SPEEDY Gonzales Freddie Entwistle is a world-beater when it comes to answering times tables questions.

The nine-year-old from Holmes Chapel was invited to take part in a world record bid for the number of times table questions answered correctly in 60 seconds.

Lightning-fast Freddie, a pupil at Lower Peover Primary School, got an amazing total of 181 right in the minute, a rate of three a second.

The Guinness World Record competition was run in association with Times Tables Rockstars, and Freddie came fourth in the world for all age groups up to year six and first in the world for his age group, year four.

“Times Tables Rock Stars is an app to encourage children to improve their times tables,” said Freddie’s mum Laura.

“Freddie’s school introduced Times Tables Rock Stars to the curriculum in September-October time, and he quickly became quite addicted to it.

“There are lots of different games modes you can play on, and it’s really popular with schools.

“The producers monitor children’s times, and because Freddie kept getting consistently high results he was one of 50 children invited to enter this competition.

“He had to upload a video to a platform by a certain date, showing him getting the highest score he could achieve in a minute.

“The questions ranged from the one times table to 12 times, and he’s so quick he answers three questions a second.

“He’s very good with speed in general, he does BMX racing and is a really fast runner.

“If it requires speed Freddie’s your man – he’s a Speedy Gonzales.

“He came fourth in the world for all age groups up to year 6, and first in the world for year 4, which is a great achievement.”

Times Tables Rock Stars is a programme of daily times tables practice. Each week concentrates on a different times table, with a recommended consolidation week for rehearsing tables recently practised every third week.

The website said the format had boosted times tables recall speed for hundreds of thousands of pupils over the past eight years.