Suffolk man breaks Guinness World Record whilst raising money for charity
Andrew Northcote batted continuously for over 50 hours
Last updated 29th Aug 2023
Batting for the best -A man from Suffolk has broken a Guinness world record whilst raising money for charity
Andrew Northcote from Needham Market chose to take on the 418 challenge.
4 challenges, in 8 months to raise money for one charity.
The first one was one mile a day for 100 days.
The second was the Cambridge Half Marathon.
The third was the Paris Marathon.
And lastly the world record attempt.
He said training for all of these helped him to prepare for the World Record.
Andrew completed 50 hours and 15 minutes of continuous batting and raised more than ÂŁ6,000 in support of Suffolk Mind during the endeavour.
Couldn't have done it without the support of his family and friends
His Dad flew all the way from South Africa to support him. His partner Rebecca was there for support too and their pair only slept, Andrew estimates, for 4 hours the whole time.
"My dad oversaw the volunteers and made sure everyone was, in the right places and all those things.
"Rebecca focused on me, which was nice - just making sure I had enough food in and was timing my breaks, using a massage gun on areas I needed it."
Andrew told us that lots of people came to support him and he was touched by the journeys they made and the time they put into it. "Another relative come up from Southampton. He only found out I was doing the events on Sunday. By Monday they'd booked their accommodation and were ready to help."
Andrew booked Terry Small - a friend and local coach in the area for the first 5 hours to help him get going and settle in but he ended up staying for the 50+ hours.
Terry really helped Andrew get through the moments where he was struggling physically and mentally.
"Shattered but relieved"
That is how Andrew described his emotions when it was confirmed he had broken the World Record for the longest time continuously batting.
Suffolk Mind
Andrew has raised over ÂŁ6000 for Suffolk Mind. He told us what the money could be put towards.
"About 110 counselling sessions for people or it can fund two schools Teacher training sessions.
"...If it can impact 110 adult lives or two primary schools where there must be about 500 children in each (school) ...That's quite special."
Donations can be made to Andrew and Suffolk Mind here.