Bath Street Marine Table Tennis Club
A Table Tennis England PremierClub
News Release - BSMTTC News 108
Dateline: 8 May 2020
£3766 Award
Bath Street Marine Table Tennis Club has been awarded £3,766 of National Lottery funding from Sport England’s Community Emergency Fund towards operating costs of its new building during the on-going COVID-19 pandemic.
The outbreak of the virus and the consequent shutdown of businesses as of March 23 has left the sport and physical activity sector facing a period of uncertainty.
Only opened at the end of July 2019, the Club's new building has had to close its doors temporarily due the the corona virus pandemic lockdown.
Very good news.........
In response, on March 31 Sport England announced a £195m package to help the sport and physical activity sector through covid-19. Within the package is a £20m Community Emergency Fund, of National Lottery money to deliver immediate funding to those who have a role in supporting the nation to be active but are experiencing short-term financial hardship or the ceasing of operations due to the impact of corona virus.
The grant will allow The Club to fully meet its operating costs whilst closed, putting it in a position to immediately resume its vital daily social and recreational sport in the local community as soon as restrictions are lifted.
Club Secretary, Graham Turner, says, “this award is a godsend, in the 8 months since we opened our new building on the Marine AFC site in College Road, we have seen massive growth of interest in daytime social and recreational table tennis, especially among the ‘more mature’ and children. We will now be able to immediately resume activities as soon as restrictions are eased, which will be a positive benefit to the whole community”
Tim Hollingsworth, Sport England’s Chief Executive, said:
“As the body responsible for the growth of sport and physical activity participation, we want the vital grassroots organisations that make sport and physical activity happen in this country to not just to come through this crisis but to be in a position to thrive again in the future. The £20m Community Emergency fund, made possible by National Lottery players is part of a multi-million pound package of support we are providing to ease the pressure on a huge number of the organisations who are central to the nation’s health and well-being.
“We are proud to be able to provide vital funding to Bath Street Marine Table Tennis Club to help it through these extremely challenging times.”
Vital Support
This award from Sport England provides a vital boost to the club in these difficult days and is a recognition of the value that the club brings to the local community. Since the opening of the new building we have seen a very significant level of new interest in day time table tennis and we aim to see this level of new interest continuing as soon as we can begin to function again. As the restrictions begin to ease, it should be possible for small groups, of no more than 6 people at a time to start enjoying the facilities once more, as part of a regular exercise regime. Small groups will allow social distancing to be maintained which along with rigorous hygiene measures should ensure that all who use the premises will remain safe.
We will announce more details of our plans to resume activities as soon as we can. They will be advertised on this site and also on our social media page.