1991 Guinness Book of Records

Well I was reading through the guiness book of records and found this quite interesting!

It reads:

Keith Sheard scored 28,530 in 19 min 5 sec in a league game at the Crown and Thistle, Headington, Oxford on 9 July 1984.
Sheard scored 1,500 points in a minute on BBC TV's Record Breakers on 23 Sep 1986.

The highest score in 24 hours by a team of five is 1,754,730 by Les Green, Ricard Powell, Kevin Clark, Mick Lingham and Curt Driver of the Shipwrights Arms, Chatham, Kent on 26-27 May 1990.




Quite a fascinating read and wondered if their are any more articles in Guinness book of records?

You've just solved a conundrum for me, Johnny.  If you read my article in the Horsham website here:

www.horshambarbilliards.co.uk/page32.html

........you will notice that I was missing some vital information on the Kent marathon, which you have now provided me with!   [-now included!   - tommo]

I had not realised that that took place as late as 1990, I thought it was ten years earlier.  Looking at their lineup, I'm not surprised they managed to score in one day what took us three days to do!

On the Individual front, 28k in 19 minutes back in 1985 - Milko has always been awesome and has not lost any of his edge 25 years down the line.  The 1500 a minute is nothing special nowadays, 1750 a minute is possible, but consider the standard of table he probably had to do it on, and it does rather show it in a different light.

tommo

Glad to help Tommo :)

[curtd]

I do have a copy of the 1991 issue myself and I think our record was in print for the next 3-4 yrs.

From memory the rough averages per leg were :-

Les 24.5k
Kev 23.5k
Mick 23k
Curt 21.5k
Richard 19k

It was one of those days when we all played very well in all but one of our allocated 16 games.
Although we scored heavy, we all at one point lost one big score.

We did try again the following year but come up short this time.

Will it ever be beaten ??????

[bigstew]

I have most copies of the Guinness book of records from the 60's, 70's, 80's and they have references to Bar Billiards in the sports sections. I'll have a sort through when i get chance.

[milko]

Thanks Clive...one point to make on my break is that it was made against the break, as my opponent went in with 500!!

The current record is held by Mark Sawyer with 29,000 in 17min’s 30 sec’s. I’m not sure if this record is in the latest edition of the GBR, as I think they slimmed down the book a few years ago, perhaps someone will let us know, if it is, exactly what it says?

One interesting point to make is that you could break the current record by setting the clock to the maximum time of 20mins and score 29,100 for an average per minute of 1,455, which is a lot less than the record and they would still except the record because the score is higher. ???

Also, if you scored 1,750 a minute over 20 mins you would score 35,000 which would shatter the record. :o ::)

Marks score was made in the Oxon Open in 1999. I was there at the time but was playing on the next table to him. I remember it because I played the table out with nearly 26,000 to a big round of applause, only to turn around to find that they weren’t clapping me but Mark!! :-[ :'( ;D

Regarding the 24hr marathon I would think that record would never be broken, as they’re some brilliant averages to maintain over such a long period.


Keith


PS Well done Johnny for starting this interesting thread. 8-)

Sounds like a good challenge for someone from Sussex like Nigel or K.T...........
30k in 20 mins at 1500 per minute: Not beyond the realms of possibility. :-/

[dicko]

Dec 17, 2010 11:30:53 GMT milko said:

Thanks Clive...one point to make on my break is that it was made against the break, as my opponent went in with 500!!

The current record is held by Mark Sawyer with 29,000 in 17min’s 30 sec’s. I’m not sure if this record is in the latest edition of the GBR, as I think they slimmed down the book a few years ago, perhaps someone will let us know, if it is, exactly what it says?

One interesting point to make is that you could break the current record by setting the clock to the maximum time of 20mins and score 29,100 for an average per minute of 1,455, which is a lot less than the record and they would still except the record because the score is higher. ???

