A holiday visit to a table tennis club sowed the seeds for a friendly match which could turn into a lasting relationship.

Martin and Callum Squire were on holiday in the South West a few months ago when they popped in to Portishead TTC to join in their regular Sunday night training session.

The pair, members of Cheslyn Hay TTC in Walsall, were so impressed with their hosts’ set-up that they asked to pay a return visit and to bring some other members of their club with them.

The plan was to compete against PTTC in a Club v Club competition that had been set up by PTTC. This would be the third such event staged by PTTC but this was by far the biggest Club v Club event to date.

The result was a friendly but competitive match between the two clubs, which was narrowly won by the hosts.

Playing across 72 games of singles and 18 games of doubles, with first to 21 points winning and every point counting towards the result, Portishead won by 1,649 to 1,499 points – an average score of 21-19.3 across the 90 matches

Steve Pratt of the host club had the highest individual net points margin on the night, while Bertie Kelly (the current No 4 ranked 13-year-old) of Portishead and John Benge of Cheslyn Hay were unbeaten in all their games

The clubs hope to continue their friendship with more events in the future. PTTC are also open to requests from other Clubs who would like to become involved in PTTC’s Club v Club events. Contact Derek Connop (PTTC Development Officer) at [email protected]  or call 07779 118936 for more information.