Local junior competitions are a key part of a young person’s table tennis development, putting into practice everything learnt in club coaching sessions. County Closed competitions are a great place to start with boys and girls, U11, U13, Cadet & Junior events played in groups, so plenty of games during the day. We particularly want to encourage girls and younger players starting to play competitively to enter these events, please share this with your league, clubs, coaches and to parents of junior players: Lancashire Junior Closed, Liverpool – Sat 14th July 2024 (CD 7/7/24), Cheshire Junior & Senior Closed, Halton – Sat 20th July 2024 (CD 18/7/24).
NORTH WEST COMPETITIONS CALENDAR
A recent focus has been the planning and promotion of events due to take place in the North West over the 2024-25 season. I’m pleased to say, with the support of a number of clubs and venues, there are a growing number of new events planned for the 2024-25 season, these include: 2 x Women and Girls events, 2 x Junior 2 Stars, GN Ping Hub Olympic Challenge, (non league players), 1 x Junior 1 Star in Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria.
This is in addition to the existing County Closed, County School’s, NCL & NJL, Junior and Senior tournaments taking place. To help navigate this, we’ve put together a calendar of all competitions, courses and events taking place in the North West, with links for further details.
GREAT NORTHERN PING HUB GOES FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH
The Great Northern Ping Hub on Deansgate in Manchester has seen throughput growing each month. Between the start of February and end of April, the Ping Hub has seen 3,500 people visit. Of those, 1,000 have engaged in one or more of our coached and led activities. Of those, 35% are female and 87% have either not played table tennis before or are very low-level social players, so we know it is engaging a new audience.
We estimate that 50% of participants are from a diverse background (mainly Chinese, Hong Kong or South Asian). We have had over 4,000 visits to the Ping Hub website in two months and over 5,500 searches for it on Google, demonstrating the growing reach of the Hub. You can now book tables from 9am to 9pm seven days a week, book 1-2-1 coaching sessions on a Tuesday with former Welsh No.1 Dan O’Connell and we plan to run a number of Olympic Games themed events over coming months.
LEVEL 1 UMPIRES COURSE
Places are still available on the level 1 Umpires Course due to take place at Blackpool Sports Centre on 15th September 2024, 10am to 4pm with International Umpire Brian Jackson, those that attend will also be invited to attend a practical session at one of the Junior 1 or 2 Star events taking place in the North West.