Also, if you scored 1,750 a minute over 20 mins you would score 35,000 which would shatter the record. :o ::)

Marks score was made in the Oxon Open in 1999. I was there at the time but was playing on the next table to him. I remember it because I played the table out with nearly 26,000 to a big round of applause, only to turn around to find that they weren’t clapping me but Mark!! :-[ :'( ;D

Regarding the 24hr marathon I would think that record would never be broken, as they’re some brilliant averages to maintain over such a long period.


Keith


PS Well done Johnny for starting this interesting thread. 8-)

Hi there , just reading this post and can say that in 1996 , Mark Sawyer scored over 30.000 which was the world record.
This was done at the White Horse in Wokingham and I believe was scored by Keith Lewendon, cheers. Looking forward to getting back into the game soon.

[Chris_Sav]

Dicko! 

A welcome blast from the past!


Strangely enough I was looking at a grainy old video of the Jersey 1998 final between Milko and Nick Barnett (R.I.P.) followed by the epic spoons battle between Paul Sainsbury and yourself only last evening whilst converting old 8mm cassettes to digital.

[milko]

Hello Richard

That break of Marks that you mention wasn't in a competitive match was it ?

Keith

Mar 15, 2019 12:32:29 GMT milko said:

Hello Richard

That break of Marks that you mention wasn't in a competitive match was it ?

Keith

......and for recognition to be made on the Timeline, better authentification would be needed, such as a contemporary press report (newspaper clipping). 

[milko]

Well let's hope it's not another SIX years without a post before we get an answer from him!

[dicko]

Hi Guys

Hope everyone is well , been a long long time.
Marks world record was not in a competitive match because he was against the break in the league match. He suggested the attempt after the match had been completed. He then achieved the record, surpassing 30,000.
Hopefully I’ll be back one day , I do miss the whole bar billiard experience.

Take care everyone,

Rich 😎👍🏻

[milko]

There you are Tommo, it only took three years for Dicko to get back to us this time!

[dicko]

I apologise for the delay, there was a newspaper clipping in the Daily Star, a ‘Star spot’ I believe, that commented on Mark’s record. I gave it to Mark many years ago, not sure if he ever kept hold of it. Could make necessary investigations. Also notice the doubles is no longer at Queens hotel, have to try and arrange a return next year, possibly with Steve Blaine.

[dicko]

I received this info from Mark which hopefully clarifies all the issues relating to Marks record.

Hey mate. How are you? I did see that entry for Keith sheard saying I had to have a local news clipping etc. I would respond with the following. ‘As part of the formal process to have a world record formalised I had to have independent scorers witness it snd a local news article covering the story. I provided both and followed the process outlined by Guinness to make the record official. I received a Guinness world record certificate which I still have on the wall at my parents house. There has long been a rumour spread by players in the bar billiards world that the formal record is 29,000. This is a false rumour because the bar billiards world decided themselves that they wouldn’t recognise the record because it was not in a match situation. This false rumour holds not weight within the rules from Guinness. The official world record is 31,350 in 18 mins 15 seconds. Interestingly I practiced so much that I was able to get the same score 2/3 times an evening for around 3 weeks in the run up to the attempt.

[tommo III]

These entries appear in the Timeline, 2 of 4:

Mark Sawyer sets a World Record for a single break at the White Horse, Wokingham, after the league match that night. A first attempt yielded ‘only’ 29,850, but on the next attempt he scored 31,350. He was clocked at 8200 on 5 minutes and 16,000 in 10 minutes. The bar was timed at 18 mins 48 secs.

and...

Mark Sawyer wins the 7th Oxon Open, beating KT 23k – 22k in the Final. Throughout the day he had seven scores of 20k plus, and set up a record break for Ranking events of 29000 in his Quarter-final second leg (to follow 24760 in the first leg), a record which which remains unbeaten to this day. Semifinalists were Leon Beer and Bob Toye. Plate winner was Keith Sheard, who had earlier scored a 26000 break of his own, with Gary Johnson runner-up.

Info was taken from Pete Farrelly's BBQs 29 and 33 respectively.
So Mark Sawyer holds two separate World Records, and may rest assured that the bar billiards world have never sought to deny their existence.

tommo

[dicko]

Thank you , I was never aware that it was seen as two separate records.👍🏻😀