North Tyneside Table Tennis Ladder

The story so far…

I played table tennis regularly in my teens but then, for one reason or another, I didn’t play for some twenty-five years. Now, in my mid 40’s I have rediscovered my love of this fantastic sport. I looked around for table tennis clubs in the North Tyneside area and here is what I found….

….nothing….

I could not find a club in my area. The closest to me was in Cramlington. I went along but found the standard of play there far in advance of my own abilities. There was no opportunity for a player of my standard to practice with others and improve.

After a tip off from a Cramlington member I went along to regular coaching sessions in Walker (Walker Activity Dome on Tuesday evenings) and under the expert, patient guidance of Graeme Barella and others that go along regularly, my game has started to come back and I have improved. I now want to play competitive matches against different people of varying abilities. The usual way that a player would do this would be to join a club and play in the local leagues and there was my problem. No local club. To play in local leagues you must join a club affiliated with Table Tennis England. It costs money. Matches are played on an evening in a team format and do not finish until 10pm at night. If you can’t make those matches and have to cancel them, you let your teammates and club down and also have to pay a penalty. If you have to travel to play other clubs at their venues, then it is a very late night. Like many others, I have a busy life and I just cannot commit to that.

My solution was to set up the North Tyneside Table Tennis Ladder. The aim is to provide a platform where players that just want to play casual but competitive table tennis with no commitments, can contact and challenge other local players.

Players can play each other anywhere, at any time and simply record their results in the Tap Leagues mobile app. Win and you will move up the ladder, lose and you will move down the ladder. The beauty of this approach is that you will end up with the players above and below you being of a similar standard.

Anybody can join the ladder, it is free. You don’t have to be in North Tyneside but as the majority of people on the ladder will be, you should be willing to agree to meet for games at venues that suit both players.