Historical information

This is a set of 12 photographs of Army teams from the Army Survey Regiment, Bendigo and the Army School of Transport, Puckapunyal attempting a world record playing indoor cricket, at Seymour Victoria from the 31st of January to the 5th of February 1986. The following article appeared on the back page of the ARMY Newspaper on Thursday 6th of March 1986.
'INDOOR CRICKET RECORD SMASHED. ARMY TEAMS from Puckapunyal and Bendigo recently played indoor cricket for 124 hours to set a new world record. The two eight-man teams, from Army School of Transport and Army Survey Regiment, broke the 120 hour record set by Corrimal High School, NSW earlier this year. Organiser of the event, Capt Marty Alsford of AST told ARMY the teams had played 107 games, scoring 15,000 runs in their chase for the record. "The rules allowed a five-minute rest break every hour which could be accrued, so we played for 64 hours straight then had a five hour sleep. "When everybody got up and went straight back into the game with no grumbling, I knew we had the record," Capt Alsford said. The event was held at the Seymour Indoor Cricket Centre, an iron-roofed building with no air-conditioning, and all players had to battle the effect of the stifling heat in addition to fatigue. One player dropped out through exhaustion, but this did not prejudice the record attempt as the rules permitted each team to lose a player who cannot return to the game nor be replaced. The Army teams' effort are now awaiting recognition by the Guinness Book of Records. During the marathon event, the soldiers raised money for Legacy, through sponsorships and a raffle. At the time ARMY went to press, the final figure was not available.’
Army Survey Regiment Routine Orders Part 1 Issue No 16/86 Notices on Page 7 stated: ‘World Record Indoor Cricket.
1. Congratulations to the following members for their successful attempt on the Guinness Book of Records, Record for continuous playing of indoor cricket: John Whaling, Peter Ball, Brenton McDonald, Per Andersen, John Anderson, Brian Fauth, Brett McAllister and Daryl South.
2. Our team, playing a team from Army School of Transport at Seymour played continuous Indoor Cricket for 124 hours, beating the existing record by 4 hours. During that time the two teams amassed a total in excess of 16,000 runs.
3. Congratulations also to Peter Ball for picking up the Trophy for the most outstanding player during the record attempt.’

Physical description

This is a set of 12 photographs of Army teams from Bendigo and Puckapunyal attempting a world record playing indoor cricket, at Seymour Victoria in February 1986. The photographs were printed on photographic paper and are part of the Army Survey Regiment’s Collection. The colour photographs were scanned at 300 dpi.
.1) - Photo, colour, 1986, L to R: John ‘Junior’ Whaling, Marty Alsford. Background L to R: Peter Ball, unidentified, John ‘Flash’ Anderson.
.2) - Photo, colour, 1986, L to R: John ‘Junior’ Whaling, unidentified, Peter Ball.
.3) to .7) - Photo, colour, 1986, unidentified participants.
.8) - Photo, colour, 1986, L to R: unidentified, Peter Ball, Brett McAllister, John ‘Junior’ Whaling.
.9) - Photo, colour, 1986, L to R: unidentified, John ‘Flash’ Anderson, Brian Fauth, unidentified, Peter Ball, unidentified (x2).
.10) - Photo, colour, 1986, Army School of Transport (red & white uniform) - back row L to R: unidentified (x4), front row L to R: unidentified (x3), Marty Alsford. Army Survey Regiment (dark green uniform) - back row L to R: Brett McAllister, John ‘Flash’ Anderson, Brian Fauth, Per Andersen, front row L to R: John ‘Junior’ Whaling, Daryl South, Brenton McDonald, Peter Ball.
.11) & .12) - Photo, colour, 1986, Army Survey Regiment (dark green uniform) - back row L to R: Peter Ball, Per Andersen, Brett McAllister, Brian Fauth, front row L to R: Brenton McDonald, John ‘Flash’ Anderson, Daryl South, John ‘Junior’ Whaling.

Inscriptions & markings

.1P to .12P –No personnel are identified. ‘Attempt at World Record for Indoor Cricket 31 Jan - 5 Feb 1986’ annotated on cover sleeve.