Table tennis champ says she's still smashing it - at the age of 99 (original) (raw)

Table tennis champ who offered King Charles a game is still playing - at the age of 99

Edna Fletcher was just 15 when she picked up a bat for the first time at a church-run youth club - before she "wagged her finger" at King Charles and offered him a lesson

Veteran table tennis champion Edna Fletcher, pictured aged 81, has only recently slowed down her prestigious career

A table tennis champion still plays every day at the age of 99.

Edna Fletcher was 15 when she first picked up a bat at a church-run youth club during the Second World War. She has since travelled the world, won medals and trophies, coached generations of young players and even offered to give King Charles a lesson.

Edna said: “They call me the golden girl of table tennis, so I have a lot to live up to.” She only started slowing down in her 80s when she needed the first of two hip replacements. Edna added: “I liked ball games at school, tennis, hockey, rounders, so maybe I had the eye for a ball because I took to table tennis like a duck to water.

Veteran table tennis champion Edna Fletcher, pictured aged 81, has only recently slowed down her prestigious career (

Image:

PA)

“I like the social side. When you play in a team you play other teams and you meet somebody different all the time.” Edna became world and European singles champion and qualified as a coach. She said: “I loved coaching the youngsters. My greatest thrill was to see one of mine win a tournament. They’d say, ‘I’ve beaten Edna.’ And I’d say, ‘You had to wait until I was 75 before you beat me.’”

Edna even offered to teach the ­then-Prince Charles when she was awarded an MBE in 2006. She added: “I wagged my finger at him when he said he had never played. I said, ‘Well I’ll give you some coaching.’” Edna, of Gorleston, Norfolk, meets friends for a game each day and is president of the Great Yarmouth and District League. But she noted how the pace of the game has changed.

She said: “I used to like to read the other person, it’s all in the brain and the footwork. Now it’s all about attack. If you keep your mind active and young it keeps your body active as well. There are so many clubs out there. My daughter played in an over-60s club, but I think she’s given up to play bowls.”