On Saturday November 3rd, 2018 was the official opening of the Deighton and Huddersfield League’s new multi-table tennis centre in Huddersfield. It has taken a lot of very hard work, time and commitment from all of the club and league volunteers to make this day happen. Deighton TTC are a club that have been growing year on year and had outgrown their existing club facilities, so with the support of the Huddersfield League, they both recognised that identifying a bigger venue that could be utilised by everyone who enjoyed and played Table Tennis would be the best way to go to continue to grow the sport.

 

The new facility was opened officially by the Major of Huddersfield who said

I was pleasantly surprised at how big the new facility is and I can see this building being of great benefit to the local community. I did try sometime last year to play table tennis within Huddersfield but came across a few barriers, but now that I know this fantastic Table Tennis Centre is here, when myself and my wife are relinquished from our roles as Major, we will certainly be joining as a member and be coming down each week to play.

Paul Simpson,  Deighton Table Tennis Club Development Officer and Coach commented

We have been looking for years to find a facility that would work for us as a club and to help the Huddersfield TT League continue to grow. When this building became available, we immediately thought this would be fantastic, as we could then plan and programme our own Table Tennis Activity without being governed by leisure centre managers, community managers when hiring out facilities. We now have control of our own destiny and are very excited about the Table Tennis Activity we can now go out and market to the schools, local authority, GP referral schemes, Health and Wellbeing groups etc

Deighton TTC recently applied for funding through the Table Tennis England Be TT (Better Experience Programme) to develop a shorter format league and have great plans for the centre. Andrea Holt, Table Tennis England’s Development and Volunteering Officer was present at the opening event and commented

Deighton TTC and the Huddersfield League have done a fantastic job in creating this new facility for Table Tennis. The local table tennis volunteers have been instrumental in turning the 3rd floor of an empty mill, into what is now a magnificent table tennis centre. It reminded me of Keighley table tennis centre, who also operate in a mill and who are superb at linking with the local community at attracting new players and members every week. I can only see this new venture going from strength to strength, with activities for the schools and the local community being accommodated with the new Be TT projects being implemented within the weekly programming, such as Bat and Chat sessions, new social shorter format leagues, pairs leagues, adult coaching, Women and Girls Sessions etc I look forward to continuing to work and support Deighton TTC and The Huddersfield League. Well done everyone!