11-year-old with passion for mandarins achieves nail-biting peeling record
British digital radio station Absolute Radio has launched a zesty challenge in partnership with Guinness World Records, to find one special kid who could achieve a never-seen-before record title.
Joining forces with the Dave Berry Breakfast Show, Official Adjudicator Mark McKinley and radio presenters Dave Berry and Matt Dyson encouraged young listeners to come up with a super-exciting challenge.
Among several submissions, one stole the scene: most mandarins peeled in one minute (under 16).
“We loved it straight away,” Dave said about the record.
“I like it a lot,” agreed Mark, who appeared in several episodes of the breakfast show to explain the record and give the audience an exclusive insight on record-breaking.
After the title was selected and decided, it was time for Mark and the GWR team to sit down and set the rules for the challenge.
The listeners of Absolute Radio have really gotten on board with the creation of a record title. While some of the ideas were not entirely suitable, I am very happy with the title we ended up with and I’m excited to see how it goes. - Mark McKinley
“We’ll do a bit of road testing to see how many we can actually peel within the timeframe,” he explained.
“I’ve got two boys of my own, so I think I will be putting them to work to test the average speed of peeling,” Mark joked. “Then, we will be able to set a challenge for the kids.”
Then, it was time to select one lucky young listener to take the attempt on: the perfect candidate would be invited to try their mandarin-peeling skills to seize a world record title (with a minimum of four mandarins peeled) and take home the coveted certificate.
“We are looking for the chosen one,” Dave explained during the show, “the golden child to come to our brand-new building and break a world record.”
The choice fell on Taylor Camp, an 11-year-old boy from York with a true passion for peeling mandarins.
“My son would give this a really good go,” his mum said. “He’s obsessed with satsumas. We find peels everywhere!”
With years of preparation and plenty of confidence in the peeling skills, having achieved almost eight mandarins during his trial runs, Taylor had the challenge under control... or so he thought!
Things got heated at the studio when Taylor didn't manage to achieve the minimum of four mandarins during his first two attempts.
With only one attempt left and racing against time, Taylor had to give it his all to achieve glory and walk home with a brand-new world record title.
In the end, who came out on top in the unprecedented challenge ‘Kid Vs Mandarin’?
In the end, racking up four mandarins peeled in one minute, Taylor was officially crowned as Master Peeler and smashed the title for the world’s highest number of mandarins peeled in a minute.
"It was amazing," his mother said after the nail-biting attempt.
Taylor set the record under the attentive eyes and stopwatch of Mark, who made sure all the guidelines were followed.
The challenge required a lot of rehearsing, but Taylor’s experience and technique defeated time and adrenaline, earning him a coveted Guinness World Records title.
It’s never fun to deliver bad news, especially if it’s to an 11-year-old who was so excited to be doing the record in the first place. Thankfully his nerves subsided, and he was able to achieve the record and cement his place in the list of Guinness World Records record holders - Mark
But this citrusly amazing record is only one of the many, many special Guinness World Records’ kids challenges.
Children and teens don’t have to compete with adults to break records: that is why, at GWR, we are always creating new titles for our younger audience!
We believe record-breaking should be – above all – fun, and our record-breakers of tomorrow can enjoy record-breaking and showcase their skills without having to compete unfairly alongside the grown-ups.
If you are under 16 and ready to make history, visit our Kids’ website and browse our Under 16 selection of records.
Ready? GO!
Our KIDS records are a great way for our younger fans to get involved with record breaking and Taylor showcased the rollercoaster of emotions associated with it beautifully - Mark
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