I had heard so much about Ping – the table tennis venue in Earl’s Court – and I had been looking for an excuse to go! A few weeks ago, I went to a friend’s 21st and in the drunken/hungover antics the next morning we began to knock about on the ping pong table and the competitive spirit began to brew. A few rounds later, a group of us had decided to battle it out at a future date, which before long had come around! I am a very competitive person but unfortunately ping pong is not amongst my skills set, so for me this was just a bit of fun…but my friends disagreed!
To start off the fun (and give myself some liquid confidence) we began with a few drinks and oh my – they were delicious! I started off with a passionfruit martini followed by a “Good Thyme” i.e. gin, elderflower and thyme. I was a bit skeptical at first at the thought of thyme in an alcoholic beverage but everyone agreed the combination of flavours was yummy! Plus I’m always one that loves a good pun so the drink was perfect for me.
Then the battle was on! The others were all so good, me…not so much.
So in the end we played doubles and singles, mixing and matching the pairs up and playing games such as “King of the Court”. Overall, it was such a good laugh and I’ve come away now wanting to improve my skills to shock them all and smash it next time – because I will be back! They had great music, not to mention again the delicious drinks and as the night went on, the lights went down and the tables were lit from above in different colours (very cool but very distracting if you’re as competitive as me).
If you want a great night out with friends, or somewhere different for a date (there were lots of couples hidden away in the corners…) then this is definitely somewhere you have to try! You want to get in early though as the tables go quick but they also serve food if you’re getting peckish or play hard enough. Definitely a great night out and very much recommended!
teawithalice 