Having a ball: Blackburn boy aims to break elastic band world record (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Having a ball: Blackburn boy aims to break elastic band world record

9:38am Thursday 21st July 2011 in News By Catherine Pye, Reporter

A BLACKBURN teenager hopes to bounce into the record books with his attempt to create the world’s biggest elastic band ball.

In the past two weeks, 15-year-old Andrew Page has managed to create a ball of 20,000 bands measuring three feet in diameter and weighing 15 kilograms.

But, with some help from family and friends, he hopes to spend a year creating an eight foot monster.

“I started by messing around with a load of elastic bands I had in my bedroom”, said the public services student from the Green Lane area of Blackburn.

“Then I looked online at the record and thought ‘I can better that’.

"So, since then I’ve been getting elastic bands from everywhere and spending hours tieing them together and wrapping them round into a circle shape.

“I’ve had schools and offices donating bands, I’ve scoured pound shops and I’ve been on online auctions.

Andrew spends an hour a day on the ball, with family members chipping in to help when they can.

He added: “People are amazed when they see it and think it’s pretty funny.

The current record for the world’s biggest elastic band ball is held by American Joel Waul, who created a ball of 700,000 bands weighing 9,400 pounds (4,263 kilograms) and measuring eight-feet tall.