League Handbook - A Guide to help you organise a local Table Tennis League

Introduction

This Handbook is a guide to help you organise a local table tennis league. It is written by volunteers who have run leagues themselves in partnership with Table Tennis England (TTE) staff. The guide is not mandatory. We hope you find it helpful, but you are free to adopt a different approach if you wish.

Table Tennis England is the National Governing Body for the sport in England. A local league can affiliate and use the software described below. There is no charge for either. Further details about affiliating to TTE are contained later in the Handbook.

For further advice please email our Helpdesk at [e-mail]

What sort of league?

Traditionally local leagues organise all play all competitions in which teams play a match against a different opponent each week. Team matches usually take place on weekday evenings. Matches are generally played on a single table although a second table can be used if it is available.

Who?

League matches are usually played between teams of two or three players.  Team squads are normally required have one or more extra players to cover occasions when a team member is unavailable.

The most common formats are:

• 2 aside with 5 matches (each player plays their two opponents and there is one doubles).
• 3 aside with 9 or 10 individual matches per team match. Each player plays each opposing player (=9) plus, in many leagues, a doubles match (=10).
• 3 aside with 6 individual matches. Each player plays two of their three opponents. This involves ranking the players in a team on merit. Player 1 plays against opponents 1 and 2, player against opponents 1 and 3 and player 3 against opponents 2 and 3.

Leagues usually award 1 point for each individual match won. Alternatively, the team match can be scored as two points for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss. The latter is less popular because it means once a team has won the majority of the total possible individual matches, the remaining individual matches have no significance.

When?

Matches usually start at around 7.15 to 7.30pm with teams arriving up to half an hour before the starting time to knock up. The finishing time will depend on the number of individual matches which constitute a team match. Two aside competitions playing 5 individual matches will usually finish by around 9.00pm and those playing 6 individual matches by around 9.15pm. Two aside competitions have a number of advantages and are particularly suitable for young players. Three aside competitions playing 10 individual matches will take a full evening finishing around 10.00 to 10.30pm.

As explained above, formats with different numbers of individual matches, such as 6 or 9, are also possible.

Most leagues play a winter season from around late September to March with a couple of weeks off over Christmas and perhaps a one or two other weeks off at half terms, for cup competitions or to catch up on postponed matches. This can accommodate around 10 to 14 teams in a division playing each other twice each season, once home and once away.

Another option is to play a competition in the Autumn, have promotion and relegation between divisions at Christmas and play a second competition from New Year to March. This format is suitable for divisions of around six teams playing each other home and away.

The advantages of this are that teams or players finding they are in a division of too high or low standard will be promoted or relegated to a more suitable level after Christmas. It is also often possible for new teams formed after the start of the season to join the league after Christmas. Separate Autumn and Spring competitions have been found to work well where there are a lot of young or relatively new players.

A few leagues also play a summer competition, but this is difficult to fit in. If the winter competition finishes in April, then a summer competition might start in May. But this is entering the school and university exam period followed by summer holidays.

Where?

The most common arrangement is for matches to be played home and away. Each club will need to provide a home venue for its teams. Two teams can share the same table at their home venue with one playing away when the other is home. The way to arrange this is explained below.

You will need to decide the area within which venues may be located. If your league is based on a particular town, can a team from a nearby town enter using its a home venue there, or must they hire a venue within a more limited area. In practice this question often resolves itself as an outlying team will have to travel further for all its away matches, so joining a league based on a different area will not generally be attractive to it.

Instead of using a home and away system you can choose to play all the matches in a division at a central venue on a fixed night. In this case, the league Executive Committee, will book and pay for the venue and recoup the cost from the teams.

A central venue provides a better atmosphere, teams do not need to worry about providing a home venue, matches can be on the same night every week and, as there is no home and away, teams can just play each other once per competition if desired.

On the other hand, teams which already have free or cheap access to their own venue will not want to incur the extra cost of a central one. A central venue may also prove unpopular with teams located some way from the venue chosen and postponements are not generally practical as the venue will only be hired for the scheduled fixed match nights.

Inviting entries

Each year you will need to invite clubs to submit entries for the league. Entries will need to close well in advance of the proposed starting date. It the league is scheduled to start in, say, late September you may prefer to set the closing date before the August summer holiday period.

You need to alert all potential clubs and teams to the closing date well in advance. Once this date is passed you can decide on the number of divisions and allocate teams to them. This is usually based on where the teams finished the previous season with promotion and relegation of the top and bottom one or two teams. Teams which enter late can be allowed to fill blank spots if there are any. If no suitable slots are vacant then you will have to refuse late entries. Apart from filling vacant slots you are advised not to try and rejig the divisions to accommodate late entries as other teams may object to the change and the process can go on indefinitely.

