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The 60-hour football match

By Mark Cox
November 1, 2010 at 2:59 pm

As anyone who saw England labouring to kick a ball during the last World Cup would testify, some football matches can seem to last for about 60 hours.

But one recent game, with a keen eye on the Guinness Book of Records, actually did last for a full 60 hours. The whole fundraising wheeze was, inevitably, dreamed up by a bunch of students (well, what else are they going to do: study?) from Loughborough and Nottingham.

The group of 36 players, kicking off on Friday morning and continuing till Sunday night, were reportedly over the moon at setting a world record. But unsurprisingly, with studs flashing and lashing rain beating down on them all Friday night, many also became sick as parrots during the marathon kickabout.

Which brings me to the real unsung heroes of this enterprise: the eight Red Cross volunteers who provided continuous 24-hour first aid cover for the whole shebang. Besides dealing with a fractured ankle within the first few hours, they also had to contend with numerous sprains, strains, blisters and cases of hypothermia.

There were also several cases of headaches, exhaustion and nausea (similar in nature to those suffered by spectators at the previously mentioned England World Cup games).

As a steady procession of – increasingly knackered – players limped, crawled or were carried off the pitch, our volunteers tirelessly patched them up then pushed them straight back on again. The monsters. Impressively, only three people dropped out during the game due to injury or illness.

Led by organiser Ricardo Braganza, the group raised around £18,000 (roughly speaking, Wayne Rooney’s hourly rate) for a cancer charity.

And that, as we say in the game, is a result.

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Tags: First aid, first aid tips, first aid training, volunteer, Volunteering, volunteers

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