92-year-old becomes Britain's oldest ping pong player

SWNS

Britain’s oldest ping pong player is still batting off the competition and beating opponents 30 years his junior - at the age of 92.   Retired tool maker Ivan Pedley plays table tennis twice a week and says he has no plans to retire from the game he loves.  The grandad-of-three first took up the paddle sport as a 14-year-old boy in 1947 and is still going strong 78 years on.   The energetic pensioner plays around 14 games a week at Great Wyrley Table Tennis Club in Staffordshire, UK often against opponents much younger.

Transcript

00:00I was in a youth club, the YMCA. When I went on holiday I always played and there was a

00:09member from here who told me to come up here and he said it's a lovely club, but I don't

00:14believe him. But I was wrong. They've helped me through my sad days and they've helped

00:22me a lot and I couldn't come to a better club. Over the years I think I have improved a little,

00:29because I was in my early eighties when I came and it was a friend on holiday who introduced

00:36me to this club. I can't tell you how much I enjoy coming here because they're all very

00:41nice people and I don't want to get morbid, they've helped me a lot in my life and that

00:47gentleman there, if you could call him a gentleman, he is in every way and I'm most grateful for

00:55what he's done for me. I'm Tony Reeves and I'm secretary of the club. I've been for many

01:01years now and I have played in the Warsaw League for close on 70 years. I started off

01:09as a junior and I went through the ranks, juniors, intermediates, seniors, veterans

01:15and applied for the town in all those categories. I really love the sport and I've kept the

01:21club going here the best I could, because I'm 84 now and Ivan said he'd like to come

01:27up here. I think he has definitely improved and he's improved quite a lot and I'd love

01:36to have him up here, I wouldn't do without him. He's part of the furniture now.

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