Seven local rugby players are hoping to claim their place in the record books this weekend – by playing rugby for 31 hours straight.

The group of March Bears players are tackling consecutive 23 matches – or an entire season – in aid of local charity Scotty’s Little Soldiers and the Fire Fighter Charity, which serves firemen in the Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service.

Ben Pyle, Simon Hayes, James Knight, Ben Howells, Kris Feaviour, Simon Althoff and Simon Whittaker have already raised £7,000 and are hoping that they can add even more to their total through their world-record breaking challenge at Worcester Warriors’ ground Sixways today.

Ben said: “I’ve been doing a lot of half-marathon distance training to get ready for it but it is impossible to prepare for really.

“I think the day is going to be very difficult. It is not a normal thing to do to the body and because it is a contact sport there are a lot of injuries and everyone has to try and drag themselves through.”

As part of the Guinness World Record regulations, the match, which will feature two teams of 23 players, will be filmed and the score recorded.

Each player will wear a GPS tag to ensure they play continuously and each hour on the pitch earns a player a five-minute break so in order to eat a snack, players need to remain on the pitch for several hours.

The day also acts as Simon Whittaker’s second attempt at breaking the world record, as he was a member of the Scotty’s team which broke the original record of 24 hours in 2013.

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