85-hour board game play in Gloucester aims to smash world record

The players passed their milestone at 23:00 GMT on Monday

Four men have completed what they hope will be a world record by playing a board game continuously for more than 85 hours.

The foursome, of Gloucester, completed their mammoth challenge on Monday night with just a couple of hours of sleep.

Lea Poole, Dale Poole, Adam Bircher and Luke de Witt Vine played the game Dune, watched by supporters and an online audience.

The world record attempt was carried out in aid of Alzheimer's Research UK.

The rules of the challenge stated the men were allowed to accumulate five minutes respite for every hour they played.

They had to beat the previous world record, held by a team in The Netherlands, which played a board game for 80 hours in January 2017.

Guinness World Records stipulated they would need to play for at least five more hours to be considered for a world record. The men's attempt has yet to be ratified.

The team hope they have set a new world record of 85 hours and 22 minutes playing a board game

Alzheimer's Research UK was selected to benefit from the challenge as Lea and Dale Poole's father suffers from the condition.

Dale Poole said: "It's a bit of a rollercoaster really. It's very flattering. People have been sending in their support and donations and it's really humbling."

The team were not allowed full meals, but just snacks throughout the attempt, which included 79 games in total.

"You can be within one hour quite wide awake and alert, and by sitting down and not having to think for a few seconds, that's it, you're now tired and there's no way of breaking that weird cycle," said Lea Poole.

The men completed the challenge at 23:00 GMT on Monday but decided to carry on and finish the game they were on, sipping on champagne to celebrate.

Mr Burcher said he was "tired, beyond measure" but "really quite satisfied and pleased with how far we've come".

"If you'd told me last year I'd be doing something like this I would have called you crazy," he added.

Mr De Witt Vine said it had been a "difficult and trying experience but I'm glad we've done it."

The group have raised almost £1,000 for Alzheimer's UK, as well as a smaller amount for Herefordshire Mind, a mental health charity.