School sets world record for most students playing tunnel ball at one time

CTV Ottawa: Tunnel ball world record attempt CTVs Matt Skube looks at how some students in Hintonburg were trying to break a tunnel ball world record.

A world record attempt in Hintonburg Wednesday featured a classic elementary school game - tunnel ball.

"You go over and under in a line and you're trying to make it as fast as you can around," says Miki Newman, a grade 5 student at Connaught Public School.

The school was trying to set the record for most students playing tunnel ball at one time. The record was 120, set by a school in Australia. On Wednesday, Connaught had over 250 students playing at the same time.

"We started thinking about world records and we started researching into what we can do, what existed that we had enough students to make a real attempt at," says Karen Monaghan, fundraising coordinator for the school's yard renewal project. "And we found tunnel ball."

Students were organized into lines in the school yard and played the game for close to half an hour. A round of applause followed the long game, which involved students from the entire school.

The school believes they broke the record, but it still has to be verified by the Guinness Book of Records.

The event was also a fundraiser for Connaught's school yard renewal project. Students collected pledges and a couple of area businesses contributed to the group raising $10,000.

"This summer, we're hoping to see a new playground in the kindergarten yard, as well as a new basketball court in the (main) yard and a funnel ball net, which is a totally different game," says Monaghan.

There are also plans to redo the grass on the soccer field and add more trees to the yard once construction is complete.