The achievement notched up by Co. Tyrone shearing specialist, Tom Perry, during his recent record-breaking attempt is nothing short of amazing.
Full congratulations must go to him and his back-up team.
Tom now holds the nine-hour Irish shearing record – managing to ‘clip’ 858 lambs in the allotted time.
But this was not just a case of simply getting over the line.
Perry absolutely obliterated the previous record of 708 lambs, set by Co. Fermanagh shearer, Stanley Allingham, back in 2019.
His record-breaking attempt last Saturday (July 29) can be best described as follows: Welcome to the world of professional shearing.
Nothing, and I mean nothing, was left to chance.
The back-up team working with Tom constituted a perfectly honed machine, ready, willing and able to tick every box required of them.
It was like watching the pit crews operating at a Formula One racing event.
Meanwhile, Perry himself just kept on shearing sheep. He managed to push a shorn lamb down the ‘chute’, leading from the stage, every 38 seconds.
I estimated that a 200-strong crowd was in attendance on the day and all were there to cheer-on the record-breaking attempt.
Competitive shearing
Competitive shearing is a sport that might not be known to many outside the world of sheep farming.
However, the people involved at that very top level are akin to Olympic athletes.
Tom Perry went into training for his record-breaking attempt 11 months ago. Helping him on his journey was a team of physical fitness specialists, nutritionists and many, many others.
The end result for him was the simple accolade of having beaten the existing record.
But it was very fitting that the first man on-hand to congratulate Tom after he clinched the title was Stanley Allingham.
It should be pointed out that the Fermanagh man’s previous record also represented an amazing achievement.
The cheer that went up when Perry rewrote the history books was deafening – and rightly so.
The record was broken at 3:22p.m precisely.
But just for good measure, Tom went on to shear another 150 lambs in the remaining one hour and 38 minutes that were allotted to him.
A group of three judges was on-hand to verify everything that took place on the stage.
But what amazed me most of all was the fact that every lamb left Tom’s grasp with the requisite ‘short back and sides’ without a nick or a scratch on their skins.
All the proceeds generated from the nail-biting ‘Irish 9 Hour Lamb Shearing Record Attempt’ went to the charity, Rural Support, in Northern Ireland.