Alencon Trip 2007

12 representatives from Basingstoke Table Tennis kept a 38 year old tradition alive when they travelled to Basingstoke’s twin town Alencon in South Normandy. The team stayed for 3 nights and were treated to the normal first class hospitality which included a Moroccan dancing evening and a visit to the city and motor museum at Le Mans. A friendly welcome waited the team of 12 who travelled the 400 mile trip by road and were hosted individually in the homes of their French counterparts. The Table Tennis match was played in the normal sporting spirit with the home team coming out winners. The Basingstoke team were impressed with development of 14 year old Simon Zakani who had improved immensely over last year and lead the Alencon first team to a 6-3 victory with wins over Sean Pickin, Alan Palaczky and George White. Phillipe Dugrand was the star of the Alencon second team who beat Basingstoke 12-4 with an unbeaten display. Basingstoke achieved notable success with Sue Tompsett beating Aurelien Fontaine 12-10 in the 5th set and Steve Armstrong hit a 4 set win over Phillipe Devaux. The C team from Basingstoke went down 13-3 with Terri Allison the star for Basingstoke winning 3 of her 4 matches losing out in 5 sets to Sebastien Noirot who was unbeaten for the Alencon team.

This event is in the legacy of the Alencon Festival of Sports that is no longer run , which in it’s heyday’s in the 70’s and 80’s sometimes saw about 20 different sports being contended with 500 people from each town participating. Such sports that were involved included Football, Rugby, Roller Hockey, Shooting, Volleyball, Judo, Archery, Swimming and Basketball among others.

The town now look forward to receiving the teams from L’Etoile club in Alencon when they visit Basingstoke in May 2008