Too much wool shear frustration

A Guinness world record attempt for the fastest time to shear a mature sheep was thwarted with hardly a buzz at the recent Koorda Speed Shears.

Shears organiser Campbell Jones said the opportunity to break the 39.09-second record held by Hilton Barrett, of Wellington, New South Wales, was never going to happen due to the woollier sheep type that was penned at Koorda.

"We cannot source the lesser wool types from our local area similar to which Mr Barrett shore for the record," Mr Jones said.

He said although it was disappointing that the record, set in 2010, did not fall to the Koorda event, the quality of the shearing was still world class.

As the shearers arrived on Friday and looked over the Mollerin Rock Dohne stud ewes, it was quickly decided the competition would be limited to who would be the fastest on the boards that evening.

Australind shearer Beau Guelfi was first under a minute, clocking 57.75 seconds in round one of the open.

While most of the other competitors struggled for time, Todd Wegner, of Nungarin, was the closest to Guelfi's and it came down to the second round in which the two shearers' aggregate tally would tell the tale.

While Guelfi finished in a fast 54 seconds, the win eluded him because the judges said too much wool was missed and Guelfi's subsequent disqualification led to Wegner being named the winner of the open Speed Shears.

The 48-year-old retired shearer, who now is a Heiniger sales manager, said he was lucky to pick the right sheep because he was up against the best in the business.

"I really enjoy shearing competitions, especially when my two sons are also involved," Wegner said.

The intermediate Speed Shears event was won by Dustin Stubna.

On Saturday, the Koorda clean shears competition got underway, made up of five divisions with a total of 33 competitors.

In the open event, Damien Boyle, of Broomehill, set the winning pace.

Open shearers Boyle, Mark Buscumb and Glen Askew are now qualified to compete for a spot on the Australian team which will shear against New Zealand and South Africa in the Tri-Nations event to be held at the 2011 IGA Perth Royal Show.

Senior shearing at Koorda was won by Ben Wood, of Broomehill, while Bob Mauchline, of Northam took out the intermediates.

Under 21 winner was Beau Wegner and novice champion Andrew Humphrey.

Damien Boyle also finished on top of the WA Challenge when each shearer had to shear six Dohne ewe hoggets and six Merino ewes.

In the woolhandlers events, the open win went to Aroha Garvin and the novice was more success for Beau Wegner.