It’s been a busy period since my last update in October, headlined by the launch of tickets for the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals London 2026 which are now on sale.

This is a significant moment on the journey to these centenary championships and we will now see the event really start to come alive as tens of thousands of fans book their places to come and watch the best players.

Our members were able to take advantage of a priority window for the first three days, getting the first chance to buy tickets before they went on general sale on Thursday. I know many of our members took this opportunity and we can’t wait to welcome everyone there. Who knows what is possible with a home crowd behind the England team.

The chance to see England play a guaranteed three matches over the weekend of 2-3 May was a particularly big attraction and I know the athletes will appreciate the support of a passionate home crowd at OVO Arena Wembley.

Demand was strong through the priority window but there’s still good availability – you can find out more about how to get tickets here.

It is up to us to make the most of this opportunity to elevate and transform our sport and we will also see our social impact and legacy programmes start to pick up pace in the new year.

It was particularly welcome for our Ping! For Health project to be selected as one of only six recipients worldwide of one of the ITTF Foundation’s Dream Building Fund Generation 2026 projects. We’ll update on this as the programme moves forward.

It goes without saying that the World Championships will be the major highlight of 2026, but it will also be a year when we transform our members’ experience and launch the sport into a bright digital future through our partnership with Cloudathlete, as I wrote about in my last update.

Work has been continuing on building the Cloudathlete platform which will replace the existing system from the start of the 2026/27 membership season, with a full go-live planned for July 2026. I look forward to updating you further on this in the months ahead.

We also have the Mark Bates Ltd National Championships to look forward to in March and I’m delighted Mark Bates extended their sponsorship of the National Championships for another year, continuing a partnership with Table Tennis England which began in 2020.

You would struggle to find many people more passionate about our sport than Mark and we’re also very grateful for his continued support of athletes by committing to once again increase the prize money they will be playing for at the Nationals.

Finally, I’d like to thank you all for your support of our sport throughout 2025. Whether you play, coach, officiate or support – or however you choose to contribute or participate – we are immensely grateful for everything you do to keep our sport moving forward.

If you have a few minutes over the holidays, why not nominate someone you know in the Cloudathlete Pride of Table Tennis Awards? You can find out how here.

On behalf of the entire team at TTE, we wish you all a happy Christmas and a wonderful 2026.