott who only 24 hours earlier set a new men's record of 744.

Her woolhandler, in a record overseen by four judges appointed by the World Shearing Records Society, was Jaz Tipoki, from Martinborough

Te Huia is the third of the family to hold a World record, with brother Stacey, the current men's eight-hours ewes record holder monitoring her pace closely on the board. He will be tackling another record on the same board next week, with his record-breaking youngest sister "rousieing" for the day.

The youngest of the five shearing progeny of shearing contractor and instructor Dean Te Huia and wife Jo, Kerri-Jo shore in Australia in the New Zealand winter, and said it had been tough regaining her style back in New Zealand, where she has worked mainly in the King Country but also did two seasons in Wairarapa.

ENDS

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