Table Tennis England launches Jose Ransome fund for women and girls

Jose Ransome’s influence on table tennis will not stop at remembrance. Table Tennis England and Ormesby Table Tennis Club have launched a legacy fund in her name, with the money set to support women’s and girls’ table tennis for years rather than simply mark her passing.

Ransome died on 20 May, aged 92, and the new fund is being run jointly by Ormesby and Table Tennis England through an existing crowdfunding programme that had already been used to support the club’s facility development. Her family members in Canada suggested creating the programme in her name, tying a personal tribute to a practical push for the part of the sport she spent a lifetime advancing.

That detail matters. Ransome was a former chair of the English Table Tennis Women & Girls Committee and one of the figures behind the Women’s British League, now the British Clubs League. This is not a generic memorial for a decorated official. It is a targeted intervention aimed at the area she helped shape, with the clear intent of improving access, coaching, competition opportunities and retention for girls and women who often need long-term support to stay in the sport.

Her record stretched far beyond England. Table Tennis England’s obituary says Ransome was a Canadian international player, later editor of the Canadian National Table Tennis Magazine and then chief executive of the Canadian Association at Sport Canada headquarters in Ottawa. The obituary describes her as the first female chief executive in any Canadian sport. She also played a major role in the Commonwealth Table Tennis Association, serving as secretary for 29 years while Alan Ransome was chair.

The honours followed that work. She was named ETTA Vice-President in 2014 and received the Malcolm Scott Award in 1993. Table Tennis England also said she helped run Cleveland County and stage many international and national events from the 1970s onward, while serving as president of Ormesby Table Tennis Club for 30 years.

The club’s full-time home at Cargo Fleet Lane, developed in 2005 in the former St Anthony’s School sports hall with support from the ETTA Community Club Development Program, One North East and Middlesbrough Council, has already proven it can turn fundraising into tangible change. An earlier crowdfunding drive raised almost £25,000 for repairs. This new effort is built on the same idea, only with a sharper purpose: turning memory into more girls playing, more women competing and more players staying in the game.

Ransome’s funeral service will be held on Friday 12 June at 1 p.m. at St Cuthbert’s Church, Church Lane, Ormesby, Middlesbrough, TS7 9AU, followed by burial in the churchyard and a separate celebration of her life at Ormesby Table Tennis Club, Cargo Fleet Lane, Middlesbrough, TS3 8PB. Contributions to the fund are being invited in lieu of flowers, and the family said memories shared through Ormesby Club social media have been greatly appreciated.