KARATE king's attempt to smash his way into the record books by breaking baseball bats with his shins failed last night.

When it came to the crunch Chris Pate, a black belt first dan in Amayo Kai karate, just couldn't manage to smash the 30 baseball bats in a minute which would have put him in the Guinness Book of Records.

Chris, 32, of Whipp Avenue, Clitheroe, who runs the Amayo Kai karate club, had been practising for ten months.

He said: "It all went pear-shaped. I'm more disappointed than sore. If they don't break it really hurts.

"Once I did the first kick and it didn't break it just got worse and worse. I'm gutted."

Chris said there was a problem with how steady the frames, holding three baseball bats at a time, were as he attempted to break them.

But Chris, a mechanic at Thorncraft Motorcycles, Blackburn, said it would not put him off future world record attempts - which may include catching arrows fired at 100 yards.

However, it was not all bad news.

At the event, held at Clitheroe's United Reformed Church Hall, Anna Leeming, of Read, a member of Chris's club, set a brand new world record of 65 round-house karate kicks in a minute.

The event raised more than £1,100 for Derian House children's hospice.