THE sport of ping pong may not be widely known, but Warrington will have two participants in this month’s world championships.

Peter Flint and his 13-year-old son Alexander will travel to Harlow next week for the qualifying stages of the World Championships of Ping Pong, due to take place on Wednesday.

Should they make it through, the finals are broadcast live on Sky Sports from London’s Alexandra Palace on Saturday, January 28.

Alexander, a student at Cardinal Newman High School, will be the youngest competitor at the championships and his father, who trains with him regularly at Cinnamon Brow Farm Club, thinks he is ready to step up.

“It will be such a good experience for him to play against these world-class players,” he said.

“He’s ranked number one in the world for his age and 243rd in the senior rankings but he’s taken games off some top players.

“Cardinal Newman have kindly given him the day off to compete so we’re looking forward to going down.”

Ping pong is different from table tennis due to the use of traditional sand-paper racquets, placing more emphasis on speed, skill and shot-making.

Peter, 53, is ranked 48th and was narrowly beaten by world number one Maxim Schmyrev in the qualifying stages for last year’s competition.

Those who make it past the qualifying event will enter a group phase and Peter hopes he, along with his son, can at least do that.

“I took a game off him and was leading in the deciding game but Maxim just managed to get the better of me,” he said.

“It’s luck of the draw. The trouble is going up against guys who are full-time professionals.

“It would be great if we could make it to the group stage, but we’ll see how it goes.”