How Bridgend Table Tennis Club engaged with local community to inspire children 

Bridgend TTC has recently ventured into the local community to engage with schoolchildren and inspire them to pick up a bat.  

Table Tennis Wales’ Regional Officer for the South West, Cerys Evans, organised a taster session at Pencoed Primary School with the club supporting to run it.  

On the back of that and the clear desire to continue with table tennis further, Bridgend TTC volunteer Sam Meredith set up a lunchtime club in November to allow kids to continue playing.  

This club has seen great success, with 40 children coming on a regular basis.   

“It was great to see a good number of kids get involved,” club volunteer Dave Webber told us. “And a lot of that is down to the work that Sam put in down at the school. 

“It was important in giving those kids a focus and an outlet, and something to do and enjoy that’s positive.” 

Following this, six continued playing by joining the beginner session held at Halo Leisure Centre – which now runs on Wednesday evenings. 

“From their attendance at the beginners’ session, several then opted to come to Bridgend TTC to improve their table tennis,” Dave Webber, another volunteer at the club, told us. 

“It was really good to see some of them enjoy it so much that they wanted to do that.” 

The excellent engagement and evident desire for the sport are not the only successes of this fantastic initiative, either.  

One child that started out at the taster session and progressed to club nights was Oscar De Abreu, who even went on to taste success at the South West Primary School Championships earlier this year. Alongside his partner from another school, Timmy Muil, Oscar clinched top spot representing Pencoed Primary School. 

“From a coach’s point of view,” Dave went on, “it’s really good to see, and motivating! It shows that the pathway works, and it’s nice to see new, young faces coming to the club and enjoying playing and hopefully learning as they go along. 

“It’s important to have a pathway that works, because anybody that starts playing can see there’s an opportunity to improve and that there’s a future in front of them.” 

It’s fantastic to see this work from table tennis clubs across Wales, and great to see young people engage with these opportunities to enjoy our sport.  

Bridgend is an all-inclusive club that welcome everyone – any age, all abilities, anybody with a disability.  

Find out more via the Find a Club page on the TTW website.