Cricketer hoping for world record after batting continuously for 50 hours

A cricketer from Suffolk is feeling “quietly confident” that he has broken a Guinness World Record after batting continuously for more than 50 hours, facing 9,774 balls in total.

Andy Northcote, 40, from Needham Market, said his “body is in absolute bits” and his hands are “swollen” after he spent 50 hours and 15 minutes batting continuously at the Woolpit Cricket Club to raise money for Suffolk Mind.

Mr Northcote, who was born in South Africa and played for a cricket team in Cape Town before relocating to the UK in 2009, said he batted non-stop for 60-minute intervals throughout the challenge, taking five minutes every hour to “ice my hands” and “replenish my fluids”.

He completed the challenge on Thursday afternoon, supported by friends, family, and “complete strangers”, raising more than £6,000 for Suffolk Mind in total for his charity-challenge endeavours.

“The reality is, we surpassed it, we’ve raised all this money and we’ve gone past that target too, so even if I don’t (break the record) I’m a happy man,” Mr Northcote told the PA news agency.

“My body is in absolute bits, but I can’t complain.”

He added: “During night two, I found it incredibly tricky, mentally, physically, but I had an amazing support group, so many people came down.

“4 o’clock in the morning was a really tricky time, but I must have had 25 people there – some complete strangers, others that had been there the day before, and then other friends and volunteers, so it absolutely helped me through it.”

Mr Northcote said his father George travelled from South Africa to support him, along with his girlfriend Rebecca and other friends and relatives, which he said “was great when I was struggling”.

“When I wasn’t able to focus, when I was feeling a bit dizzy, they were pretty much force-feeding me food and fluids to get me through,” he said.

Andy Northcote pictured during one of his five-minute breaks during the challenge (Andy Northcote/PA)

Every hour, Mr Northcote said he would take a five-minute break, which he said was used to “pop to the loo, get fluids in, use a massage gun on the parts that are hurting, get more powder on my hands and get my hands in some ice, because my hands swelled up quite badly”.

The current Guinness World Record for the longest individual net session by a male is 50 hours, four minutes and 51 seconds, which was achieved by Virag Mare in India in 2015.

“We bailed out at 50 hours and 15 minutes, so we surpassed it by just (over) 10 minutes simply because I was broken,” Mr Northcote said.

He explained that that it “takes between 12 and 16 weeks to get verified” by Guinness World Records, saying: “We followed everything down to a T, so it will be an administration error on our part somewhere if we don’t get it, so I’m quietly confident.”

Mr Northcote faced 9,774 balls in total, which were tossed to him with a combination of a bowling machine which needed to be fed by someone at all times, a sidearm that can be used to throw the ball, and people who bowled directly to him.

Andy Northcote, centre, with his father George, left, and his friend Terry Small (Andy Northcote/PA)

“With bowlers, we had anything from young children, all the way through to friends, coaches, adults.

“It connected with the community nicely, and because of the mix I was able to connect with different people at different times, start new conversations, and that just keeps things fresh.”

Mr Northcote said his main goal for the batting challenge was the fundraising aspect, explaining that this is the fourth endeavour he has completed in the last nine months to raise money for Suffolk Mind.

Starting in November, Mr Northcote took on running one mile a day for 100 days, before going on to complete the Cambridge half-marathon and the Paris full marathon for the mental health charity, collating his fundraising efforts to raise more than £6,000.

“Some were very easy, others were a lot harder,” he said.

“This batting challenge was originally 24 hours, and then I stumbled across the Guinness World Record.

“I thought, right, let’s make this £5,000 and let’s try and achieve something special.”

To view Mr Northcote’s fundraising page, go to: suffolkmind.org.uk/giving-pages/andrew-northcote/