Chelsea take on Arsenal in table tennis

School pupils played a unique table tennis match as part of Chelsea's Premier League 4 Sport initiative.

Pupils from Great Baddow High School in Chelmsford, Essex, donned the Chelsea blue for the match against St Aloysius College representing Arsenal.

The event gave 16 keen table tennis players the opportunity to represent their football club and enjoy a relaxed but nonetheless competitive tournament.

Table tennis is one of the four Olympic sports offered as part of the Premier League 4 Sport initiative, a project which aims to promote and encourage young peoples' participation in table tennis, volleyball, badminton and judo.

GREAT OPPORTUNITY

Zak Wooster, the Chelsea Foundation's 4Sport co-ordinator said: "This event was a great experience for the young people from both clubs. Many have only been playing table tennis since the launch of the project in September 2009, so it was a great opportunity to play in a competitive tournament and represent Chelsea against a team like Arsenal.

"As the games went on, you could see the boys were growing in confidence and really enjoying themselves. Hopefully this will encourage more young people to take part in the programme."

REALLY GOOD

Chelsea finalist Nik Clayden added: "It's been great to meet other people and playing against them is really good for us."

Arsenal finalist Ike Okorofar commented: "I have been playing table tennis for a year every Friday since the start of the project and I had never played before so I now want to go on to bigger and better things!"

The Premier League 4 Sport Project has now entered its second year of delivery and aims to get 25,000 young people, aged between 11 and 16, to join local sport clubs during the three-year scheme.

The initiative also helps to achieve the Government's ambition to offer young people five hours of sport a week, as part of its 2012 legacy plans and address the drop-off in sports participation when young people leave secondary school.

Chelsea's involvement is based in schools across the Essex areas of Chelmsford, Basildon, Castle Point, Rochord and Brentwood. The sessions generally run between 3.30-6.00pm on weekdays and are aimed at school years six through to year 11.