BORIS Johnson calls it “wiff waff”, some call it ping pong but most of us know it as table tennis. Like many sports after the London Olympics this summer, table tennis has enjoyed a boost in popularity. But in Oxfordshire it’s not just the young who are getting involved it would seem, as the game is particularly popular with pensioners. When pensioner Aubrey Hughes got a call last week asking if he could make up the numbers at a doubles game, not only did he jump at the chance, but his team won the match.

He is 78 and suffers from diabetes.

Mr Hughes said: “My doctor says there are a number of reasons why I should take it easy, but there are even more reasons to keep on playing.

“When I go for a check up now I always say I am still playing, and at 78 that cannot be a bad thing.

“You can play as hard as you like – in my club there are five or six over-70s. It is the ideal sport for over-50s, because you don’t have to move over such large distances.”

Mr Hughes is treasurer for The Oxford and District Table Tennis Association and his local club, the Kidlington Forum, which runs 13 teams in all four divisions of the district league.

Since the Olympics, the ODTTA has been running open days every week and they have all been oversubscribed. Most new recruits have been juniors or over-50s.

Stan Harding, 75, from Bicester, had not played the game for 35 years when he had his passion revitalised on a cruise ship. The only person he could initially beat was a nine-year-old, and so began practising in ernest.

He said: “It is a fantastic sport for keeping you fit, I play or practise six to nine hours a week. Apart from that, it is great fun.”

Olympics table tennis was won by the Chinese, who have dominated in the sport for years. But it was invented in England in the 1880s and may have been called “wiff waff”.

Paul Woodward, 68, is chairman of the Kidlington Forum club. He said: “I have been playing since I was 20 and I was in division one in my day. You do have to be reasonably fit to play, it is very fast, but it is a sport for all ages.

“It is also a sport you can play inside in the winter months.”

Compared to other sports, the physicality of table tennis comes second to the mental agility required to best your opponents.

“When I coach the kids, I tell them that 70 per cent of the game is in your head,” said Mr Woodward.

“You have to keep on top of what sort of shots your opponent is playing – top spin, side spin or back spin.”

To learn more, visit kidlington forum.org.uk or odtta.org.uk