DORSET Destroyers have set an unofficial world record for the longest continuous game of wheelchair rugby.

The record set remains unofficial due to a stipulation that everyone must finish the game.

Sue Coombs, one of the organisers of the event, said: “With the best will in the world some of our players have got quite complex disabilities that would preclude that.

“Some of them had prior things that they had to be at so there was no kind of give on that but it is still an unofficial world record and we are still celebrating the fact it is an unofficial world record and beaten by two hours.”

Over the course of the event there were: 113 inner tubes exploded, 15 tyres ripped, 40 men and women shattered, nine knockouts of wheelchairs and 1,684 tries scored.

When asked how it felt right at the end of the marathon event, Coombs said: “I felt elated. It was a long old event. There was a big cheer at the end and everyone was really emotional. It was great it was a really good feeling to get it done.”

The final score at the end of the marathon was Reds 853 Yellows 831 for the record attempt which took place on at Rossmore Leisure Centre in Poole and started at 1.10pm.

Both teams were a mix made up of people from the Dorset Destroyers themselves, members of the Royal Signals from the Blandford camp and 4Com, the latter were a sponsor of the 26-hour event.

Wheelchair rugby fives is based around the Invictus Games version and open to many more disabled people with a physical impairment and teams consist of five players on court and a maximum squad of 12.

Matches of are played over two periods of 12 minutes.

The group played on throughout the event as three players got injured and two left at at 9am as they could not continue anymore.

The group then lost a bit of help because of the snow disruption, but everyone who played contributed so much that they made it through to the 26 hours target that they had set themselves.

In the last 30 seconds, the theme tune to Countdown came on and everyone being so competitive went all out to score that final try.

There were tears of joy, happiness and much shouting and screaming from the crowd and players as the two referees blew their whistles to draw the 26 hours to an end.