An octogenarian from Fenland, who is thought to be not only the country's oldest badminton coach, but also the longest serving, has enjoyed a very special outing.
Colin Bedford, 88, from March, has been playing the sport for 77 years after picking up his first racket at the age of 11, and he is still going strong, holding weekly coaching sessions at the Neale-Wade Academy's sports hall.
A celebration of Colin's long connection with the sport was held earlier this year, with players past and present joining in the fun event.
Now, Colin has received further recognition by being invited to join the England badminton team at their training headquarters in Milton Keynes.
Colin, a former driving instructor, was accompanied by his daughter, Suzanne Parrish, on the special day out.
He met Nathan Robertson, the team's head coach, and a former top player who notched up around 70 performances for England, winning an Olympic silver medal, a European gold, and six Commonwealth Games medals.
Colin had with him his 75-year-old wooden racket, and the young team members were fascinated by how heavy it was compared to the lightweight rackets of today.
"They couldn't get over how heavy my racket was. Nathan asked to have a go with it, and we had a little game with me using his racket, which I couldn't get on with because it was so light and not what I was used to," said Colin, who says he has kept a number of rackets from down the years.
He also took with him some of his large collection of badminton memorabilia and spoke to the team about his time doing his National Service in Malaysia, when he and his fellow soldiers would play against the workers from the tea and rubber plantations.
"It was a lovely day, and it was nice to meet the team who are really the 'royalty' of the badminton world in this country," said Colin.
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Colin previously ran three classes a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and would see around 75 people turn up.
He has calculated that he has taught around 10,000 people how to play badminton over the years.
"Most of the people who play badminton in the March area came through my classes over the years, and we are still going," said Colin, who runs sessions on Thursdays from 7pm to 8.30pm, at the Neale-Wade Sports Hall - which was named in his honour a number of years ago.
Colin said anyone is welcome to come along and join in, but he asks people to book via the sports hall to ensure he has enough courts set up to meet demand.
"I shall keep going as long as I can; my knees aren't very good these days, but I can still show people how to play, and I really enjoy it," he said.
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