In a month’s time, Burton duo Adam Bates and Alex Gill are attempting to break a world record but they need your help!

Here’s what’s happening in Adam’s own words…

Adam and Alex

Adam and Alex

My friend, Alex, and I (both from Burton) will be attempting to break the Guinness World Record for the longest-ever squash marathon on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th May at Nottingham Squash Rackets Club. That means the two of us are aiming to play each other for over 32 hours, 7 minutes, 36 seconds…! It’s going to be extremely tough, which is why we’ve been training intensely for many months. I’ll be running my fourth marathon in as many months on Sunday in preparation.

We’re doing it in memory of my aunty Ann Hogan for the Wildlife Trusts, which was her favourite charity before she passed away suddenly last year.

We’re looking for people who would like to get involved in the event to act as official witnesses in order for the record to be officially ratified.

The witnesses don’t have to have previous experience of the role, which is a very simple one in making sure we don’t cheat. Their duty would be to maintain the logbook, which consists of noting down…

  •  The duration of our rest breaks (we’re allowed 5 minutes per hour, which can be accumulated e.g. 15 minutes break after three hours or 5 minutes break after three hours with the remaining 10 minutes carried on to a later point).
  •  The scores
  •  Details of witness changeovers

The witnesses rotate in four-hour shifts and can do no less than four hours, but can return later to do more four-hour stints.

We will be starting the record attempt at 10:00am on the Saturday and will finish around 18:30 on the Sunday evening (depending on how far we can get).

Here’s a video I made before returning to the UK a week or so ago going into further detail on the attempt’s circumstances:

I’d love to speak to anybody who is able to help us. I can be contacted on 07907 013 272 or A.L.Bates@hotmail.com.

Many many thanks,
Adam Bates