Table Tennis England opens bidding for 2026/27 national event venues

Table Tennis England has put three national competitions up for tender for 2026/27, and the message is clear: the sport is looking for venues that can actually stage elite table tennis, not just house it. The hosting guidance drills down into the nuts and bolts, from set-up, flooring and court size to lighting, catering, changing rooms and parking. National-level lighting can be pushed to 750 lux, which tells you exactly how exacting the standard is.

The available events are the Under-21 National Cup, the National Series and the Pathway Development Team Cup. The National Cup is set for 24-25 October 2026. The National Series is split across three weekends, on 17-18 October 2026, 21-22 November 2026 and 23-24 January 2027. The Pathway Development Team Cup is scheduled for 22-23 May 2027. Clubs, venues and counties can bid for one or more of the tenders separately, with applications due by Wednesday 15 June. Table Tennis England will work with successful hosts in a partnership model, the same approach it used for the 2025/26 and 2024/25 seasons.

The National Series is the sharpest indicator of what Table Tennis England wants from its host sites. It will be invitation-only and played over three weekends, with projected fields of 24 to 32 top-ranked players in each of the Under-13, Under-15 and Under-19 boys’ and girls’ categories. Matches will be played in divisions of up to eight, with promotion and relegation after each round. That format is built for regular, high-quality competition for England’s best age-group players, and it needs venues that can keep the standard high from one round to the next.

The Under-21 National Cup is entering its third season in 2026/27, after being launched to aid retention and give this priority group more meaningful competition. Table Tennis England will invite the top 10 England-eligible men and women, with replacement invitations going down to 16 if needed. In its standard format, the event runs as a full round-robin over two days. The previous edition took place at BATTS, Harlow, on 25-26 October 2025, a reminder that hosting one of these events can put a club squarely in the national conversation.

The tender also extends to the Senior British Clubs League, where clubs can bid for divisions in the 2026/27 season. Table Tennis England describes the Premier Division as the top tier of the home nations’ competition, while the Championship Division will involve 10 teams over 18 rounds at Nottingham Table Tennis Club. Put together, the call is more than a calendar notice. It is a blueprint for where table tennis will be seen next season, and who gets to shape that experience.