Sixty middle-school students from the Helen Parkhurst School assaulted the record again this year. They were supervised by their Mathematics teacher and Master Tantrix player Onno van Elsacker.

Since the rules for breaking the record allow you to involve as many people as possible for the twelve hour period, the students increased their ranks by 33% over last year's squad. Also on hand to help were a number of Dutch Tantrix Masters and regular players.

To make the record even more of a challenge, the students decided to include several words in the Spaghetti pattern, such as the record's year, the name of their school, their website, and thanks to those who helped.

The attempt was launched at 5:30 am when Sinterklaas stopped by from the North Pole to lay the first tile. Twelve hours later the deputy mayor of Zwolle had the honour of laying the final tile. In between, the previous record had been shattered by over 18,000 tiles.

Record Video Clip

Under the guidance of Mathematics teacher and Master Tantrix player Onno van Elsacker, 45 middle-school students from the Helen Parkhurst School aspired to break the record. Their attempt took the full twelve hours allowed and was successful in the end. The students were ably assisted not only by their parents, but many international Tantrix players who came along to support their attempt.

The event was also used to raise money for the "Foundation AAP", which cares for primates previously used in medical research. For a small donation, passers-by were allowed to place a tile and help break the record. The final tile was placed by the foundation director, David van Gennep. He was proud to be given the honour and delighted to accept the 1,500 € the event was able to raise.

The rules for Spaghetti records are fairly simple. Use as many people as you like, to put together as many tiles as you can! You have a maximum of 12 hours from start to finish, and no colour matching mistakes are allowed. 4-colour tiles must be used in approximately equal quantities and they must contain multiples of all 56 different Tantrix tiles. The current grand total of 25,463 tiles more than doubles the previous record and throws down the gauntlet to others thinking about undertaking an attempt.

To make matters even more challenging the attempt was to be held outside, rain or shine. A more formalized set of rules had been defined since the previous record, and those rules were now applied for the first time - including a strict 12-hour time limit and no colour-matching errors whatsoever.

No previous attempt had as many good players available to help control the public. Luckily, the weather held and a few locals (and one small dog) pitched in and the record never stood a chance.

The venue was the Bunbury Forum Shopping Centre, three hours south of Perth. The main obstacle standing in the way, was that the mall turned out the lights at 8pm and the threesome were not allowed back in until 7am the next morning. With very sore backs and legs, the task was completed the following day and the record broken by a slim margin just on closing time of the Telethon.

On the 20th of May 1999, only a few months after the initial record was first set in New Zealand, Laurent Berguin led a record breaking attempt in Ajaccio, Corsica in conjunction with the "Festival des Jeux d'Ajaccio". The team was successful and managed to bring the record to France.

The Spaghetti records were here to stay.

In addition to actual record attempts, the original event in Nelson also inspired occasional fun events to be organized, generally with the main focus to use the Spaghetti to outline and fill interesting shapes. One such event on a greater scale took place in Finland. The surprised visitors of a shopping mall in Helsinki found themselves involved in the creation of a huge Tantrix Spaghetti in the shape of Finland!