World Record 2017

In 2015 after one of our weekly doubles matches (Johan Radcliffe, Dean Ollis, Gysbert Pienaar and Stefano Lindsay), we were complaining about the state of the tennis court. We agreed we needed a new surface and a new net. A second court would also be nice as the interest in tennis was growing then already. The school could also use a second netball court. We knew though that the school finances were stretched.
So Johan suggested an attempt at breaking the World Record for the longest doubles match.
We said "Why not" until he told us how long it was – over 57 hours!!! Our faith subsided immediately (at least mine did). As we talked about it, I didn't really take it seriously. How were we going to manage 57 hours with just a few breaks in between? What about sleep? My wife complains that I can't even stay awake to finish a movie in the evening. How was I going to last two nights with little or no sleep at all? The other three were cautiously engaged and so we started seriously researching and planning the event.

You can't imagine how much admin work goes into a World Record Event! We decided not to have a Guinness World Record official present which would cost us a lot of money. In the hindsight, it might have been worth it. Page upon page of rules and regulations had to be meticulously prepared and completed and a huge number of roles needed to be filled to validate the event. Johan and his wife Jenny spent hours taking on the bulk of this tedious task.

Then as we started preparing and getting our ducks in a row, Johan found out that he had throat cancer. We were all shocked and of course, worried for his health. I thought ok, that's the end of our World Record attempt. Secretly, I was actually relieved to take a pass on this impossible mammoth task. Johan went in for an operation in October 2016 and we hoped and prayed that he would recover fully but didn't expect him to be healthy enough to attempt the record event any time in the near future. But Johan is Johan, a true fighting South African. As soon as he was out of hospital, he was already back on the court and getting fit again. And he hadn't lost any interest at all in trying to break the world record. He actually seemed more determined than ever before!

So back on track we were aiming for March 2017, our wives helping in the background with the organisation and Guinness World Records officials in London trying to answer a host of our questions regarding the numerous details necessary to officially break the world record.

How do you prepare for 59 hours of tennis? Get fit? Do some mental training? Hone your tennis skills? How long can a man go without sleep? Those of us who have had army training shared their insights. A human should be able to survive 4-5 nights without sleep. We only needed to get through two. What should we eat during the marathon match? No sugars but rather carbs and meat.

We figured our tennis skills were not going to be the key to success. We actually needed to play as much energy-saving tennis as possible to last longer. Were we (and the spectators) going to die of boring slow tennis?
I knew it was going to be a matter of mental strength, no injuries and staying healthy. We all agreed to get as fit as possible but hey we all have lives and we're all over 40. Sports science shows that older people have more stamina so that was encouraging.
Two all-night preparation events helped us gain confidence that we can survive a night without sleep. A night hike from Cape Town to Kommetjie was the first trial run. We wanted to go off road but due to the low clouds, we decided to stick to the road. We made it back to Kommetjie at about 6am in the morning, went for an hour's sleep and got up again to watch the kids sports day at the school. We all agreed that the hour's sleep was actually very helpful just to rest the mind and body a little.
A week before the event, we set up the borrowed building site lamps around the court and played through the night. To our relief, we also managed to get through the next day. It was the first time I felt like "We can actually do this"!

Things started getting frantic. Is everything ready? Is everyone ready? Do we have all the material? Have we forgotten something? Did someone measure the court? 
The weather forecast didn't look great for the Friday with a chance of rain during the night. Playing tennis in the rain? Not so lekker!

The day finally came. I knew I needed a good night's sleep beforehand but the excitement and nerves didn't quite let that happen. I wondered how the others slept. We all met at the court at 5.30am. There were already a number of people buzzing around making the final adjustments. Was the camera working? We needed to film the whole event as proof. Everything looked good and at 6am on the dot, the most spectacular event to ever take in place in Kommetjie was under way.

The most amazing aspect to see was the support from family, friends and the community. There were always people watching! No matter what time of the day or night. We always had ball-boys and ball-girls (a luxury only professional players usually have). Through the day these precious people cheered us on. At night we had our team of timekeepers, medicals, umpires, and commentators present to urge us on. By evening on Friday, things had gone well. We coordinated our breaks and used a minimum of our allowed break time. We were allowed 5 minutes every hour but we could could also bank unused minutes and take a longer break when needed.

Communicating with the opposite team and getting everyone to pee at the same time had its challenges but we each had our own toilet just outside the court so no time was lost. 
The rain started falling on Friday evening and we knew our first challenge had arrived. The yellow balls gradually turned light brown as they mixed with the dust and broken surface of the old court. The below-par lighting and constant droplets on my glasses didn't help either.
At 9pm we took our first long break of 20 minutes and enjoyed simultaneous massages in the big tent as we shared how we were doing. All four of us seemed to be doing well. A few aches and pains but nothing to worry about. Feeling refreshed we started out on the night session. The rain kept drizzling down, it was quite cool but we weren’t too fazed.

