Queues of people turned up at Wroxham Barns yesterday dreaming of seeing their names added to the hallowed pages of the Guinness Book of Records...for mince pie eating.

And just as it seemed mission impossible to beat the current record of 60 seconds for eating two mince pies, Jim Smith, of High Barn Farm, East Somerton, near Great Yarmouth, smashed the mark by recording 51.71 sec.

Ian Russell, director of Wroxham Barns, who organised the contest in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support, said: 'We have a form signed by our timekeeper, Peter Sheppard, from Leathes Prior solicitors, which will be sent off to the Guinness Book of Records tomorrow.'

He said quite a lot of people came along to the Barns specially to take part and a 'prodigious amount of pies were eaten during the day'.

'Although it might seem easy to eat two pies in a minute, contestant after contestant quickly discovered it is nigh on impossible,' he said.

'That was until Jim marched up and confidently handed over his �5 charity donation to take part - I realised history was in the making when the first pie disappeared in 24 seconds.'

Mr Russell said that it emerged afterwards that he was an experienced competitor, having previously held a record for eating seven Mars bars.

He said: 'The successful technique is not to fill your mouth but to continually put in small pieces.'

Throughout the day, every craft studio and shopping outlet at the Barns was offering mince pies in return for a donation to Macmillan.

The success of the contest has left Mr Russell thinking about what future record attempts they could host.

'We have held a scone making competition at the Barns so perhaps we could have a scone eating contest,' he said.