The Junior National Cup is ON! The event, for the top-ranked male and female Juniors, is set to be the first national tournament for more than a year and will be held under covid protocols.

The tournament will take place over the weekend of June 19-20 at Kingsway Leisure Centre, Widnes, the temporary home of Halton TTC.

It has been expanded from 10 athletes in each gender to 12, and they will play in ‘bubbles of six’ on each day. Eligible Under-19s will be included, reflecting the recent change to the Junior age group.

As rankings have been suspended since March 2020, the July 2020 list – which includes the under-19s who are now eligible – will be used to invite the top 10 in each gender. Two wildcards will also be invited in each gender. Ranking points will not be awarded at the event.

No spectators will be allowed, while social distancing and venue capacity means that invited competitors are likely to be restricted to one accompanying adult in the venue, be that a coach, parent or friend.

Invitations and further competition details will be sent out within the next 10 days, and the event will also act as a pilot to trial the new functionality in TT Memberships for online event entry and payment.

For this season, we are accepting Compete membership to enter this event and athletes will NOT need to upgrade to Compete Plus.

Competitors who have not yet renewed any kind of membership for this season can click here to read more about our membership offers to help everyone get back playing.

Table Tennis England’s Head of Competitions and Events, Neil Rogers, said: “Pending any changes forced upon us by Government advice, we very much look forward to welcoming players, technical officials and volunteers alike back to competition at the Junior National Cup.

“This event is something of a milestone after 15 months’ disruption to national competitions, and I am sure the whole table tennis community is looking forward to this resumption of activity.”