Table tennis star ‘wagged her finger’ at Charles and urged him to play the sport

The ‘golden girl’ of table tennis has revealed she offered her coaching skills to King Charles, who shocked her with his response.

Edna Fletcher, from Gorleston, Norfolk, began playing the sport when she was just 15 years old.

Since then, she has won medals and trophies across the globe and helped coach other generations of table tennis players.

Edna recently told the BBC she offered to coach King Charles in 2006, when he was then the Prince of Wales.

She said: ‘I wagged my finger at him when he said he had never played.

‘I said ‘well next time you come to Caister and visit The Prince’s Trust, get them to ring me up and I’ll give you some coaching’.’

Though Charles isn’t an experienced table tennis player, Camilla seemingly is – she took on France’s First Lady Brigitte Macron in a match last year.

Happily for both sides, Queen Camilla and French first lady Brigitte Macron ended their match in a tie.

It was not a particularly high-scoring affair, with the Queen never managing to return more than one of Brigitte’s strong shots.

Camilla invited the first lady, who is six years younger than her, to a quick match after facing off against 19-year-old French table tennis star Prithika Pavade.

Prithika, who represented her country at the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, told news station BFMTV that she could tell it wasn’t the Queen’s first time.

She said: ‘It was a unique experience. I was very lucky to have been able to meet the royal couple.

‘You can see that Queen Camilla has already held a bat and that she has already played, it was very nice.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.