"STICKY" belly wool thwarted Beau Guelfi's attempt to break a 13-year-old shearing world record at Yathroo on Saturday.
While Mr Guelfi was kept cool by a giant evaporative air conditioner, a temperature approaching 40((xB0))°C at Carl Moltoni's Scenic Park shearing shed was supposed to help his record attempt.
The heat was supposed to activate lanolin in the fleece and open up the wool by straightening any curl.
That would make it smoother and quicker for the comb on Mr Guelfi's handpiece to pass through and for the cutters to peel fleece off the sheep.
To shear 467 Merino ewes in eight hours on his own to claim the record Mr Guelfi needed everything to go right to maintain a one-minute-per-sheep pace.
But despite the heat, the belly wool remained matted and it generally took him three or more blows on each sheep's belly to clear the wool when it should have taken one.
Daniel Wilkie, Wilkie Shearing, Moora, who kept tally for Mr Guelfi, acknowledged the 7am start meant sheep for the first two-hour run had not been in the sun long and may have been "too cool".
The week before, talking to Farm Weekly, Mr Guelfi had expressed concern about the belly wool.
At the end of the first run his tally was 110, four behind that of record holder Cartwright Terry, a spectator on Saturday who now lives in Perth and is a shearing instructor at Great Southern Institute of Technology, Albany.
But as the day got hotter the "sticky" belly wool problem didn't straighten out.
There were plenty of shearers in the crowd packed into the shed, some standing on wool bales for a better view.
They recognised the record attempt was in trouble but might still be salvaged by a supreme effort and a change of luck.
Mr Guelfi repeated 110 in his second run but the referees - there were four World Sheep Shearing Records committee referees watching - rejected two sheep under the rules, so his tally was cut to 108.
At lunch and the half-way mark he was 15 sheep behind the 2003 runs of Mr Terry who claimed the solo record and the two-stand record with his brother Michael-James on Westerndale station, Beaufort River.
After 45 minutes of the third run it became clear the chance of a record had slipped away despite the crowd becoming very vocal and urging Mr Guelfi on.
He had put in the supreme effort but the luck hadn't improved.
A support crew member spoke briefly with the referees then as Mr Guelfi shoved a ewe down the chute and straightened to step into the pen for the next his second, Ross Thompson, put a hand on his shoulder to indicate it was over.
Mr Thompson from Inverell, New South Wales, who was also Mr Guelfi's second on his two previous attempts at the record, said tactics were discussed over lunch.
"We told him that if he could shear 31 in the first half hour after lunch and 32 in the second half hour then we might still be able to get it back on track," he said,
As second it was his role to try to keep Mr Guelfi on pace.
"Unfortunately it didn't happen, the belly wool was just too sticky," he said.
"It's no fault of Beau's, Merino records are very susceptible to the conditions of the day.
"When Beau's got the pedal to the metal going flat out, pushing him won't make him go any faster.
"Everything has to go right, we are talking only seconds making a difference.
"We tried a few different things after lunch to try and gain those few seconds but it didn't happen today."
A disappointed and emotional Mr Guelfi, who was raised in Kukerin and still owns a farm there but lives some of the year in New Zealand, received a standing ovation.
He thanked everyone for attending and his sponsors.
"They put up quite a bit of money to get the judges here today," he said of the sponsors.
"You have to have a dream. Thank you everybody for giving me a chance to try to achieve mine.
"You have to have a crack."
Mr Guelfi said he could not rule out a fourth attempt at the record.
Record attempt organiser Rhenice Wilkie, Wilkie Shearing, Moora, told the crowd she would organise another attempt in a "heartbeat".
Entry donations, sale of record attempt memorabilia and food and drinks and an auction of donated goods and services raised more than $12,000 for the Variety Bash which supports the Variety children's charity.
The previous record attempts by Mr Guelfi have raised $15,000 for beyondblue and $12,000 for the Royal Flying Doctors Service.
p For more photos from the record attempt see page 35 in Section 2 of this week's Farm Weekly.