Table Tennis England unveils Pride of Table Tennis Awards 2026 shortlists

Table tennis has put its money on the people who keep the sport moving. The Pride of Table Tennis Awards 2026 national shortlist, published on April 8, spread the spotlight across clubs, coaches, schools, technical officials, volunteers and partners, with Table Tennis England saying the honours recognise impact over the last 12 months rather than just results at the table.

That matters because the awards are designed to reflect the sport as an ecosystem. The 2025/26 programme has 12 categories, and the shortlist now runs well beyond the familiar competitive frame, covering Club of the Year, Coach of the Year, Contribution to Table Tennis, Inspirational Story of the Year, League of the Year, The Level Table Award, Lifetime Achievement Award, Partner of the Year, School of the Year, Technical Official of the Year, Volunteer of the Year and Young Volunteer of the Year. Area winners in Coach of the Year, Club of the Year, Volunteer of the Year and Young Volunteer of the Year had already been announced on March 25, from more than 110 nominations, with every nomination automatically carried into the national stage.

The names on the shortlist show where table tennis is strongest. St Austell TTC and Stanmore TTC are in the Club of the Year mix, while the School of the Year list includes Parkdale Primary School in Nottingham, St George’s School in Edgbaston, St Peter’s CE Primary School in Market Bosworth and Shakespeare Primary School in Leeds. In coaching, the shortlist features Kelsey Fordham, Paul Hutchings, Peter Thompson and Tony West, a reminder that the sport still depends on people turning up week after week to build the next generation.

The wider message is just as clear in the categories themselves. The Level Table Award points to inclusion, Technical Official of the Year recognises the people who keep competition orderly, and Partner of the Year brings in Central Co-op Membership as a reminder that grassroots table tennis survives through support well beyond the hall. This is not a shortlist built around medals alone. It is built around the volunteers, coaches and organisers who keep clubs open, school sessions running and leagues functioning.

All shortlisted nominees will be invited to a special reception during the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals London 2026, giving grassroots contributors a place inside the sport’s biggest moment of the year. The championships run from April 28 to May 10 at Copper Box Arena and OVO Arena Wembley, with 64 men’s teams and 64 women’s teams set to compete. ITTF says 19 of the top 20 men and the majority of the top 20 women are already confirmed, and the event is being framed as a centenary homecoming, 100 years after the first World Table Tennis Championships were held in England in 1926. In that setting, the shortlist reads as a statement of priorities: table tennis still lives or dies at club level, in schools and in the hands of the people who work behind the scenes.