I paid a visit to the University of Lincoln Sports Centre to have a go at table tennis and produce a Flipguide, which can be found right here. Admittedly, it is not the first time I have picked up a paddle. In fact, I was rather good back in my school days, but that was many years ago, and any skill I may of once had has long disappeared.

Fortunately, table tennis is one of those sports that is beautiful in its simplicity. Within a few minutes fellow Flipsider, Gary, and I were stringing together lengthy – if somewhat tame – rallies. Being competitive chaps, our ambition soon got the better of us and we were attempting an array of elaborate winners, spinning and smashing the ball with mixed results.

Table tennis went to my head.

While some of our efforts were comically bad, one of the great aspects of table tennis is its ability to make you feel like a seasoned professional, if only for a second. I mean, somebody who has never kicked a football in their life is unlikely to hit a 30-yard screamer any time soon. Similarly, give a complete novice a golf club and they probably won’t ping a Tiger Woods-esque 300-yard drive on their first day on the range.

But even the most amateur of table tennis amateurs can hit a shot that clips the very edge of the table and leaves their opponent scrambling in vain. While table tennis etiquette means you should apologise in such circumstances, I would defy anyone not to garner a certain amount of satisfaction. Who cares if you actually meant it?

Of course, relying on luck will only get you so far. To win a game, you must score at least 11 points, and have a two-point lead over your opponent. Against experienced players, this requires a huge amount of skill. My tutor for the day, Alkisti Olympiou of Crusaders Table Tennis Club, was a top player in the Greek National League, and now competes in local leagues as well as coaching at the University of Lincoln.

It was quite apparent that her reactions, footwork and accuracy were many, many notches above anything I could produce on a regular basis. However, with a bit of perseverance and guidance from Alkisti, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that I could get to a reasonable standard before too long. In fact, I might just give it a crack. I loved the sport when I was younger, and it costs next to nothing to join local clubs.

In short, table tennis is great fun, east to learn and cheap to play. What is there not to love?