Welcome to the April edition of my regular update, which includes the latest news and information to share with you.  

Our New Chair 

We are delighted to welcome Clare Briegal as our new Chair. Clare started on 31 March and brings to table tennis extensive experience across the sporting landscape, as Deputy Chair of British Rowing, Chair of Sport Liverpool and as a former CEO of the International Netball Federation. The Board, the team, and I look forward to working with Clare to drive our strategy, Table Tennis United, forward to even greater heights, as well as deliver an incredible centenary World Team Table Tennis Championships in 2026. 

It is such an exciting time for table tennis. Our vision for a ‘table tennis nation’ is genuinely achievable, and together as a unified and collaborative sport we can achieve incredible things.   

Major Events – Mark Bates Ltd Senior National Championships 

I was delighted to spend three days at my first Mark Bates Ltd Senior National Championships. 

When I walked into the FanZone on Friday morning, to be greeted by the buzz, excitement and smiling faces of over 120 school children playing our great game filled me with pride. We welcomed over 300 spectators to our Members’ Day on Friday 21 March, as the weekend’s event got under way and there was a fantastic buzz in the playing arena as well. 

It was exciting for me to see our sport being enjoyed by people of all ages and from all walks of life. This is our flagship National Championships, and we want to build on the number of fans and spectators experiencing our sport live, in the FanZone and online. This year, we expanded the reach and thousands of fans tuned in online on TTE.TV and our YouTube channel to watch coverage of the best of our English talent. If you missed anything, click on the links above to catch up, or check out our website – Missed the Nationals? Here’s how you catch up on everything! – Table Tennis England 

Congratulations to all the players who took part in the finals and particularly our champions, Liam Pitchford, Tin-Tin Ho, Connor Green & Anna Green, Tianer Yu & Mari Baldwin, Paul Drinkhall & Sam Walker, Jack Hunter-Spivey and Billy Shilton. I want to pay a special tribute and say a big thank you to the entire team of staff and volunteers involved in delivering a great event, particularly the Competitions team for leading and coordinating the event and the Engagement team for the fantastic coverage across our channels.  

As always, our headline sponsor Mark Bates and his wife JJ, alongside Yamei Yang and his colleagues from China Taiping International, attended the event and it was such a pleasure to host a special lunch for them on the Sunday. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mark once again for his fantastic support of the National Championships over the recent years, without which we wouldn’t be able to provide such an excellent event for the players and the table tennis community. Mark, a big thank on behalf of the table tennis community! 

I was humbled to meet so many of our table tennis community at the Nationals from the players, their families, our amazing volunteers, the kids and school teachers’ in the FanZone, to our former stars and many more. Thank you everyone for making me feel so welcome and sharing your thoughts with me. 

Our next major event in England will be the WTT Feeder Manchester, staged at the iconic National Cycling Centre from 24-27 April.  The line-up of players has just been announced and I’m delighted to see a full complement of our incredible English talent, plus Team GB’s Anna Hursey, as well as 11 Paris Olympians. If you haven’t got yours yet, tickets are still available but selling fast for finals day, so do ensure you secure your tickets now. I look forward to seeing you there.  

We will also be welcoming six local schools in Manchester to take part in pre-event ‘Ping’ activities at the Great Northern Warehouse Ping Hub prior to the event as part of our ongoing social impact work.  

Elite Performance 

With just under four weeks until WTT Manchester Feeder and eight weeks to the World Table Tennis Championships in Doha, our squad players are working hard to ensure their preparation is world class to deliver the best possible experiences and performances. As we digest the Mark Bates Ltd Senior National Championships and indeed the Under-15 & Under-17 Championships, it is pleasing to see the impact our Elite Training Centre in Sheffield is making, evident in the positive performances our cadet and junior players put in.   

Talent Pathway  

Over the past four weeks, Emma Vickers, along with Natalie Green, has conducted a review of our Pathway Development Centre Network. Off the back of this review they have considered the best operating model to maximise the effectiveness of our talent pathway. A bespoke model around each Area, particularly where Talent is consistently being nurtured, will be where we look to invest further. One area of note is the age bracket of PDCs has been brought down to 8-13 to ensure these environments act as a feeder into our newly designed Futures Programme. Another key part of the PDCs is ensuring they are delivered as TTE Talent Pathway Activity, not club activity.  

I am delighted to announce Charlotte Carey as our new National Pathway Coach. Charlotte will be responsible for leading the Futures Programme and brings to TTE extensive international playing experience and has recently been supporting our GBTS and Futures Programme. Charlotte will develop a domestic and international competition and training programme with a goal to ensure our Futures programme produces sustained European Youth medal-winning young people, along with delivering our Holistic Athlete Development programme, ensuring the very best outcomes emotionally for our young people. Ben Barlow will be the Lead Support Futures coach having a background in professional table tennis and coaching and developing young people in a variety of contexts.  

Coach Learning and Development 

Applications are now closed for our two new Coach Learning and Development roles. We are currently working with a handful of clubs to develop and run our new coaching system as pilot projects before rolling it out nationally. We are in development of our new digital learning platform that will aim to bring coaches together to learn, develop, share ideas and have loads of great experiences along the way. Don’t forget Level 1 and Level 2 coaching courses are back open to book on by demand. Please click here to visit the website page to book on. 

The Cloudathlete Pride of Table Tennis Awards  

We welcomed more than 90 guests to the Cloudathlete Pride of Table Tennis Awards on the Saturday evening of the Nationals as we celebrated our fantastic volunteers, clubs, leagues and partners. It was a lovely evening and to be able to hear the stories and incredible work done by so many was simply inspiring. These awards showcase the work that happens across the country and the impact this sport has on the lives of so many. I want to say a massive thank you to Alan Lane for leading and delivering a great event and to Chris Bryden for his support in this. I would also like to thank Cloudathlete for their headline partnership and to Bounce, Great Northern Warehouse, Cornilleau and Tees Sport for their sponsorship and support of the event. You can see all the winners and runners up here.

Competitions 

Entries are now open for our first two Senior 4* events which are coming up May and June. These events are being delivered in partnership with two top-class clubs in Ormesby and Nottingham and bring in a new era of high-level competition for the highest ranked and best players across England and further afield. 

To find out more and to enter the Cleveland 4* on the weekend of the 3-4 May and the Nottingham Senior 4* on 21-22 June, click here. 

In addition, four further 4 Senior 4* events for 25/26 are being planned and will be announced shortly.  

Governance

Annual Returns 

The deadline for annual returns was 15 March 2025 but if you want to be eligible to vote in the upcoming Director Elections, please ensure this is completed by 6 April so that we can update the Electoral Register ahead of the voting process. 

If you are part of a Club, League or County, please make sure your membership is current and that all your details are up to date so we can contact you. 

Integrity 

As you may have seen we have been working over a number of years on a case in relation to betting on table tennis, where four members of Table Tennis England have been suspended from the sport following a complex international investigation into match fixing and unusual betting activity in the sport. Statement. 

As a reminder to all members of Table Tennis England, as part of our Anti-Corruption Regulations you are not permitted to bet on table tennis.   

Finally, as we enter a new chapter under the leadership of Clare Briegal, we all wish Clare success in her new role and look forward to working together as the table tennis family. 

Best wishes 
Sally Lockyer