Charlottetown softball players set world record for longest game

Two teams in Charlottetown have set the world record for the longest softball game, the game's organizer said Monday.

The first pitch was thrown at 7 p.m. AT on Thursday, and the game continued until 7 p.m. Monday for a total of 96 hours of softball. According to Guinness World Records, the longest game ever played was in Quebec — 95 hours, 23 minutes in July 2005.

Charlottetown organizer Rick Thistle said the players are sore, but they hung on.

"They're pretty excited," he told CBC News, adding the players will have a closing ceremony after which they will go behind the bleachers and enjoy a few beers before "hitting the bed for three days" to recuperate.

In just one day, the players went through 40 braces for elbows, wrists and knees, he said. One player even had to go to hospital after getting hit by a ball.

"Other than that, it's all nagging injuries; it's all muscular and deep tissue stuff," he said.

The weather didn't co-operate — last weekend, the heaviest rain in months fell, including 21 millimetres Sunday, and the temperature never rose over 14 C. On the upside, thunder and lightning did not last long enough to disrupt the record attempt.

There were 40 players in the event, and 20 were involved in play at all times. No one was allowed to leave the field except in the event of injury. Lineups of 10 players per team played three shifts a day: one two hours, one four hours and one six hours.

All players got a break for 30 minutes every six hours.

Apart from trying to break a world record, the players were raising more than $10,000 for cancer research.

The final score was Mark's Work Wearhouse 1066, Hunter's Ale House 874, Thistle said.