At about 2am in the morning, my eyes started seeing diamonds and all sorts of shapes. The bad light, the wet court, the dirty balls, and tiredness started taking their toll. As I asked around, it seemed like we were all looking forward to a longer rest break.

We each had our own tent set up right beside the court so we didn't lose any time in between.
At about 4am, we decided to take that crucial sleep break. After conferring with our timekeepers, we were informed that we had banked about 60 minutes break time. There was a general agreement to take the full hour. As we were walking off the court, I suggested we should maybe keep some minutes for an emergency. The Guinness Record rules didn’t allow for any extra medical or emergency break time. The others reluctantly agreed to cut it to 40 minutes. Little did we know then the gravity of this decision!

As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out. What seemed like one minute later, my wife Doris woke me up. I protested saying that I had just laid down. The 40 minutes were somehow over!
It’s amazing what that short sleep had accomplished. My mind was reset, my eyesight was good again and I felt like playing tennis again! The other three made their way back on the court with more or less energy but we all had managed to sleep which was the most important thing.
It was so encouraging to have everyone around at that ridiculous hour of the night. The school pupils and others had set up tents on the sports fields beside the courts. It felt like some sort of festival. A couple of totally committed Kommetjie Primary kids were there to fetch our balls. Everything seemed to be working as planned.

At about 6am on Saturday morning disaster struck! I started feeling groggy and nauseous. A few moments minutes later, I couldn’t stand anymore. After raising the alarm, we had to stop as I lay down on the court feeling horrible. The worst-case scenario played like a video in front of my mind's eye. What if we had to stop now because of me? I didn’t want to let the others down but I just couldn’t get up.

Johan’s wife Jenny rushed over to the shop to get a Lucozade. Some friends who believe in prayer stood around me praying. A few minutes later I needed the toilet. Thank goodness we each had our own toilet. I will spare the details of the happening in there. I was determined to try and keep going. We couldn’t give up already!

The positive was that I didn’t have to actually play proper tennis, I just needed to stand on the court. So stand I did mostly hunkered down, trying not to throw up. My partner Gysbert took over the tennis part during this time. And amazingly enough, after about an hour I was feeling stronger again and was able to continue. A big sigh of relief was felt by all and as the sun came up, the overcome hurdle felt like a stronger motivation for the new day. The rain had also stopped, beckoning the call for new balls. The crowds started turning up in numbers as the morning went on and the weather got warmer.
The coffee was flowing, the other activities got underway and we were actually enjoying our tennis match.

Crusty, Zac and Elana did an awesome job in commentating via megaphone and making a very mediocre tennis display sound like a Wimbledon final.
Tables were set up on the sidelines with food and drink. We weren’t allowed to sit down in between games but we were allowed to eat as we play. So with a piece of steak in one hand and the racket in the other, we managed to keep the energy levels up.
The heat started to become an issue in the afternoon and added to the tiredness as each of us had to overcome our own personal health challenges. Leg and wrist pains started setting in. Blisters started appearing on my hands. A cycling glove helped to relieve those. A chronic underfoot inflammation was kept at bay with strong diclofenac tablets.
Someone organised some ice and we dipped our heads in the cold water at the change of ends to keep us awake.

The second day turned into night and we had again banked enough time for a massage break at about 9pm again. This time though I could see that our bodies were taking the strain. Shin splints and other limb issues couldn’t be fixed with the massages so pain killers became a necessity. Saturday night felt like a party night. The spectators stayed around until the early hours of the morning enjoying the amazing vibe created by the live bands, food and drink, and by the warmer drier weather.
True to any major sport event, we even had a streaker “grace” the court sometime early in the morning. Luckily most of the kids had gone to bed by then. I’m not sure if trauma counseling was ever offered to the unlucky ones who stuck around. We still don’t know who the bloke was!

The pain and tiredness also started affecting our moods, the painkillers adding to the effect. Gys and I had some misunderstandings late at night which caused unnecessary conflict as we acted out of character and got on each other's nerves. After about an hour we came to our senses and sorted it out whilst still trying to play tennis – quite a feat!

Again at 4am, we decided we needed our power nap. We had learned from the almost disaster earlier today and kept 15 minutes again in case of emergency. We slept for another 40 minutes and woke with the same surprised reaction when our wives shook our feet.

