Mark Bates Ltd Senior National Championships

I would like to start by saying a huge thank you to those who were able to attend the Mark Bates Ltd Senior National Championships at the David Ross Sports Village, University of Nottingham.

It was fantastic to see over 1,000 spectators attending the event across the three days and so many of our members, coaches, volunteers and partners in one place, all enjoying a wonderful weekend of table tennis – as well as nearly 200 children from local primary schools! Thank you to those who took the trouble to speak to me, some of whom I had not yet had the opportunity to meet.

I would also like to thank Mark Bates Ltd and China Taiping for their continued support. This event doesn’t happen in the same way without our partners and I never take them for granted.

Similarly, I would like to recognise the fantastic efforts and contributions of our staff and volunteers. Far too many to name check, but the backbone of our events. Thank you all.

Finally, to our champions, congratulations to you all. The title of National Champion is something you will carry forever, and I hope you will be proud to do so.

You can watch coverage from the Mark Bates Ltd National Championships, including the entire broadcast of Finals Day and our round-up show Rewind ’23 on TTE.TV, the home of English table tennis. Additionally, view all the results on our website, see the pictures on our Flickr page and catch up on the conversation on social by searching #MarkBatesNationals23

Pride of Table Tennis

The Pride of Table Tennis Awards 2023 were held during the Mark Bates Ltd Senior National Championships and saw volunteers from across the sport recognised for their outstanding contribution to table tennis.

The nominees had a parade around the show court and then were invited to a VIP lunch where the winners and runners-up were announced. These awards are an incredibly important way of recognising the amazing work our volunteers do for the sport. We thank everyone who nominated someone and congratulate all our nominees.

To find out all our winners and runners up, click here.

National Ranking System

Following my comments in last month’s update, I’m pleased to say the revisions to the ranking system are on track and I look forward to updating you further in due course – keep an eye on our website too as all details will be posted there.

Governance

New Committee Structures

We have been delighted to see such great interest in the expanded advisory committee structure and, over the past few weeks, the Board has held conversations with a number of people who have a broad range of skills and experience to help us with the growth and success of table tennis.

At its meeting on 24 March, the Board approved the following Advisory Committee structure:

The Chair (Sandra Deaton) and Chief Executive (Adrian Christy) will be ex-officio members of the Committees.

Performance

From April 1, the Performance Team have rolled out the new performance pathway including the following new squads:

• England Futures (U12)
• National Training Squad (U19)
• Start (15 and under)
• Potential (Under-19)
• Senior Training Squad

The website will be updated with the named athletes along with the performance standards and behaviours required for our squads. This will allow us to be as transparent as possible with the standards and behaviours we will set and continue to monitor.

The beginning of April saw the Performance Team host a Home Nations Training Camp where players from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales all came together in Nottingham to practise together under the guidance of home nation coaches. This saw valuable coach-to-coach learning and development happen in the environment. Alongside this, was the Senior Training Camp where invited players from Wales and Australia joined our England Seniors in the hall for top-quality training.

The next joint camp will be held in May and will see our Start, Potential and Senior Training squads all training alongside each other, in preparation for the Seniors’ trip to the World Table Tennis Championships in Durban.

UK Anti-Doping (UKAD)

Along with the Code for Sports Governance, we are required annually to comply with the UKAD framework, and this was completed during this period, to ensure our ongoing compliance.

Annual Returns

The annual submission by local leagues of their annual returns has been undertaken, with 137 being completed to date, the deadline for this was March 13. If you have not completed yet, please do, so that your information is up to date and that your league has registered to be part of the governance structure and has voting rights for the Annual General Meeting and at any Director Elections.

Annual General Meeting (AGM)

The timetable for the AGM was distributed to all company members and can be found here. The Board will not be submitting any resolutions to the AGM, as we focus on the implementation of Table Tennis United.

Local Organising Groups

On the subject of bringing the voice of our members closer to the organisation, I am delighted to share that on w/c April 3 we are opening up expressions of interest for those who are keen to volunteer to be part of our new Local Organising Groups.

Seven LOGs will be established to support the work of the new Area Network and we look forward to those new groups playing their part in developing table tennis locally.

‘Question Time’ – Save the Date

During the strategy reset consultation, we made a commitment to provide more opportunities to engage with the membership and a huge thank you to those members who joined us on February 15 for our first Question Time event.

The next event will be held on May 17 at 3pm – please save this date and further details will be confirmed nearer the time.

Staffing

It has been a busy period of recruitment since my last update as we have set about building the team to support Table Tennis United.

We welcome Stephen Bourke, our new Area Manager – South West, to Table Tennis England. He will be in touch with member clubs, leagues and counties to start to understand the area and priorities for our members.

Naomi Thompson, our Safeguarding and Disciplinary Officer (1/3)

Tim McGovern, our Digital Content Creator (20/3)

Emma Vickers, Head of Pathway Development

Roles including Head of People, National Coaches and Digital Engagement Manager are all in the recruitment process and I will confirm new appointments in my next update.

Best wishes
Adrian