Cramlington Table Tennis Club
Registered Charity No: 1095616

The promotion of community participation in healthy recreation by the provision of facilities for playing table tennis

Launch of the Newcastle United Premier League 4 Sport Scheme

Friday 23 October 2009 saw the Newcastle United Foundation launching the Premier League 4 Sport Scheme at the Indoor football pitch at Newcastle United’s Training ground in Benton.

4 local sporting clubs were assembled to welcome 60 primary school children for a taster session in badminton, judo, volleyball and table tennis.

Cramlington Table Tennis Club are the ‘Hub Club’ for Table Tennis and they aim to establish 4 ‘Satellite Clubs’ in 4 schools in Gateshead, North Tyneside and Newcastle.

This was probably the first time that any table tennis club in England had transported six of their tables to a full size indoor football pitch used by Premier League football players. It was definitely the first time that these tables were used by Primary School children and First Team Newcastle United players on the same afternoon.

Cramlington Table Tennis Club were represented by Alan Hedley (Chairman and ETTA Coach) and 3 of their junior players Ryan Richardson, Dean Richardson and Adam Curran.

It was a busy afternoon and the children involved were enthused, excited and involved in their participation.

As well as learning how to hold the bat correctly and a few basic shots the children had some time on the tables. Some of the additional highlights of the afternoon involved –

playing against the Table Tennis Robot
getting to know Monty and Maggie (the mascots)
enjoying a match between Shola Ameobi and Nile Ranger (whilst Steve Taylor umpired)

Shola showed some promise and (with a bit of coaching at Cramlington Table Tennis Club) could even make it into one of the 16 teams that CTTC have playing in the Northumbria Table Tennis League.

An enjoyable launch as the pictures below will illustrate.

Setting up before the launch