THE 2024 Guinness Book of World Records has been released, with some of the wacky, interesting and downright intriguing world records covered.

Here we take a look at the people from Ammanford and Llandovery who currently hold or have held a range of Guinness World Records.

Matthew Page

South Wales Guardian: Matthew Page broke the Guinness World Record for most castles visited by bike in seven days (which

Llandovery’s Matthew Page became a Guinness World Record Holder in 2022 after a week-long cycle to as many castles as he could possibly visit.

The endurance cyclist chose to do the challenge in February 2022, almost a year after the record of 50 castles in seven days was set by Glanamman’s Wales and British and Irish Lions legend Shane Williams.

Matthew – an endurance cyclist – not only beat Shane’s total by 17, visiting 67 castles, he beat the 50 target in just five days, and finished his cycle after hitting the 67 figure on the sixth day.

He began at Carreg Cennen Castle in Llandeilo and took on more than 1,000km, visiting the south Wales coastline and riding along the English border to Welshpool.

He diverted his route due to bad weather and as Storm Eunice was approaching, he headed west to Castell y Bere in Gwynedd before coming back down through Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire, ending his journey at his hometown’s Llandovery Castle.

The record required the rider to touch the wall of each castle visited for it to count. The castles also had to be open to the public and not privately owned and had to have been built before 1800.

"If it hadn't been for Eunice, I'd planned on reaching almost a hundred castles," Matthew told 'The Guardian' after his record breaking trip. "Unfortunately the storm prevented me from covering all the castles of north Wales which I was really looking forward to doing."

Shane Williams

South Wales Guardian: Shane Williams broke the world record for most tackles in one minute.

Glanamman’s Shane may have lost out to Matthew Page on the most castles visited in seven days by bicycle but he does hold two Guinness World Records!

Shane was one of the group to play a game of touch/mini/tag rugby at the highest altitude on April 25, 2019.

The record was achieved by Wooden Spoon (UK and Ireland) and was made up of former international rugby players including Shane, former England international Lee Mears, Rugby Sevens star Ollie Phillips and England legend Tamara Taylor as well as volunteers aged 16 and over from the rugby community including Matt Mitchell, Mark Akred, Jeff Broderick, Rob Callaway, Jess Cheesman, John Curtis, Mark Dean, David Fenton, Roger Davies, Lesley Davies, Matt Franklin, Ben Harvey, Miles Hayward, Jon Ingarfield, Paul Jordan, Huw Lougher, Jude McKelvey, James O’Malley, Nick Stevenson, Viv Worrall, Simon Wright and Carrie Gibson.

The game was played at Mount Everest base camp in Nepal at a height of 5,119m or 16,795ft.

Shane also holds the Guinness World Record for the most rugby tackles in one minute.

He achieved this with 23 tackles on two tackle bags in one minute on 6 Nations Sin Bin which was aired on BBC on January 19, 2019.

Ammanford elves

South Wales Guardian: Ammanford's elves won a Guinness World Record.

On November 17, 2012, Ammanford earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for the world’s largest gathering of Santa’s elves.

Quay Street in Ammanford was an unofficial North Pole as the elves took a break from Christmas preparation and 762 elves descended on the street.

It was organised by Gail Jones, community liaison officer for Quay Street contractors Alun Griffiths.

“I started screaming, my dog started barking and my daughter came running down the stairs,” she told the Guardian after the record was broken.

“I’m absolutely chuffed to bits – it’s such an amazing thing for a little place like Ammanford to have achieved.

“The whole town pulled together quite magnificently and words can’t express how pleased I am for everyone who made this possible. Special thanks must go to the town council, Carmarthenshire County Council and the townspeople themselves.”

Ammanford mayor Paula Treharne told the Guardian she was “ecstatic.” She added: “I came into work with a blazing headache but this news has made my day – well done Ammanford!”

This smashed the then existing record of 609 which was set by ABC Family Studios in 2009.

However, the Ammanford record was smashed when on November 25, 2014, 1,762 of Santa’s elves descended on Bangkok in Thailand.