Football fan completes 50-hour gaming challenge

A man has wrapped up a unique challenge - playing a retro computer game non-stop for 50 hours in aid of charity.

Rick Holloway, from Worcester, played football management simulation Championship Manager: Season 01/02 for more than two days straight, beginning on Friday morning and finishing at midday on Sunday.

Holloway was raising money for St Richard's Hospice, which cared for a close friend during his final days living with a brain tumour.

"I thought to myself, why not give something back?" he said. "Doing something like these retro challenges, doing something that I love and raising money for charity, I see it as a win-win."

Holloway has now undertaken 10 Championship Manager marathons in aid of the hospice, wlong with more traditional challenges such as shaving his head.

"They have to raise £12 million a year to stay afloat," he explained. "And I think about 80% of the money that goes towards them is basically what I'm doing, and other people are doing, with special events and stuff."

Holloway said he was "quite strict" in sticking to the non-stop element of his latest challenge, only standing up once every hour or so to get the blood back to his legs.

"I managed to buy myself an actual decent chair this time, so that helped," he said. "As long as you've got a nice, comfortable chair, the game I'm playing, the time just flies by.

"I think over the 50 hours I had a toilet break twice, which lasted about five minutes each."

During the course of his gaming marathon, Holloway took Worcestershire non-league side Pershore Town FC, who during the 2001-2002 season played in the Midland Combination Premier Division - nine levels below the Premier League - all the way to the top flight.

The club is not the first footballing minnow he has led to glory during his charity challenges.

"I've actually won the lot," he explained. "I've won the Champions League, FA Cups, League Cups, I've won stuff with random French sides, random Belgian sides, random Portuguese sides."

By the time he finished his latest challenge on Easter Sunday, Holloway had raised nearly £1,000 - far beyond his original £300 target.

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