The first ever Performance Club camp was recently held at Ackworth School. The camp saw Ackworth, Bishop Auckland, Garstang, Nottingham Sycamore and Wensum TTC all send players for a three-day residential programme.

The coaching team of Matt Porter, Chris Parker, Evie Collier and Mark Dare put the players through their paces with drills, serve and return practice, multi-ball, seminars and a final-day competition.

Each club was invited to bring six players who fit within the Table Tennis England TDC and performance club criteria.

Bishop Auckland coach Matt Porter said:

For many players, this was the first time they had done a residential camp and for some the first time away from home. We wanted to create a shared learning environment for the players, helping them to learn how to deal with staying away from home, meeting new people and how to practise together, while developing strong working relationships between clubs, to help develop better young people and players.

Chris Parker from Ackworth Centre for Excellence added:

Training camps with different clubs will always be beneficial. Children are able to practise with players that they don’t normally play with, creating a wider range of opportunities.

From a coaching point of view, it is always great to work with a variety of people, to observe different coaching ideas and implement them in my own sessions.

The camp was successful, the players trained hard and were a credit to themselves and their clubs, both on and off the table.

Wensum TTC’s Mark Dare said:

The camp was a fantastic opportunity for players of Wensum TTC to be part of a high-level camp involving players and coaches from other Performance clubs. It was amazing to see how they grew, both as players and people, over the three days of the camp. I believe it has been an important part of their development and look forward to future camps.

Prizes were given for player of each day, a player of the camp, most improved and the tournament winners.

• Boys’ winner: Jake Haygarth (Bishop Auckland)
• Boys’ runner-up: Daniel Watkinson (Garstang)
• Girls’ winner: Ankanksha Tripathi (Garsang)
• Girls’ runner-up: Ella Barnard (Wensum)
• Most Improved: Amaan Umar (Ackworth)
• Player of the Camp: Jack Lomax (Bishop Auckland)
• Players of Day 1: Ella Barnard (Wensum); Ebony Hempsell (Ackworth)
• Player of Day 2: Ben Mold, Bishop Auckland); Ben Carwood (Ackworth)
• Player of the tournament: Fred Jones (Sycamore)
• Most determined: Darcy Brewer
• A special award was also given to Sean Stobart from Bishop Auckland who injured himself giving 100% in the warm up Wednesday, and was unable to take part in the tournament, so instead ran the tournament, unassisted, with no experience.

The camp went so well talks have already begun to set up next year’s camp, with further developments.