THOSE years of honing your table rugby skills on the school desk could be about to pay off.

Hiding out at the back of class or taking on your mates during the inevitable ‘wet play’, table rugby/flick football whatever you, ahem, coined it, provided some epic battles.

Now, with the Rugby World Cup kicking off next month, the World Table Rugby Association is launching its inaugural World Championships.

And it’s all in aid of the UK Stem Cell Foundation.

Anyone can get involved in the qualifiers with the public encouraged to host their own tournaments and, in any that raise £50 or more, the winner can be nominated for the Table Rugby World Championships finals on November 1.

Players can raise money any way they wish, although a ‘pound in a pint glass’ to enter is suggested.

As in any game originating at school – fives, bulldog, heads and volleys – players will undoubtedly have their own take on the rules.

While there is an official size table for the World Championships, all that is needed for the qualifiers is a coin, a flat surface and a couple of willing competitors.

For those not familiar with the game, player one attempts to knock a coin to the opposite end of the table in three flicks, aiming to land a bit of the coin over the edge.

The coin is then flipped up and caught for a try, before being spun, caught and flicked over the opponent’s finger goalposts for a conversion.

For more information visit tablerugby.co.uk You can play it down the pub, don’t have to make a tackle and won’t have to remortgage your house for a ticket.

With that in mind, researchers suggest the UK travel and tourism industry is set to pocket nearly £1billion thanks to the World Cup.

Warrington Guardian:

While rugby league fans will protest at England versus Uruguay being held in the city on the same day as the Grand Final, Manchester looks set to make more than £6million from hosting that one fixture.

GoEuro says nearly two thirds of that will be made up in accommodation costs, with the rest accounted for through transport, food and merchandise.

Warrington Guardian:

For the full Go Euro findings, click here.

The IAAF World Championships got under way this week, but before the turn of the century only three athletes had won the men’s 110m hurdles gold. Can you name them?

The answer to last week’s question was, of course, Penny Laine.