Here at the Table Tennis Table Shop, we’re always looking to develop the skills of our customer services team, whether it’s through comprehensive product training or just letting them try out our products.

Having made arrangements last month, this week former England international table tennis player, Nigel Eckersley, came to visit our Oxfordshire office to give our team some hands-on product training. After the team had stopped marvelling over Nigel’s impressive sports car we made our way to the company’s retail outlet where we had set up a table tennis table to play on.

Nigel, who was capped by his country more than 50 times, maintains his fitness by running a local table tennis team and still represents England veterans. Nigel hadn’t lost any of his ability and was due to play in an international tournament the following weekend.

Initially we all rallied with Nigel whilst he gave us some tips to improve our technique, which really made a difference in most cases. Two members of our team, Tom and Simon, are keen table tennis players and had been practicing tirelessly for the last few weeks in order to impress the professional, which they did.

After we had each rallied with Nigel he asked us to play a few more offensive shots, this was when we all realised just how good Nigel really was, repeatedly returning our efforts with shots that were impossible to return.

Everyone really enjoyed Nigel’s visit and vowed to get some practice in before arranging a return visit.