Blunham is a small civil parish in the district of Bedfordshire, with a population of less than a thousand. It is home to Blunham Cricket Club, a thriving rural community that holds the distinct record of breaking a world record three times. It took a village for the club to ensure its latest entry into the record books, finds Sonali Dhulap.

In June 2003, a French cricket club called Club des Ormes played 26 hours 15 minutes of continuous cricket to set a Guinness World Record for the longest cricket marathon. The little club was raising money for La Ligue Contre le Cancer, the first NGO in France to fund cancer research, and for one of the club players, who was affected by the disease. The idea, and the chance to raise money for a good cause, inspired several small cricketing clubs to take up the challenge.

In the last 16 years, the record has been broken 13 times, thrice by Blunham CC themselves. They first surpassed it 11 years ago in 2008, spending 59 hours, 39 minutes and 56 seconds in the field, raising money to improve facilities at the club. They were able to hold that record for only four months, though, before an Australian club broke it in January 2009. Blunham then rallied two years later, adding about 45 hours to their previous attempt to set the record for a second time.

Less than two weeks ago, they launched a third attempt: a monumental effort to play non-stop cricket for 168 hours, nearly 18 more than Loughborough University, who had extended Blunham’s second attempt to 150 hours and 14 minutes in 2012.

An event of this magnitude comes with a lot of planning. The club unveiled its official poster in March this year, detailing the seven-day affair beginning from August 24, 2019. The event included live music, cinema screenings and several fun activities for adults and children. At the start of the year, the club began posting profiles of the 24 players, aged between of 17 and 54, who were going to take part in the attempt, on special Facebook and Twitter accounts that were separately set up for the event.

“It was a team of people who did the main organising, headed up by George Hutson. It had been on the agenda for a while. Planning started around one year ago, I would say,” Connor Heaps, captain of the Blunham first XI, told Wisden.

Both Hutson and Heaps were a part of the squads featuring in the match. In fact, Heaps is one of five players who participated in all three record attempts: the other four are David Garofalo, Daniel Coverdale, Neil Wildon and Chris Boulding.

This time, BCC had a two-fold agenda: they were raising funds to, firstly, secure a field at the bottom of their current ground, where they plan to put up a second pitch and, secondly, for two charities. Sue Ryder, a UK-based organisation supports people with complex needs or those undergoing a difficult time, be it a terminal illness or the loss of a loved one, while Mind, also UK-based, offers advice and support to people with mental health problems.

Heaps suggested that the club raised between £50,000 and £55,000 – an amount that will go a long way in supporting the community.

Their three attempts in 11 years, each more grandiose than the previous, prove that BCC hate anyone else holding the world record. If this one gets broken, will we see a fourth attempt – more majestic than the last? Who knows. For now, the only thing this tough little cricket club knows is that this is not the end.

“Just over 20 years ago, Blunham only had the one Saturday team, but since the reintroduction of our youth set-up, we’ve now expanded the club to four Saturday teams, two Sunday teams and seven youth teams (including a girls team),” Heaps said. “We are very proud of how far we’ve come and we don’t plan on stopping here!”

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