If you want to bring tournament table tennis to your club after restrictions are lifted, our latest online course is just right for you.

The entry-level TO2 (Tournament Organiser) course is being held over two sessions, run by Technical Officials Committee Chairman Brian Jackson, training & development co-ordinator Karen Tonge MBE and Ken Tonge, as follows:

• Wednesday February 24th, 7-9pm
• Wednesday March 3rd, 7-9pm

The sessions are being held via Zoom. Normally this course is £30 but due to Covid restrictions and not being able to use a club facility in person we will be running this course for FREE and online.

TO2 aims to help candidates plan and deliver competitions that are 1 or 2-star rated or similar in size such as a local league tournament, typically 6-10 tables.

The course covers aspects such as finding a suitable venue, referee/umpire requirements, establishing an organising committee, operational timelines and regulations, budgets, floor plans, competition formats and scheduling and gaining approval for ranked events. All topics are done in an interactive way.

Following the course there is a short, written test paper.

Greg Yarnall, Table Tennis England’s Head of Development and Volunteering, said: “Although tournament play isn’t possible at the moment, it’s important we continue with our education programmes so that we have plenty of officials to organise and run competitions when the restrictions are lifted.

“We’ve already seen an online Level 1 umpires course during the pandemic and this Tournament Organiser course is the next step in our ongoing campaign to ensure our sport’s workforce is well qualified and ready to help take the sport forward.”

If you have any questions or would like to book on to the course please contact Chris Newton via [email protected] or call him on 07904 115138

The closing date for applications will be Friday February 19th. Further details such as the Zoom link will be sent out after that date.