Duo smash table tennis rally World Record for charity
The pair from Bristol wanted to smash the time for the longest rally - after Dan and his dad's last record was toppled
Last updated 29th Jun 2024
If you've ever played table tennis - you might have done it for an hour (or maybe even two) - but a pair from Bristol haven't just carried out a marathon match, they've done the longest ever rally.
The friends, Dan Ives and Lloyd Gregory, completed the challenge over at Bristol's PingPod over the weekend (21 June) for the Sands charity, after Dan sadly lost his daughter four years ago.
Ever since, he's tried to do something for charity in memory of Lily Rae Ives - as part of 'Lily's Legacy' - with the cash going towards its work of helping parents through supporting anyone affected by the death of a baby, before, during or shortly after birth.
Other fundraisers they've done include 10,000 steps a day for a whole month - as well as a Boxing Day starlight walk.
Back to the challenge, and they were joined by a team of four moderators to legitimise their world record attempt, and a camera - as they live-streamed the whole thing on Dan's YouTube channel.
Dan, originally from London, originally had the record for the longest table tennis rally with his dad, but when it was broken by another pair just after lockdown, he decided to reach heights (hopefully) nobody would ever be able to beat.
And that's when he signed-up his friend, Lloyd, who's currently based in South Wales.
Dan said: "After originally breaking the record with my father - 2024 is a fitting anniversary to break the record again. I always said to myself I should go for it again - and I knew that Lloyd would definitely be up for the challenge!"
After committing to the event, there was a fair bit of training - but nothing could have prepared them for the sheer length of what they were about to face.
Lloyd said: "Firstly, I asked Dan and his dad - as they were the experienced ones, really - after all, they'd broken the record before!
"Ahead of the attempt, we did a number of training days - one hour, two hours - and the longest I trained for doing this in one stint was four hours.
"It wasn't just about the training, as we also had to work out how we ate, drank - and went to the toilet - all important things for such a long period of time.
"We went for grapes, Jelly Babies and Jaffa Cakes in the end - which were chosen for a number of reasons, including how easy they were to eat - and how many crumbs they make"
There was a technical reason behind it - because if they touched the table during the match - that actually counts as an invalid point.
Wiping away crumbs could have impacted their chances of smashing that World Record - which, of course, they were pining to break.
And talking of breaks - it was a tough challenge to stay concentrated to the task in hand.
Dan reflected: "Sometimes the subconscious mind kicks in - and so the resets were a key part of making sure we were totally focussed.
"In sport, what they say is that you've got to focus on the process, and if you focus on the result, you can face too much pressure - and that's when mistakes are made.
"By doing it in 15 minute chunks, that was our process of pushing through. The first quarter of a minute felt like a lifetime too! But the pace at which time flew changed all of the time.
"My worst hour was the ninth hour - because then we could see the record coming over the horizon."
After an impressive 13 hours, 36 minutes and 43 seconds - they'd finally stopped, but had smashed the World Record by 1 hour and 46 minutes in the process.
And Dan has admitted he's the loser - after Lloyd actually won the point in the rally.
He said: "So... do I have the record, or is it just Lloyd?!
"What scared me a lot when I missed the ball is that I've done that exact shot throughout the whole event - and it just went down so easily.
"It felt exactly the same as every other shot, and my arm just stopped. That could have happened at any time - and we wouldn't have had the record.
"My arm just stopped directly on the contact of the ball!
"All of the donations have also been amazing during all of this - and the fact that we've already reached £5,000 is absolutely amazing."
They might have made a new record - but do they think it could be beaten?
Lloyd joked: "Hopefully, there's at least a couple of years left in this record - and if anybody does break what we've done, I'll be very impressed.
"There will be somebody out there who thinks they could do that - it's not easy, but we'll shake their hand if they do!"