North West Area

Welcome to the North West Area; I’m Martin Ireland, your Area Manager

Latest news from the North West area
Competitions

County Championships – now underway for 2024/25 season

The first set of matches have been played in this season’s County Championships. Results and fixtures lists for all divisions can be found on the County Championships website.

October 21, 2024 | Julie Snowdon
Schools

English County Schools’ Team & 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.

October 15, 2024 | Martin Ireland
TT Kidz

Join us for the TT Kidz programme webinar

Are you ready to inspire the next generation of table tennis players? Join us for an exciting and informative webinar all about the TT Kidz… Continue reading

October 1, 2024 | Jack Ramful

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North West Blog

NW Blog – Exciting Opportunities for Schools: English County Competitions in November!

Is your school ready to showcase its sporting talent? The English County Schools’ Team Competitions are just around the corner, and schools in the North… Continue reading

October 24, 2024 | Martin Ireland
TT Kidz

NW Blog – Join us for our TT Kidz Webinar update on 23rd October

TT Kidz is a great way to engage young peoples interest in Table Tennis in a fun and exciting way. There have been a number… Continue reading

October 9, 2024 | Martin Ireland

NW Blog – UCLan hosts second Training Camp in August

Monday 19th August saw the second of two Table Tennis training camps take place at UCLan. In total forty-two of the best players from ten… Continue reading

September 2, 2024 | Martin Ireland

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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