Until now we had played 46 hours of tennis! One of my worries beforehand was getting bored of playing tennis and not wanting to play ever again. A lot of people asked us similar questions after the event. But no, the fun atmosphere, the cheering crowds as well as sometimes changing things up by playing left-hand tennis or wearing some ridiculous clothing and keeping focused on the task at hand was enough to keep us motivated.

As Saturday night turned into Sunday morning, we were tired but confident that we could see the day through. The sun came up and there was no wind. One of the strangest experiences for me was the loss of orientation and the feeling of being at different venues during the whole event. We only ever moved within 800m2 during the three days but it felt like we had been all over the world. At one stage at night I wasn’t sure which side the main road was on.

The goal was 60 hours which would be 2½ hours longer than the record. We wanted to finish before it got dark which was about 6.30pm at this time of the year in Cape Town.
The crowds grew increasingly excited as the prospect of breaking the world record seemed possible. As more and more people gathered around the court peering through the fence, Crusty started cranking up the excitement on the microphone. His Australian accent and gift of the gab had been with us throughout the event and at times we weren’t sure if people were more entertained by him or our tennis!

At about 4pm with a maximum crowd egging us on, the countdown echoed around the court as the timekeeper signaled the long-awaited moment. 3-2-1, Dean smacked the ball high into the air as we decided to take a break to celebrate breaking the record. We hugged each other and our families joined us as the crowd celebrated with us. It was an unbelievable moment, not to be forgotten. After a few photos and hugs all round, we shooed the spectators off the court and continued to our goal of 60 hours.

The mood was buoyant but as the crowd continued celebrating, we started to realise that some of us were struggling physically. Gys seemed disorientated and needed help in where to serve the ball to. Johan’s arm was strapped up and couldn’t take much more strain. Dean and I were both exhausted. As the sun set and we had reached our goal of breaking the record, we decided to finish with the crowds still present. They had been there from the beginning to the end and it was fitting to finish with them in full force. We finished the game and walked to the net to confirm our intentions with each other. We had played for 59hrs, 21 minutes and … seconds. We had accomplished what we had set out to do.

The celebrations continued, we signed some tennis balls, got uncountable hugs and congrats and after the cleanup, eventually made our way home. What a weekend! I fell asleep in the bath watching Federer win the Miami Open. As a half-Swiss, it was the icing on the cake.

After recovering from the whole event (some of us struggled physically for a long time afterwards), we took stock of where we were with all the paperwork. Still, a lot needed to be done. Measurements needed to be finalised, documents needed to be signed and the most tedious task of all – going through 59 hours of video footage to mark each break, event, and anything special that happened as was required by the regulations.
After breaking the world record, the paperwork seemed like one task too many after all we’d been through. We were thrilled to have accomplished our goal of breaking the record and also raising R170’000. We actually wanted more but were happy nonetheless. So the last mile in the race, getting all the last admin done wasn’t top priority anymore. We hadn’t maybe been pendantic enough in our preparation and no one wanted to make up for it after the event so we just left it.

A few months passed and with some distance between, it started bugging me. We can’t just leave it like that! We put so much effort into this, can’t we manage the last 10%? All the people who had sacrificed their time and energy to make it happen and the huge effort to keep to the Guinness World Record regulations; we had to finish our task. But what if we did something wrong? How pedantic would Guinness Records be?

After reaching out to the other three, Dean and I agreed to take the initiative. Johan and Gysbert joined in straight away. We had 12 months after the event to submit all the documents. We had a few additional months for the video footage. After many more hours of completing and scrutinising the documents, and chasing down people for forgotten signatures, we were finally ready to submit all our documents.
On the 31st March 2018, we emailed all the documents to Guinness World Records in London.

We had one final hurdle. The 59 hours of video footage was about 60Gb worth of data. Considering most Kommetjie houses only had about 0,5mb upload speed, it was going to take forever. We tried on a couple of occasions, but the connection kept conking out during the upload process

I knew I was going to Europe in June and it seemed like the best opportunity to find a fast internet line to upload the endless video footage.
In a hostel in France where my wife Doris and I stayed for a weekend, they had a 30mb upload speed. We left the computer with the attached hard drive running the whole weekend uploading 60 different videos, ticking them off the list as we went along. After a few reruns, they were all finally uploaded. 
From now on it was not in our hands anymore. We had done all we could and given our best to submit a complete application. We were now at the mercy of the Guinness World Record judges. I did not envy the poor guy who had to go through all the video footage. I'm guessing he probably didn't.

On the 23rd of August 2018, we received confirmation that we broke the World Record - 59hours, 21 minutes and 42 seconds. We knew we had broken the record regardless of the official outcome but it certainly was nice to be able to say that we were now official World Record holders and to hold the certificate in our hands!