It must have been a tad disappointing to have spent 4,200 hours over eight years building a replica of the Eiffel Tower out of matchsticks, believing that it would be the Tallest Matchstick Structure, only to be told that you had used the wrong sort of matches. This is the fate of Richard Plaud from France when he sent details of his erection to the judges at Guinness World Records (GWR).

It was an enormous undertaking using more than 706,000 matches and 23kg of glue. Originally, Richard had cut the combustible heads of the matchsticks himself but realising that this was a very time consuming process, he bought headless matches from a manufacturer. This proved to be his downfall as GWR told him that his submission was to be disqualified because it was not made of matches commercially available.

Richard’s plight must have struck a chord with the judges who have subsequently rescinded their decision. At 7.186 metres it is now officially the world’s Tallest Matchstick structure.