Kiwi's Shearing Record Smashed In England

A record which had been held by New Zealand shearer Jack Fagan has been smashed in England.

Gunning for the World solo eight-hours strongwool lambshearing record, a Kiwi exclusive for most of the last 50 years, 29-year-old Nick Greaves shore 764 lambs on family farm Amerton Meadows, in Staffordshire, on Saturday.

Shearing four-two hour runs, Greaves started explosively, with 199 in the first two hours, and, following with runs of 195, 190 and 180, was always well ahead of the target, the 754 set by Te Kuiti gun Fagan at Puketiti Station, King Country, on December 22, 2022, just two days after Taihape shearer Reuben Alabaster had set a new mark of 752.

Fagan shore consecutive run tallies of 191, 183, 190 and 190 in his big day-out, and clockwatchers were assessing Greaves’ prospects from the start, with targets of under 38.15 seconds a lamb, or 23.6 lambs a quarter-hour, caught, shorn and despatched.

The average in the opening run was 36.18 seconds a lamb and the average for the day was a tick under 37.7sec, with Greaves’ record meaning that all four current World solo eight-hour and nine-hour strongwool lambs records have now been set in England.

In 2022, during a two-stand big day out with Welsh shearer Llyr Jones, Greaves averaged 36.78 seconds a lamb setting a British nine-hour solo record on UK breeds, which because of the nature of the breeds have a lesser minimum wool-weight requirement.

The latest record, which ended early today New Zealand time, was overseen by a four-man panel of referees appointed by the World Sheep Shearing Records Society, convened by New Zealand official Ronny King, of Pahiatua, the others being UK panellists Martyn David, Andy Rankin, and Mark Fox.

A crucial point was reached on the eve of the attempt with a pre-record wool-weigh, when the wool from a sample shear of 20 of the target flock averaged 0.94kg of wool per lamb, safely over the minimum requirement of 0.9kg.

Greaves has shorn at least eight seasons in New Zealand for Hawke’s Bay contractor Brendan Mahony, and in January 2020, in a blow-out ahead of a UK record bid later that year, shore 763 lambs in nine hours at Tarawera Station, in the pumice country between Napier and Taupo, on what was regarded as some of the toughest lambshearing in the World.

By the end of the third lamb that day he needed his first cutter change, when normally there would have been one every quarter-hour, and by the end of the day he’d used more than 200 cutters, and 42 combs.

He told an English publication recently: "Lots from within shearing have inspired me but someone who has believed in me from day one is Pete Chilcott from New Zealand, who always told me I was good enough for a record and never doubted me. Pete gave me confidence when I needed it most and got me through a tally day we did in 2020 in the build-up to the first record. He has taught me the lamb pattern I use today."

In the competition arena, Greaves was fourth in the Southland All-Nations Senior Final, alongside the 2017 World championships in Invercargill, and in the Golden Shears Senior final in Masterton three weeks later.

He graduated to the Open-class, and his biggest successes came at the Royal Bath and West Show in June when he won the English National, the UK Golden Shears Open, and the Six Nations championship.

On Wednesday, Scottish shearer Una Cameron, the only female to reach the Golden Shears Open top 30 in Masterton, will attempt the solo Women’s 9 hour strong wool ewes record of 458 set by New Zealand shearer Sacha Bond in Southland in February.

The attempt will take place at Trefranck Farm, St Clether, Cornwall, run by New Zealand farmer and shearer Matt Smith and wife Pippa, and where the UK assault on the solo strongwool records started with Smith’s nine-hour ewes mark of 731 on July 26, 2016.

World solo sheep shearing records as at August 3, 2024:

Eight Hours

Strongwool ewes: 644, Rowland Smith, Trefranck Farm, Cornwall, England. July 24, 2017.

Strongwool lambs: 764, Nick Greaves, at Jack Fagan, Amerton Meadows, in Staffordshire, England, August 3, 2024.

Strongwool ewes (women): 465, Catherine Mullooly, Nukuhakari Station, King Country, NZ, January 7, 2024.

Strongwool lambs (women): 686, Megan Whitehead, Grant Bros Tin House, Gore, NZ, December 15, 2023.

Crossbred lambs: 605, Aidan Copp, Stockman Stud, Melton Mowbray, Tasmania, January 28, 2023.

Merino ewes: 500, Luke Vernon, Thornton Park Grazing, Hastings, West Australia, April 12, 2024.

Merino ewes (women): 358, Jeanine Kimm, Daleith, Cassilis, NSW, May 4, 2024.

Merino wethers: 373, Steve Mudford, Parkdale Merino Stud, Dubbo, NSW, Australia, September 8, 2018.

Merino lambs: 624, Ethan Harder, Woolakabin, Williams, West Australia, September 18, 2023.

Merino lambs (blades): 245, Sammuel Juba, Victoria West, South Africa, February 10, 2006.

Nine Hours

Strongwool ewes: 731, Matthew Smith, Trefranck Farm Cornwall, England, July 26, 2016.

Strongwool lambs: 872, Stu Connor, Trefranck Farm, Cornwall, England, July 31, 2016.

Strongwool ewes (women): 458, Sacha Bond, Centrehill Station, Mossburn, NZ, February 9, 2024.

Strongwool lambs (women): 720, Sacha Bond, Centrehill Station, Mossburn, NZ, December 19, 2023.

Merino ewes: 540, Floyde Neil, Rockliffe Grazing, Kojonup, West Australia, April 22, 2023.

Merino wethers: 418, Grant Smith, Lake Coleridge, NZ, November 4, 1999.

Merino lambs: 664, Dwayne Black, Badgingarra, W.A., October 3, 2004.

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