THE annual table tennis exchange visit between Basingstoke and its French twin town Alencon, saw the Brits come out on top in the latest round played at Aldworth School.

The Alencon A team was very strong with Fabrice Vinclair and Jeremy Collet have a great time as both players did not drop a set.

This helped the French team to a 10-8 victory over top Basingstoke players Sean Pickin and Justin Mead.

Basingstoke’s Patrick Garlick shone with a fine three out of three wins including wins over Guillaume Lindet and Arnaud Riviere.

Alan Palaczky who was unlucky in deuce in the fifth set of one of his singles matches, teamed up with Chris Sabourin to gain one more point for Basingstoke in the doubles, but was just not enough to avoid an A team defeat.

Despite this loss Basingstoke won the overall competition with the B team winning 9-7 and the C team winning 14-3.

The players representing the winning Basingstoke sides were Steve Rollason, Steve Armstrong, Keith Russell, Celia Hooker, Sue Tompsett, Sarah Whithorn, Mark Every, Bill Bavister and Phil Russell.

This visit was the 48th exchange visit between the two towns with the first official exchange in 1969.

The event was watched by the Mayor of Basingstoke and Deane Cllr Anne Court, who was introduced to the Alencon table tennis president Philippe Dugrand and the twinning organisers Laurent Gautier from Alencon and Sean Pickin from Basingstoke.

Alencon now look forward to receiving the Basingstoke team in 2017.