SOUTHERN PAIR CLAIM TITLE The tandem team of Darin Forde and Wayne Ingram broke the world two-stand ewe-shearing record at Wairaki Station, near Blackmount in Western Southland, at 4.04pm yesterday, 1/2/1996. The two men shore 1335 sheep between 5am and 5pm - 141 more than the previous record set by fellow Southlanders Mark Spain And Stephen Dodds in 1989.  Hundreds of shearers and farmers packed the six-stand shed early yesterday morning to watch the two would-be champions. Champions of yesteryear gathered to spur the pair on. Snow Quinn, the shearing legend from Alexandra, and last year's world -breaking ewe-shearer Dion Morrell watched and waited as the tallies grew. By mid-afternoon the realisation dawned that the pair were in easy sight of victory and a world record. At 4.04pm the title was theirs. But they did not slack and at 5pm the last sheep was counted - 688 for Forde and 647 for Ingram. Event organisers said the two shearers had trained for months to get fit enough for the challenge. They had run, swum, worked out at the gym and shorn thousands of sheep to get to the stage where they were ready to take on the challenge. It was a sterling effort by the two young men but it was also a huge undertaking by a small community. Fifty-five people had worked behind the scenes to stage the attempt. By 7pm the action had shifted to the Waiau pub in Tuatapere, where the sound of shears was replaced by the sound of "cheers". Forde said the last run of the day was "a killer," and he was relieved the months of training and preparation had paid off. Conditions had generally been favourable, particularly in the morning when the weather was cooler. As the afternoon wore on and more heat the runs became more difficult. "We had a hard one waiting for that final break - it was a real killer." Forde said they were looking forward to a long weekend out of the shed and would start back at work on Monday.                                      Back