AN EPIC game of futsal raised more than £1,000 for cancer centre Maggie’s Oxford, as players broke a world record in the process.

Two teams raised the money by playing for 45 hours continuously from Sunday evening until Tuesday afternoon, with 24 competitors playing in shifts at Oxford Brookes University’s Centre for Sports.

Futsal is a five-a-side variant of football mostly played indoors on a smaller pitch. Organiser Charlie Sole had just three-and-a-half hours of sleep in three days.

The fourth year marketing student at Brookes said: “I’m absolutely ecstatic, it’s an amazing feeling.”

He captained the Futsole team, which eventually lost to Oxford Brookes, but added: “I’m not disappointed, it was really close up until the last couple of hours.”

He added: “If one team had a clear lead from the beginning it would have been a lot more difficult to play.”

The Bullingdon Road resident admitted: “There was a real sense of relief that we didn’t have to play any more when we finished.

“I never thought I’d not want to play a game of futsal, but that’s what 45 hours does for you.”

The previous record was 40 hours and held by a team from Norway.