Lyn Baigent has been described as the backbone of competition results in the shearing sports scene and her dedication over four decades has won her a national award.
She was a recipient of the TAB Outstanding Contribution to New Zealand Rural Sports Award at the recent Ford New Zealand Rural Sports Awards and it comes after countless weekends over the years on the shearing competition circuit around the Top of the South.
All eyes are usually on the shearers as they whisk the fleeces from the sheep as cleanly as possible, but behind the scenes, Lyn is the official points scorer. It’s a role that the judges noted requires exceptional attention to detail, recording and collating scores for time, quality and placings. She does it under immense pressure to ensure semi-finalists and finalists are accurately determined within a short timeframe.
Every season, she has traipsed between Reefton in the west to Golden Bay and on to Kaikōura in the east, adding up to more than 100 competitions over the years, which means she has seen a few sheep shorn.
Forty years ago, it was all manual paperwork, but fortunately technology has made it a little easier over the years and Lyn now has her trusty laptop to help.
She is now the longest serving Shearing Sports New Zealand points scorer in the history of the sport and though she hopes to find and mentor a successor, she will be there on her laptop for a while yet.
“Noone has said I’m retiring, so I suppose I’ll still be doing it! It’s quite exciting.
The first person (to get sheep shorn) isn’t always the winner. There are so many factors that come into it.”
Her role began because her husband, David, was a shearer and later became a competition judge, with a son then taking up the hand piece.
“So, you could say it’s in the blood now.”
