Andy is once again the boss as the 'voice of the gods' in Paris

If you've been in the audience at a major table tennis tournament in this country in recent years, chances are you'll recognise Andy Ashworth's voice.

Andy hosted the 2018 ITTF Team World Cup at the Copper Box, this year’s WTT Feeder Manchester and the last two editions of the Mark Bates Ltd National Championships. With his authoritative yet gentle northern tone he kept the crowd informed before, during and after the action.

Whether he is in the Gods or on the tennis court with the microphone in his hand, he is becoming increasingly known as our own voice of the balls. He will also fulfill that role again at the Olympic Games in Paris as the English-speaking presenter of the table tennis competition.

Andy started out as a DJ and later became a sports presenter for BBC Radio in the North West.

He himself said that he became interested in live events when his position asked him to present regional awards ceremonies and similar events.

This led to him building a good working relationship with both British and international taekwondo authorities, which led to him organising first the World Championship qualifying tournament for the Olympic Games and then the London 2012 taekwondo competition.

With his growing reputation in his field, Andy was well placed to add a table tennis snare drum to his repertoire. In 2016, he was given the opportunity to host the table tennis tournament at the Rio Olympics.

When the World Team Championships were held at the Copper Box, he began a relationship with Table Tennis England, which saw him behind the microphone at several events.

He was in charge of the Tokyo Olympics and last year's Pan American Games. Although he has also hosted tennis, golf, wakeboarding and water skiing, he will split the two sports in which he has gained the most experience this summer, hosting table tennis at the Olympics. He will then move to the taekwondo stadium at the Paralympic Games.

It illustrates the trust that the organizing committees placed in him, a trust that he said he had earned with difficulty.

When I started taekwondo I had no background in the sport so I kept doing more and more research, he said, and the same goes for table tennis.

When you are a sports presenter on the radio, you get a feel for the subject and I would only confuse it if you were to talk extensively about tactics and techniques. But then you meet an expert who talks about it. For example, I sat next to Colin Wilson at the World Cup and he knows about it.

Some people say it sounds like it will come naturally and effortlessly, but you will only succeed if you are sure that you are prepared.

There is a famous saying that if you don't prepare, you are preparing to fail. You can walk out with confidence if you have prepared.

Normally I look at three weeks of preparation for the Olympics and another two for the Paralympics, looking at stats, looking at biographies, looking at what is relevant and what is not. Some things are a bit late because you don't want them to be outdated and say someone is number 12 in the world when they've just gone up to number 10.

You can have 99.9% of the facts right, but 0.1% wrong, and they will let you know, whether it's the federation, the referee or sometimes even the spectators.

Then you start asking yourself, am I wrong, am I wrong, what else am I wrong, that's why you do all this research.

His radio upbringing certainly helps. He adds: What radio has taught me is the discipline to meet what you call intersections, so you might be running to the news on the hour and you have to hit that intersection or it sounds ridiculous. So you speak up and have an eye on the clock, and maybe a producer in your ear, and the news is coming whether you're ready for it or not.

That's important when you're working at the Olympics, because you have different broadcasters from all over the world coming through and you have to reach those intersections.

In the room you might have a talk, music, something on the big screen, interviews. It's a bit like a live event, so the other good discipline I have is writing my own sequence. And then of course you rehearse and rehearse.

Of course, things can go wrong, such as when the lights went out at a snooker event he was hosting alongside six-time world champion Steve Davis, and he had to stand in for 26 minutes.

The more experience you have, the more you can rely on someone to tell you to refill. Then you know you've done your homework, he said.

Thoughts of repetition do not enter his mind when he goes to Paris, but the serenity that comes with the experience ensures that he is prepared if the worst happens.

If someone had told me 20 years ago that I would be competing in my fourth Olympic Games… it would have shown you that you have to be at the peak of your abilities, he said.

I don't take it for granted, that's why I put in weeks and weeks of work and end up with piles and piles of paper. You have to do your due diligence and do your very best if you are selected.

It is a great honour to be the English voice of table tennis and I am very humbled.