One of the largest Year 1 Be TT projects is based in the South East, made up of various different partners, all working together under the name of Horsham District Community Table Tennis Partnership Group to support more people playing and improve the experiences for players in the Horsham area.

Those involved represent three clubs, one league, one primary school, two 50+ plus groups and the leisure centre chain People for Places and now are a fully constituted group so can continue to grow and develop in years to come.

Ian Ford from Horsham District Council has been a huge driving force of the project and wholly believes in what the project can achieve.

He said: “Progress so far by HTTC under the Be TT initiative has been impressive. The club’s new junior committee has achieved significant junior growth via new coaching and competition opportunities.”

An event held between Horsham Table Tennis Club and Horsham District Council hosted 35 children, encouraging players of all abilities to be involved. Also, the group will be trying new ideas and different formats including team nights, individual tournaments, doubles-play and handicap-based events. They are even planning walk-in and warm-up music in an attempt to jazz things up.

Ian Ford added: “To further support the group, we applied for a Sport England small grant to achieve extra funding that will enable the group to make a large impact on growing and improving table tennis in the area.”

Jenny Leach, London and South East Development Officer at Table Tennis England, said: “It’s really exciting to see the project take shape. All of those are involved are incredibly passionate about the development of the sport and I look forward to seeing how it progresses over the next year.”