The first Inclusive Table Tennis Festival in Norwich was filled with fun and smiles as Disabled People got the chance to try the sport.

Around 30 people with a range of disabilities gathered at The Norman Centre for the event, organised by Table Tennis England in partnership with Active Norfolk and Special Olympics Norfolk.

The Assist Trust, Pathways College, Sense and Stepping Stones all participated, with individuals trying the basics of the sport, having some free play, and having a go at the target challenge.

The Festival is hopefully just the start of future partnership work in the area, as the video below explains.

The Norfolk & District League’s Disability Officer, Robert Bootyman, was also in attendance and it is hoped to be able to create some competition opportunities for Disabled People in due course.

Ellen Vanlint, Inclusion Officer at Active Norfolk, said: “Active Norfolk works to make physical activity opportunities accessible to all.

“We look to work with different groups across Norfolk to create new opportunities, and table tennis we see as quite an inclusive, adaptable sport and we’d love to create some more regular opportunities for that to happen.”

Nicola Fish, Chair of Special Olympics Norfolk, said: “Table tennis is one of the sports that we’ve been quite keen to get involved with because in certain parts of the country it’s very popular, so there’ll be good competition opportunities.

“Ellen approached Table Tennis England to organise something so that we could hopefully drum up some interest to start some clubs in Norfolk.”

Table Tennis England’s Head of Table Tennis Development, Andrew Wilesmith, as well as Area Manager Chris Bryden and other staff were also on hand.

Andrew said: “Table tennis is probably the most inclusive and accessible sport that we’ve got in this country and the work that we’re starting to do within Table Tennis England is to consider how we can become more inclusive in our approach, how can we start to bring more people into the sport.

“This is just one part of a wider piece of work around how we start to work across disabilities and bring different charities, different partners together to make sure that as many people have exposure and access to the sport.”