Challenge Of The Week (2)

At a shooting party in 1954 Sir Hugh Beaver, then managing director of the Guinness brewery, got into a heated argument as to whether the grouse or the golden plover was the fastest game bird. According to ShootingUK it is the red grouse. Convinced that the world needed an authoritative source to settle such arguments – the internet was not available then – and so with the McWhirter twins, Norris and Ross, he compiled and wrote the first edition of Guinness World Records.

For seventy years now it has provided the official stampof approval on some of humanity’s weirdest stunts including the largest “toast mosaic”, 189.5 square metres made by a high school in West Yorkshire, the longest tongue, proudly belonging to Nick Stoebert and measured at 10.1 cm, and the world’s fastest pram, capable of reaching a speed of 53.46 mph, the brainchild of Colin Furze.

To mark its seventieth anniversary Guinness World Records has announced 70 as yest unclaimed records and is inviting the curious and the foolhardy to peruse the categories and see whether they are up to the challenge. Some of the records begging for a name to be attached to them include most anchovies eaten in a minute, most t-shirts put on in 30 seconds, most kisses by a pair in 30 seconds, most whoopee cushions sat on in one minute by a team of two, fastest 400m sack race, most origami cranes made in three minutes by an under-16, and most water moved by the hands in 30 seconds.

To find out more, follow this link.