Hosts triumph in Festival of Sport

The festival consisted of seven sporting events over two days. Sports clubs from Alenon pitted themselves against local counterparts in angling, archery, bridge, canoeing, polo, judo and table tennis.

The mayor's game this year was skittling for a pig.

Basingstoke Angling Association held the fly and coarse fishing competitions at Lechlade Loch, Oxfordshire, and Old Basing, with the home town running out 2-0 winners.

The archery team from Alenon won a closely-contested match against Old Basing Archers by 3,447 points to 3,419.

Basingstoke Bridge Club were delighted to win their contest before celebrating the 21st consecutive twinning exchange for bridge players of both towns.

Basingstoke and Deane Canoe Club joined their Alenon opposite numbers at The Warfe in Odiham for an afternoon of canoe polo. Both sets of competitors mixed to form Anglo-French teams, with the final result a well-fought draw.

The Paul Jones School of Judo played hosts at the Rucstall School to eight juniors from Alenon who won a close contest by 5-4 on points.

The table tennis competition took place at Basingstoke Sports Centre with Alenon looking to triumph for the third year in a row over Basingstoke. The French side included Fabrice Vinclair, highly ranked in his own country. Basingstoke's star man was Martin Adams - ranked among the top 100 players in England - who won the top match as Basingstoke's A team were inspired to an overall 10-8 victory.

The contest between the B teams ended in a 5-5 draw.

The final event of the weekend was the mayor's game with the council leader Brian Gurden proving himself to be a worthy opponent with the afternoon's best performance in a 2-1 win to Basingstoke.

Alenon's team was led by Patrick Lindet, the deputy mayor in charge of twinning. The prize, a cuddly toy pig, was presented to Mme Claudine Courvasier, Alenon twinning co-ordinator, for her grandson who will be two next month.

Basingstoke and Deane were overall 9-5 winners on points.