England’s first ever WTT world event is just a week away – but seeing some of the world’s best players battling for glory is not the only exciting opportunity for the host city of Manchester.

We are working with local partners including Great Northern Warehouse, MCRactive on behalf of Manchester City Council, and Cornilleau to ensure the WTT Feeder leaves a lasting legacy across multiple communities.

The centrepiece of the work is a brand new Ping! Hub which opens today (Thursday) at the Great Northern Warehouse, a thriving leisure and shopping destination in the heart of the city.

The Hub features seven table tennis tables, with bats and balls on site, offering free play.

The first of its kind in England, the Ping! Hub is designed to bring the sport to local people and make it easy for them to play and enjoy one of the most exciting and accessible sports around. The Ping! Hub is designed to transform the space in the Great Northern Warehouse into a community space where everyone across Manchester can enjoy time with their friends, families and to meet others that want to play table tennis.

As well as free play, additional activities will take place throughout February and beyond, including around 300 pupils from 17 schools attending the Hub for PE lessons based on the TT Kidz programme.

To help players sharpen their skills, there will be coaches on site every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at various times and you will be able to book a table to guarantee your place at certain times in the day from the start of February. You can find the full programme of activities and what is on offer at www.tabletennisengland.co.uk/pinghub.

The Hub will host a ‘Varsity Match’ between the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University, and there are plans for other exciting activities, including women and girls’ sessions and an exciting range of local community activities.

Andrew Wilesmith, Table Tennis England’s Head of Table Tennis Development, said: “We are so excited to get this off the ground. Thanks to our partners at Great Northern Warehouse and MCRactive and for the support by Cornilleau with the equipment.

“Our vision at Table Tennis England is to bring the sport to more people where they live, work and socialise to continue to remove barriers to people being able to enjoy an amazing sport. This is the start of that and the start of a table tennis takeover of Manchester. We are looking forward to announcing more exciting things at the Ping! Hub as the days and weeks pass.”

Mark Schofield, Centre Director for the Great Northern Warehouse, said: “We’re delighted to be welcoming Ping! Hub and England’s first World Table Tennis event to Great Northern Warehouse this week. We’re excited with this new partnership with Table Tennis England and look forward to seeing this grow over the coming weeks.

“The newly created, Ping! Hub, creates a great social space in the heart of Manchester city centre, bringing the community together to play table tennis, with free entry.”

Darren Mason, UK Managing Dirctor for Cornilleau, said: “We are really happy to provide the equipment for the new Ping! Hub at the Great Northern Warehouse. It’s a fantastic initiative by Table Tennis England and is a great opportunity for local people to try this exciting sport or develop their skills with the coaching sessions. It’s good to hear that schools and universities are also taking part, hopefully we can find a star of the future!”

To celebrate the launch of the Ping! Hub, we are giving away a Meta Quest 2 headset and Eleven Table tennis VR game. To be entered into the draw, all you have to do is fill in our online entry form by clicking here – where you can also sign up to receive updates about activities at the Hub and other exciting table tennis news if you wish.

The WTT Feeder, where some of the world’s best and brightest players will be playing runs from February 1-4 at the National Cycling Centre. Tickets are still available – click below to buy.