Taihape teen sets new world record for lamb shearing

A Taihape teen has become the youngest shearer to set a world record that had gone unchallenged for almost 11 years.

Reuben Alabaster, 19, set the solo record of 746 sheep on Tuesday at Te Pa Station, near Raetihi and Ohakune.

He broke the record of 744 – set by Irish gun Ivan Scott near Taupō in January 2012.

Alabaster learnt to shear when he was 10 years old and at the age of 18 became the youngest to hold a shearing record as part of a five-stand triumph.

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Now the young shearer had broken the solo-world eight-hour strong-wool lamb shearing record.

The wool shed was packed to capacity on Tuesday and pumping for most of the last two-hour run.

With rain and temperatures down to 14 degrees in Ohakune 20km away, the wool shed doors were closed to keep the heat indoors.

On average they day would have been roughly 30 degrees with doors open to let the heat out.

Alabaster needed an average of more than 93 lambs an hour, or quicker than 38.7 seconds a lamb caught, shorn and dispatched, and was off to a good start with 187 in the first two hours.

By lunchtime, he had shorn 183, after having one rejected.

Before 5pm Alabaster needed to beat the previous world record and managed to pull it off in the last minute and plucked an extra on the count of time.

“I actually thought the last one was for 745,” he said. “I was relieved.”

Anxious Dad Ricky sat alongside him, and cousin and world champion wool handler Sheree Alabaster was amongst the large crew of helpers – “the ones who did 90% of the work,” the teen shearer said.

There were emotional scenes at the end, with a father-son hug.

Afterwards, Alabaster was doing some judging of his own and still planned to be up at 7am on Wednesday.