North West Area
Welcome to the North West Area; I’m Martin Ireland, your Area Manager
North West Blog
Celebrating our Table Tennis volunteers!
Behind every coaching session, every tournament, and every community club, there’s a group of passionate volunteers making it all happen. From organizing events to coaching… Continue reading
TT Kidz Gets a Major Upgrade — And Now is the Time To Get On Board
TT Kidz has been significantly upgraded, making it more flexible, impactful, and better suited to clubs of all sizes. TT Kidz is no longer just… Continue reading
ParkySMASH! comes to Manchester
Following the visit of English players with Parkinson’s to Japan earlier this year, ParkyPING! hosted a reciprocal event ParkySMASH! at the Great Northern Ping Hub… Continue reading
Latest news from the North West area
English County Schools’ Individual Competitions
Contacts and entry forms for English County Schools’ competitions being held in the North West are now available. These are great events for all schools with four categories: U11, U13, U16 & U19 in boys and girls events.
Blackpool 4★ winners seal Mark Bates Ltd Nationals places
See who won at the Blackpool 4* – and how it affected the Cadet and Junior leaderboards for Mark Bates Ltd National Championships qualification
Rainford TTC awarded Sport England Funding
Rainford Table Tennis Club, St Helens Awarded Sport England Funding to Support New Parkinson’s Sessions
Insight and Impact
All about the North West network
My name is Martin Ireland and I’m the TT England Area Manager for the North West helping clubs and leagues with the development of table tennis from TT Kids to Sport England Grant Applications.
I’ve played table tennis in a number of leagues in the North West, for Lancashire County and in British League over the years. I’m secretary of the Blackpool & District TT League, run weekly junior coaching sessions at Blackpool Sports Centre and try when I can to play in the Blackpool & Preston leagues. As a volunteer I’ve been organising local 2-4 star competitions for over 30 years, which has led to some marvelous experiences working on national and major international events.
The North West area includes the counties of:
Cumbria, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire
Local Organising Groups (LOGs) are formed of volunteers from the table tennis community and external partners and organisations who work with us to bring table tennis alive locally. They are there to provide support and guidance to the Area Manager and take an action-led approach to helping deliver the Local Delivery Plan. Click here for more information on Local Organising Groups. To see the insight that has driven the Local Delivery Plan click here.
The members of the North West Local Organising Group are:
| Name | Club/Organisation | Area of knowledge or expertise |
| Mel Canham | Flixton TTC, Manchester (La) | Women & girls participation, coaching |
| Paul Hutchings | Liverpool & Dist. TTL (La) | Coaching & performance, social participation |
| Martin Ireland (Area Manager) | Blackpool & Dist. TTL (La) | Competitions, social participation, league play |
| Jan Johns | Crewe Central TTC (Ch) | Women & girls participation, club development |
| Peter Leahy (Chairman) | Natland & Oxenholme TTC (Cu) | Club development, social participation, coaching |
| Dan O’Connell | UCLan, Prestwich (La) | Coaching & performance |
| Tom Purcell | Liverpool & Dist. TTL (La) | Umpiring, league play, competitions |
| Nik Smith | Whitehaven Harbour Youth Project (Cu) | TT Kidz, youth projects |
| Mike Sunderland | Kirkby Stephen TTC (Cu) | Club development, social participation, coaching |
| Karen Tonge OBE | Halton TTC (Ch) | Club development, officiating, para table tennis |
Community Table Tennis Partnerships (CTTPs) are local geographic areas based around a town, city or small cluster of towns where the data and insight from across the sport and using demographic data and local partner knowledge tells us there are opportunities to develop the sport in those areas. These will then receive dedicated, focussed support from the Area Manager and Area Chair and the Local Organising Group and will work closely with local partners to establish, develop and sustain activity that achieves the priorities and goals laid out in Table Tennis United. Counties, clubs, leagues and other table tennis activity that exists in that CTTP space will be engaged to support the work that happens.
CTTPs will continue to evolve with the goal that activity set up is sustained by local clubs, leagues and organisations. This enables more CTTPs to be established across different parts of the Area Network that demonstrates potential impact can be made through the data, insight and information from the sport, societal data and local partners. CTTP work will make up a large proportion of the activity within Local Delivery Plans.
The following are the Community Table Tennis Partnerships for the North West:
- Manchester
- Cumbria
- Cheshire
