Sir Richard Branson is not normally used to bending his knee to anyone, but if former swimming superstar and Olympic commentator Sharron Davies wants to leap on your back, how can a man refuse?

They were joined by more than 1,000 of Sir Richard's Virgin Group employees at the billionaire's home in Kidlington on Saturday to set a new world leapfrog record.

No fewer than 1,109 people took part in the attempt, smashing the existing record of 849 set by members of the Brookfield Community School, in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a year ago.

Sir Richard, who holds two weekend parties each September for his staff, said: "Following our success in the Athens Olympics we decided to go for our own record, and with Sharron and myself, along with Keith Hill MP, the Minister for London and chief executive of the Olympic bid for 2012, we decided to follow the 'Leap for London' call and I think we managed to leapfrog into the Guinness Book of Records. It was a fantastic day, with about 300 volunteers from the village taking part."

The party caused queues of traffic stretching for a mile along the A4260 between Kidlington and Pear Tree interchange.

A spokesman for Sir Richard said: "We sent thousands of leaflets out to the local residents in advance with a hotline number to ring, as well as consulting with the police on the best route to take.

"We only received four complaints and are looking at ways of avoiding this next weekend."

Sir Richard is no stranger to setting records. In 1986, his high-speed boat Virgin Atlantic Challenger 2 crossed the Atlantic in the fastest-ever time.

A year later he and Per Lindstrand set ballooning records when they crossed the Atlantic Ocean.

In 1991, he crossed the Pacific from Japan to Canada, setting a hot-air ballooning record of more than 10,700km, at speeds of up to 392kmh.