Pamela Butcher was adamant she didn’t want any fuss made about her winning three titles at the Gravesend & District Closed Table Tennis Championships but she certainly warrants plenty.

The 84-year-old won the ladies’ singles, ladies’ doubles and mixed doubles but it is her success in being crowned singles champion which is a remarkable story.

Butcher first won the title 62 years earlier – when she was just 22 in 1952!

And this time, she beat someone 30 years younger in the final.

Butcher said: “There were a lot more players and the tournament was much bigger when I first won it all those years ago.”

But it’s not only the Gravesend & District Closed Table Tennis Championship that Butcher has won over the years.

She has also won World and European veterans titles – impressive given that table tennis was not her favourite sport in her younger days.

Butcher was a tennis player until she got hooked on the game – at work. She said: “I always played a lot of tennis but they had a table tennis table and team at work and the captain suggested I try it. I had a go and liked it.”

Read the full story in this week's Gravesend Messenger