BASINGSTOKE Table Tennis hosted 15 table tennis players from its twin town Alencon in France, writes SEAN PICKIN.

This was the 50th visit from a twinning which started in 1969 under the Festival of Sports event.

The table tennis exchange continued and the relationship is very strong between the two organisations.

This year to mark the special occasion Basingstoke Mayor Cllr Paul Frankum and the Mayoress Cllr Mrs Jane Frankum presented the president of the Alencon club L’Etoile Alenconaisse, Philippe Dugrande with a plaque.

Basingstoke Table Tennis will travel to Alencon next spring for the 50th Birthday celebrations and appreciate the support provided by Basingstoke and Deane Borough council over the years to make the event possible.

The French team were entertained with organised activities throughout the weekend including laser clay pigeon shooting in Reading in a contest between 30 players whereby Basingstoke table tennis player Mark Every was victorious.

Despite also winning a Skittles evening Basingstoke Table Tennis lost to “Tennis De Table” competition three games to one with one match drawn.

The match scores were as follows Basingstoke A 2 Alencon 8, Basingstoke B 0 Alencon 10, Basingstoke C 0 Alencon 10, Basingstoke D 5 Alencon 5, Basingstoke E 6 Alencon 4.

Alencon's top player Fabrice Vinclair was the star of the show winning all three singles matches. Basingstoke’s Sam Ricks picked up the two points with notable wins over Antoine No and Kevin Vannier with Ricks winning 4-11,11-5,13-11,14-16,11-9 against Vannier.

Jeremy Collet won all his three matches for Alencon B despite injury and was joined by rookie Mathieu Vanderhaegue and junior Marius Vinclair with Basingstoke's Alan Palaczky providing most of the resistance.

Basingstokes Keith Russell in the C team lost two close five setters against Phillipe Devaux and Arnaud Riviere in the teams 10-0 loss.

Sue Purton, new to the exchange led Basingstoke D team to a 5-5 draw with an unbeaten display and with an 11-8 win in the fifth set over Phillipe Dugrande.

Alencon's Stephane Guilbert on his first visit to Basingstoke could not prevent a 6-4 loss as Basingstoke E's Phil Russell and Bill Bavister hit two each.