WTT Feeder Manchester – tickets now on sale

We were delighted to be able to launch tickets exclusively to our members in a priority window, giving you the opportunity to secure the best seats in the house for our first ever World Table Tennis event.

Tickets for the event in Manchester from 1-4 February next year were snapped up by hundreds of you and are now selling well to the public too. It promises to be a fantastic few days of top-quality action and I look forward to seeing and meeting many of you there. For tickets, please click here.

Be part of the team at the WTT Feeder in Manchester

As part of our commitment, on the back of the World Championship bid success, to bring great international table tennis to England, we are in the final stages of planning for our first WTT event in Manchester.

We are now looking to grow our team of volunteers who will become integral to supporting the delivery of the WTT Feeder in Manchester from the 1-4 February 2024. We are also looking to grow and invest in our army of volunteers that can help us deliver future WTT events, national events and ultimately the World Team Table Tennis Championships in London in 2026.

If you want to be a part of this amazing opportunity and be a part of the team to deliver the most exciting period of competition to come to England in decades, then we want to hear from you. More information can be found here.

LA 2028 Investment Cycle

In recent weeks, UK Sport has begun the process to consider investment into Olympic and Paralympic programmes for the LA2028 Games.

Gavin Evans (Head of Performance Development) and I are fully engaged in this process and our strategy and investment application will be submitted to UK Sport by its deadline of 12 January 2024.

We understand an indicative investment figure will be shared with us circa late March / early April with confirmed investment known later in the year.

Local Organising Group Members

Establishing the Local Organising Groups to support the work of the Area Networks has been going well with five of the seven Areas now with appointed Chairs and members being recruited each week.

There is still time to apply for a role on your Local Organising Group. So if you have a skillset matching the role or want to be involved in growing and supporting the game then you can apply by going to our vacancies page and selecting the Local Organising Group for your area.

TT Kidz

Our goal to introduce more young people to table tennis continues with new TT Kidz programmes starting across the country in recent weeks. Increasing the number of U9s and U11s playing table tennis is a key priority and Area Managers are working locally to bring more TT Kidz sessions on board. 

If you are a club or a school and want to bring TT Kidz into your programme please contact your local Area Manager. You never know, a hidden gem of talent may be in your school or club right now; you could also be playing a huge part in creating a table tennis habit for life for even more people.

Members’ Webinar

On Wednesday 15 November we were joined by 12 members for our latest Question Time event, where myself, the Senior Leadership team, and two of our Directors Jos Kelly and Don Parker enjoyed a good discussion on topics ranging from school table tennis to audience engagement. Read more about this and our responses here.

As a reminder, the ‘Question Time’ sessions are for all members of Table Tennis England, and we would be delighted to welcome those who have not attended previously. Please watch out for details of the next session – we look forward to you joining in the discussion.

National Competition Review

Following Board’s agreement to implement the TTE National Competition Review, plans have been proceeding apace with the first dates recently announced for new competition formats – including the new U21 National Cup, and the new four-date National Series.

Full details can be seen here. 

More information on the format of each new event will be released in due course, and further implementation of the agreed changes will be announced going forward, for the 2024/25 and 2025/26 seasons.

For more about the Competition Review, including FAQs, please click here.

Governance

National Council

The election process for the new Chair of National Council election has been running in recent weeks and voting closed on 3 December. We will update on the successful candidate once we have been informed.

Governance Reforms

The Articles and Regulations Committee (ARC) completed a review of our Articles and recommended some changes that would improve the clarity of the content and ensure they were fit for purpose. These recommendations were put to a task and finish working group that has been established to work through the recommendations and also to contribute to any further enhancements, these are their Terms of Reference.

As reported previously, there is a cross-section of the membership involved in this working group to ensure that representation is received from a broad section of the membership.  

We will update the membership further as these areas are finalised.

Code for Sports Governance

We have received confirmation that we have met all the requirements under the original Code for Sports Governance, and we have three areas to complete out of the seven new requirements. These are in relation to our Environment Social Governance and our People Plan, first drafts of these are with the Board for their December meeting, and we have until February to submit to Sport England, so we are well on the way to achieving this deadline.

Staff Update

We are delighted to welcome Chris Bryden, who joined us on 20 November as Area Manager – East, and Chris Cockburn joined on 1 December as Development Team Support Officer. I am sure you will join us in wishing them every success in their roles.

We are currently advertising a number of roles on the website to support our team.

Merry Christmas

This will be the last Bulletin of 2023 and I would like to sign off by saying a few thank yous.

Thank you to so many of the table tennis family who continue to play such a big part in supporting the delivery of Table Tennis United. This past year has been one of transition across the whole organisation – how we are structured, how we operate and how we engage. We could not have started this journey without you.

Thank you to all our partners for your continued support of English table tennis – please never underestimate how important you are to us.

Thank you to our amazing staff, at HQ, and across the Area Network, and to our Board – you are a fabulous team.

Thank you to everyone who plays table tennis, who coaches, officiates, volunteers or watches. You are the reason we do what we do, and we are proud to be your governing body.

I wish you, and your families, a very Merry Christmas and a happy and successful New Year – see you in 2024.

Best wishes
Adrian Christy