FLIPPING difficult!That was dextrous Dean Gould's verdict after setting a new world record and one which might provide a use for all those freebie internet CDs.

By Richard Cornwell

FLIPPING difficult!

That was dextrous Dean Gould's verdict after setting a new world record and one which might provide a use for all those freebie internet CDs.

Dean is the record breaker extraordinaire, holder of a string of titles for achieving the unusual and the strange – the sort of feats most people would practise in the privacy of their own homes, but never tell the world about.

Speed eating, stamp licking, pancake tossing, ball bouncing, winkle picking, coin snatching, and needle threading are among the many activities that he has proved himself the fastest, or able to do the most of, in the world.

Now he has turned his attention to another challenge – CD flipping.

He was invited by the Guinness Book of Records to set the new record, which will update the old pub game of beer mat flipping.

"I suppose I am a bit of an anorak when it comes to these sorts of records," said Dean, 38, who lives with wife Natalie and their three children in Church Road, Old Felixstowe.

"I just love them, and even after 18 years of doing them, I still find them fascinating. When Guinness asked me to do the CD flipping I just jumped at the chance."

The book bosses wanted something a bit more modern than beer mat flipping – a record Dean holds in the current edition – and which might appeal to youngsters to have a go at.

"Beer mats are not that easy to come by for children, and there seems to be less of them around anyway today – or they are the wrong size and shape for the flipping record," said Dean.

"Everyone has CDs, or you could save up the free internet ones you get in the post. I hope it will catch on."

In setting the new record before a selection of witnesses at the Tony's CD stall on Felixstowe market, Dean managed to flip and catch from a table 45 CDs, which weighed just over one and half pounds.

"My beer mat record is 111, but the CDs are more difficult to hold, and they are a fraction thicker and weigh more. I am pleased with 45 because that's more than I had done in practice, but I think I could push it to 50," he said.

His next challenge will be CD catching when the discs will be stacked and then dropped from his upturned elbow. His beer match catching record is 2,390 but feels a realistic start for the CDs will be 200.

FASTFACTS: Dean's records include . . .

n Eating 63 grapes with a plastic teaspoon in three minutes.

n Eating 51 grains of rice with chopsticks in three minutes.

n Eating 174 pieces of sweetcorn with a cocktail stick in three minutes.

n Eating three dry cream crackers in 3 minutes 7 seconds.

n Stamp licking and sticking – 209 in five minutes.

n Picking 50 winkles from their shells in 1 minute 22 seconds.

n Flipping and catching 111 beer mats.

n Catching stack of 2,390 beer mats falling from elbow.

n Coin snatching – 328 ten pence pieces caught falling from elbow.

n Speed needle threading – threading 3,471 needles in two hours.