University of Worcester staff member ready to 'pot his way' to the finish line on 50-hour pool challenge
Ian Alley is set to play pool for 50 consecutive hours from today (15 October) to raise funds for the university's Student Hardship Fund
A member of staff from the University of Worcester is preparing to 'chalk up' his cue and spend just over two days at the pool table for a different kind of endurance event starting today (15 October).
Student welfare officer Ian Alley is aiming to complete a 50-hour 'pool marathon', taking on whoever is around for the challenge.
He gets things underway in the The Hangar, the bar at Worcester Students’ Union, from 10am this morning, with it all raising funds for the university's Student Hardship Fund which has been created to help students financially.
"Like wider society where people find themselves in all sorts of crisis situations, so too does the population here at the university," he said.
"So the fund does brilliant work to help people out of some pretty tricky situations.
"I've seen it in action first-hand and it's a good thing to see when you help a determined student trying to better themselves and better their life through their studies come away from that sort of on the brink situation of some sort of personal difficulty".
Ian said he has played pool from when he was around 8 or 9 and has competed in various leagues and tournaments, even meeting all-time snooker great Jimmy White.
On how he came up with this challenge and what his plans are for getting through it, he said: "The idea of 50 hours came about because I was thinking that many charitable events of all sorts happen across 24 hours, and I thought because that is quite commonly done thing let's double that to 48, and that's close to 50, so we might as well round it up.
"That determination to go beyond the 24 hours will be part of what gets me through but also sort of doing endurance based things with my diet, so I'll be bringing various pasta dishes with me.
"For the high, quick release energy, if I'm feeling particularly drowsy, I've got those high energy gel things that athletes use, and I'll be bringing some chocolates and bananas just to keep fuelling the machine as I go."
According to the Guinness World Records, the longest time recorded by an individual playing pool non-stop sits at just over 98 hours.