Priority Zones are local authority areas which have been identified as having significant potential to grow our sport and have agreed to accept prioritised staff support and investment from Table Tennis England.
Here is the latest from the PZs in the Central Area.
Birmingham
Laurel Road Community Centre and JC College have 150 now attending. The City Council’s Health and Wellbeing Project continues to grow and has included table tennis in three new locations – Small Health, Masefield and Kingstanding. Calthorpe have requested extra tables so they can expand the project further.
A new partnership has been forged with the Birmingham Inter Faith Group and they have already set up a new weekly session with 78 new participants playing.
The Birmingham Level 3 School Games took place and all 11 School Sports Partnerships entered teams in the event resulting in 22 teams of four players. This meant table tennis achieved a full School sport Partnership representation at the event, the only sport to do so.
Sport Birmingham
Working with Sport Birmingham and Chambers of Commerce in Birmingham, a free lunch was provided and an opportunity for local businesses to network have some fun during their lunch break and play ping pong.
A friendly competition took place, with the winning business taking home a new table tennis table for their workplace. It was great event generating lots of interest for table tennis in the workplace, resulting in four new Loop at Work packages being purchased by the local businesses who took part in the event.
Leicester
Leicester now have 24 weekly play-on opportunities, with four new sessions having started. There are two new adult sessions, one at St Matthews Horn of Africa with 20 people attending and the other at the Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living with 10 people attending.
Two junior sessions have also started at St Matthews Community Centre and Cossington Sure Start Centre with average weekly attendance of 30 participants across the two sessions.
In the first three months of the year De Montfort University now have table tennis taking place daily in the students union and this has attracted 110 students to play. At a recent Leicestershire & Rutland Sport “This Girl Can Charity Night” 275 women attend and in the fun zone a table tennis beat the robot challenge took place.
Though work in the Priority Zone Ashmount School in Loughborough who provide education for pupils with special educational needs have received six hours of table tennis coaching and they opted to let all their pupils form Year 5 upwards have a taster session. Overall, this meant 80 pupils tried table tennis for the first time and from the success of these session the school is now looking to run a weekly after-school club, potentially with some satellite funding.
Nottingham
Ping Pong at Portland is the new table tennis hub in the heart of Nottingham. Working closely with Portland leisure Centre and Notts County Football in the Community we are able to offer a new weekly Ping! Play on Social session at Portland Leisure Centre.
‘Ping Pong at Portland’ started over the Easter weekend and is every Saturday from 10.30am-12.30pm, first session free! Further session are available to include private table hire, daytime sessions and nifty 50 group activity.
Ten brand new indoor tables are available for social fun play, competitive games or introductory coaching. Prior to this three centre staff, four Notts County Football community coaches and the new Ping! officer attended some activator training where they learned some basic technique and lots of fun games to pass on to the participants.
Two new Community Centre’s Bells Lane and Phoenix Park Way are now offering table tennis to the youngsters. In the North of Nottingham Greasley Sports Centre have invested in more table tennis tables, spurring on the local community staff to get involved with a new Loop package.