The Blunham website describes this special event:
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'Blunham Cricket Club, has set an official Guinness new World Record, for the longest continuous game of Cricket. The UK record had been held by Chestfield CC of Kent, of 35 hours, set on 8th and 9th of September 2007. The longest recorded game worldwide, had been 55 hours set by Cornwall CC in Auckland, New Zealand on the 18th to 20th April, 2008.
Prior to that, an Australian attempt at Sel Outridge Park Sportsfield, Redland, Queensland, Australia, by Citipointe Church on 20-22 March 2008 was ratified by the Guinness Book of Records as the then OFFICIAL World Record. Their marathon lasted 50 hours 18 minutes.
To save any argument Blunham aimed to play for 59 hours from 9am Friday 19th September to 8pm Sunday 21st September and beat both records. In fact the game went on for a further 33 minutes and 56 seconds. The game was be played using conventional cricket rules with only a 5 minutes break for every hour played. Therefore, the teams were able to have half a hour break every 6 hours.
Bowling over 1,000 overs and scoring over 3,000 runs was a mammoth task, and although prepared to play through all that the weather might throw at us, the heavens were benign and we experienced some of the most glorious weather of the entire summer. Whilst each side could have a 12th man substitute, none of the players were allowed to leave the immediate vicinity of the playing area throughout, except through a bad injury, otherwise the attempt would have become void.
In order to get the record ratified by The Guinness Book of Records, there were numerous regulations imposed upon us to have various witnesses and volunteers in place on 4 hour shifts. As it turned out, the official recording equipment, required to record every second of the game, failed to work properly, so it was the huge weight of alternative evidence, such as massive TV and radio coverage, the many thousands of photos and the hugely diverse list of official witness statements that persuaded the Guinness World Record people to accept our match as valid and to grant Blunham the status as official world record holders, which they did formally on Friday 5th December 2008.'
Wikipedia has some further details:
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'World's longest cricket marathon
The World's Longest Cricket Marathon is a world record currently officially held by Blunham Cricket Club in Blunham, Bedfordshire, England, with a time of 59 hours and 33 minutes.
Blunham's record (set on 19-21 September 2008) was confirmed and ratified by Guinness on the 3rd of December 2008. Unfortunately, Guinness have an issue with their website at the moment and are unable to update their database online so it does not show the current official record of 59 hours and 33 minutes. The documentation can be seen online at the BCC website. The previous record holders were Cornwall CC of Auckland, New Zealand at 55 hours.
The most recent attempt was held by the Raymond Terrace District Cricket Club in New South Wales, Australia. The attempt was held between 24 and 27 January 2009 with a new time of 63 hours and 1 minute. The attempt has yet to be confirmed by Guinness World Records.
Previous Holders
* Cornwall CC of Auckland, New Zealand at 55 hours
* Chestfield Cricket Club, Chestfield, Kent, England 35 hours
* Red Row Cricket Club, Northumberland, England 34 hours set on 26/27 May 2007
* Cheriton Fitzpaine Cricket Club, Devon, England, 27 hours 34 minutes set on 24/25 June 2006 and ratified on 19 Sept 2006
* The record was originally set by Cricket Club des Ormes in France in 2003, at 26 hours and 13 minutes.
Rules
The record is the amount of cumulative playing time, after breaks are discounted, of a continuous game of cricket.
* Breaks are limited to 5 minutes per 1 hour of playing time
* There are two teams and these teams are limited to 12-a-side (11 on the field plus one "sub")
* No player is permitted to leave the ground unless they are incapacitated
* A break is not permitted between innings.'
They did it again in 2010! See the news article in the gallery. This time it was a record of over 100 hours.