Shrewsbury sports village tennis table booking mix-up

A major table tennis tournament has been postponed - after staff at Shrewsbury's £10 million sports village double-booked the venue.

Officials at the English Table Tennis Association (ETTA) said the sports village in Sundorne Road was booked over a year ago for the Tees Sport Grand Prix, on March 12 and 13.

Shropshire Council today admitted it had double-booked the venue in Sundorne and apologised for the blunder. The hall will instead be used for a local junior netball tournament.

Matthew Porter, ETTA national events officer, said: "An e-mail was received last Thursday from the venue informing us they can no longer honour the booking made over a year ago as they had double booked it.

"The grand prix will be re-arranged for later in the season."

Jacqui Allford, leisure facilities manager with Shropshire Council, said: "As soon as we realised there was a double-booking for the Sunday we contacted the table tennis association and have apologised for the error.

"We hope they will still be able to hold their event here in the future."