History of The Club

In 1947 a Mr Twitchett lived in a large detached house in Chigwell. To keep his
three sons occupied he bought them a table tennis table which was set up in one of the bedrooms. A keen rivalry developed amongst the three brothers and they all became good players. Word got round and another local lad, Michael Bonallack, joined up with them to play on the table. The club was formed and named after the house - 'Westdene'. Michael was also a keen golfer and went on to be the English amateur champion on several occasions and as Sir Michael Bonallack, was Secretary of the Royal and Ancient golf club at St Andrews.

In 1949 another local lad called Clive Mears was invited to join the club and he became secretary the following year. Clive is still playing league table tennis for
Westdene which is quite amazing and he has for several years now, been President of the West essex Table Tennis League.
The League, which was reformed just after the war, had started to expand and in 1950 they invited Westdene to join them in the second division. Despite their home venue being just a bedroom in a private house they accepted this invitation and in 1950/51 they won this division and were promoted to the first division. Since that time Westdene has fielded a team in the first division in every single year which is quite an achievement. During that time they won the league championship and knock out cup on a number of occasions.

As the club expanded they needed to find better premises and they moved firstly to Chigwell Hall, then onto Grange Farm and then to larger premises at St Mary's Church Memorial Hall in Woodford and more recently to the present venue in Hermon Hill.