Boris and Pippa's Ping Pong Challenge

It's shaping up to be the over-privileged celebrity Londoner grudge match of the decade.

Boris Johnson, the tousle-haired and plummy-accented mayor of London, has accepted a challenge to play a game of Ping Pong against Pippa Middleton.

The world’s most famous bridesmaid threw down the gauntlet in a column written for today's issue of the British establishment’s house magazine, the Spectator, and BoJo, as the Old Etonian London mayor is known, responded enthusiastically via twitter.

In her article, Pippa wrote of taking part in the "haute route", a 111-mile ski trek from Chamonix in France to Zermatt in Switzerland. Earlier this year she took part in a similar, shorter, event called the Engadin, a ski marathon in St Moritz.

"Back home in London after my Alpine challenges, I can now pursue less demanding hobbies in my spare time, such as ping-pong," she writes.

"I’m informed that Boris Johnson, former editor of this magazine, wants to be ‘whiff-whaff’ world king even more than he wants to be prime minister.

"I’m also told the Johnsons are almost as competitive as the Middletons. So I’d like to lay down a challenge to the Mayor.

"My only stipulation is that I can use my favourite Dunlop Blackstorm Nemesis bat, which I used when I played in the Milton Keynes U13 National Championships, don’t you know. Bring it on, Boris."

The ever-ebullient Boris was alerted to the story by the editor of the ‘Speccie’ on twitter and replied: “I’m game if she is. Happy for Pippa to join me on a visit and see the benefits of our £22m Sports Legacy Fund in action.”

The Spectator is now reporting that Pippa is still up for the game, and they have offered to set up Boris's old ping pong table in the Spectator gardens.

Boris’s own time at the Spectator was characterized by a seemingly endless series of love affairs between various staff members, including a four-year relationship between himself and writer Petronella Wyatt, which led to the magazine being dubbed the Sextator.