It was a foggy November night in 2023 when a prospective new member who would change the course of St Austell TTC walked into the venue for the first time.

The club was struggling to build back after the pandemic and numbered around 15 full-time members, well down on its heyday of 15 years or so ago.

Fast forward to 2026 and the 200th member has just been registered – and St Austell has the proud status as Cloudathlete Pride of Table Tennis Awards Club of the Year.

The award-winner’s citation reads:

St Austell Table Tennis Club has combined remarkable growth with community impact, delivering inclusive programmes from Ping Mind sports psychology projects to the Ultra League for adults with a Learning disability, and schools’ pathways in partnership with organisations including Active Cornwall and the West Cornwall TTL. Through these initiatives, alongside women-only and over-55s sessions, they’ve made table tennis a powerful force for connection and wellbeing across their community.

The person who has done most to supercharge the initiatives underpinning this remarkable rise is Craig Mehew, who himself was named Volunteer of the Year.

Club Chair Allan Brooks takes up the story: “We have to give a lot of credit to Craig because of his inspiration and drive and trying to engage with the community since he arrived at the club – it was one foggy evening in November.

“He was introduced by Matt Nicholls, who used to be a member of the club and said ‘I’ve got a mate from Bristol who’s moving to the area, can he come and have a knock?’ We said ‘yes, of course’, and Craig came along and was quite amazed by the facilities we have.

“At that time, we had no more than 15 full-time members and had one team in the West Cornwall League. We were still struggling a bit after the pandemic to rebuild the numbers.

“Craig and I had a chat, and (Table Tennis England Area Manager) Amanda Leonard came to see us and asked how she could help us. We wanted to try to rebuild the club to where it was in the early days after foundation in 1998.

“Craig had all these brilliant ideas and started getting funding. He started doing things in the town centre, got into a local secondary school to do an after-school club, we got social media going to try to get the message out . . . it all snowballed from there and it’s been a whirlwind ever since.”

As well breaking that 200-member milestone, the 2026/27 will see the club enter 11 Senior teams in the West Cornwall League and three teams in the Junior League hosted across St Austell and Falmouth.

The club is active in neighbouring Mevagissey, where a three-week starter programme turned into a thriving regular session, while St Austell Leisure Centre hosts sessions for adults with learning disabilities.

The club itself has capacity for 14 tables in a tournament set-up – more on one of its regular practice nights on Mondays and Fridays.

“There have been a lot of different projects that we’ve initiated and people have just kept rolling in from all corners of the county,” said Allan.

“It’s been really good fun. We’ve got a really good committee who get on with each other, and everyone does a little bit.

“It’s rejuvenated me and even my wife Alison started playing three or four years ago and joined our Seniors group here. We regularly get up to 30 on a Tuesday morning for an hour-and-a-half of table tennis and half-an-hour of nattering!”

The Cloudathlete Pride of Table Tennis Awards actually brought a hat-trick for the club as, on top of becoming Club of the Year and Craig winning Volunteer of the Year, the Inspirational Story of the Year went to a group of youngsters from the club who are behind the Young Carers Cornwall Ping Mind initiative.

Club members attended the presentation ceremony at Brent Civic Centre during the London 2026 World Championships, where they also got to watch some of the action at OVO Arena Wembley, including an England match.

“It’s quite amazing, really,” said Allan. “We put the three trophies the club had won on display so people could see them as they came into the club, and they were pleasantly surprised and really pleased.

“For me, the lost pleasing thing is the joy of a Friday at the club. Last week, I was playing one of our summer league matches and there were four other matches going on – it’s quite a laid-back, friendly league of all ages and abilities.

“Meanwhile, at the other end of the hall, that was full of people having fun playing socially.

“It’s the fun and enjoyment that people get out of the sport. All ages and abilities, we just let them play.”