Matthew took up the challenge and went on to become three times Commonwealth Champion and England number one for 10 years.

He emerged from a local state school as an average achiever but studied for his A levels alone whilst playing in Sweden and applied to Oxford University having achieved 3 As at A level. He was given a place at Balliol to study politics, philosophy and economics and managed to combine his studies whilst competing at international level. Although warned that both his studies and sport would suffer, he not only gained a prize-winning first class degree but achieved in his sport.

After retiring from top class table tennis, he decided on a career in journalism and now writes for The Times. He was recently awarded Sports Feature Writer of the Year for his articles on Muhammed Ali and Zhuang Zedong. He is an excellent communicator and commentates for Eurosport and the BBC in various sports including table tennis, snooker and squash as well as being a regular contributor to various debates on radio. Matthew is also currently managing director of a sports marketing company and stood for Parliament in 2001.

With his wide ranging interests in politics, religion, ethics, psychology and philosophy, he is in the process of writing a book which he hopes will change our perceptions of the world through sport. Topics range from the urge to win, race, sex, disability and globalisation. He has continued his involvement in table tennis through a charity (TTK Greenhouse) he helped set up which has 30 full time coaches who work with kids in some of the most deprived areas in our inner cities.

If you want someone inspirational, entertaining, wide ranging, thought provoking and downright interesting, Matthew is your man.