A DAD and his two children regularly race to beat each other’s fastest time completing the Rubik’s Cube.

The quickest member of the family on the legendary puzzle is 15-year-old Luke, who once finished it in just eight seconds – a fraction outside the world record.

His dad Guy admitted he was caught up in the original craze when the fiendish cube first came out 30 years ago, but failed to get any of his children interested when he showed them several years ago.

Mr Plowman said: “I was part of the craze aged 11. I solved it in my own way and was really chuffed.

“I was always pleased with the speed I had, at one minute 40 seconds.”

But then, after his 13-year-old daughter Jessica learned how to complete the cube, she secretly practised until she was faster than her dad.

The cube has 43 quintillion possible combinations on its six coloured faces but only one solution – getting each face to have identical colours.

An estimated 350 million cubes have been sold worldwide since it first was released.

Jessica said: “Dad decided he wanted to be faster than me, and it was a race to get our times under a minute.”

With Mr Plowman and his daughter battling against each other, they were too busy to notice 15-year-old Luke suddenly take a keen interest.

Jessica added: “I was the first to get under a minute but Luke became really fast really quickly.”

Mr Plowman added: “Once Luke solved it, he just flew.”

Luke’s personal at-home record is 8.8 seconds, while Jessica’s is 23 and Mr Plowman’s is 20.

The current world champion is Feliks Zemdegs from Australia who solved the cube in 7.56 seconds.

At the Rubik’s UK Championship in Stevenage at the weekend, Luke achieved his competition best of 13 seconds, while Jessica got 31 and Guy 39. This was the trio’s first championships together.

The three live in West End, Witney, with mum Sarah, twin siblings Mark and Anya, age nine and sister Sophie, age three, who is relatively skilled at turning the cube, and can solve it if her brother or sister have helped get her a couple of moves from completion.