The reverse of this problem is a club which enters a team only to find when the season starts that it does not have enough players. There is no fool proof way of preventing this, but the following may help:

• Specifying in your rules that a team must have a team squad of at least one more than the number in the team for each match – for example 4 registered players for a 3 aside competition.
• Charging a guaranteed deposit which must be paid when entering. The league holds the deposit as a guarantee that a club fulfils all its match obligations and returns it at the end of the season, or when the team leaves the league. The amount of the deposit is for the league to decide but could be around £25 a team.
• Having a system to match up potential new members with teams struggling to fulfil their fixtures. (See the section on new members below).

Scheduling league fixtures

Once you know the number of teams entering the league you can decide how many divisions to have.

The fixtures are scheduled from a master fixture chart. The chart depends on the number of teams in the largest division, but all the charts work in the same way. The Charts for 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14 teams have now been published in Excel on the TT Leagues Help Centre and can be accessed at:

https://tabletennisengland.zendesk.com/hc/en-gb/articles/5683959437724-Fixture-Charts-For-Arranging-League-Programmes

You should choose the chart which covers the largest division and use it for all your divisions. The number of teams in each division should be as nearly equal as possible. The reason for this is explained below.

If the largest division has an odd number of teams, you should use the next chart up in size.

For example, if 32 teams enter the competition you might decide to have three divisions with 11, 11 and 10 teams. In that case you would use the chart for 12 teams. The two divisions of 11 would have one unfilled space and the division of 10 would have two blank spaces. The blank spaces are byes and a team scheduled to play one does not have a match that week.

Sharing venues

If two teams from a club with only one table want to play their home fixtures on the same day of the week, they need to be sure that they will not both be called on to play at home in the same week.

The charts can do this whether the two teams play in the same division or different ones provided the same size chart is used for them both. So, a club with a single match table open five nights a week can enter ten teams certain that there will never be a clash of fixtures.

A pair of teams which want to share a venue must be allocated ‘paired numbers’. For an N team chart the paired numbers are those which differ by N/2.

Examples:

• If you are using the 12 team chart the team numbers, you use for the paired teams must differ by half of 12 – that is 6. So, in that case the pairs would be 1 and 7, 2 and 8, 3 and 9, 4 and 10, 5 and 11, 6 and 12.
• If you are using the chart for 6 teams then the paired numbers will differ by half of 6 – that is 3. So, the pairs would be 1 and 4, 2 and 5, 3 and 6.

The charts provide a complete set of fixtures for the whole season. For example, using the 6-team chart team 1 plays at home against team 6 in the first week and then meets team 5 away in the second week, the letter a indicating an away match for the team in the first column.

In the second half of the season the fixtures are repeated with home and away reversed.

When you allocate numbers to the teams it is best to start with the largest clubs as they are the ones which will need the most sets of paired numbers. Teams which do not share venues can be fitted in to vacant numbers at the end.

League Management Software for Fixture Generation.

Most Local Leagues now use web-based League Management software to manage their League competitions. Table Tennis England provides the “TT Leagues” system to all Affiliated Leagues free of charge. Other systems are available, and some Leagues use their own bespoke-developed systems. All these systems are web-based and provide up to date information about the League and its competitions.

All systems generate a fixture list for each Division. Usually this is based on the TTE fixture charts described above, but some provide bespoke/customised charts to meet the particular preferences of a specific Local League. All the systems will manage the processing of results producing Divisional Tables, Player Averages, and Player & Team statistics. Functionality for postponing and rescheduling of matches and for reserve management is also usually provided.

Results can be entered by League Admins and/or by Divisional Results Secretaries. But facilities usually exist so that Team Captains or Team Members can enter the results of their own matches. This can be done via the public website, though some systems also have a specific App for mobile devices which facilitates the entry of results as the match progresses. Direct entry of results usually speeds up the results entry process and reduces the burden on hard-pressed League Admin and Results Secretaries. Rather than being involved in data entry, their role moves to more of a quality assurance/quality control role and dealing with the occasional issues and disputes that inevitably arise in a Local League competition.

In addition to providing fixture generation and results management, these websites also act as an “Information Hub” for the Local League. This is described in more detail below.

Common problems

Odd numbers of teams

The number of teams entering your league may not divide neatly into divisions of the size you want.

Examples:

• If your league prefers to have divisions of 12 and 41 teams enter. Since 41 is bigger than 3x12 (=36) there will have to be four divisions. Divide the teams into four divisions as nearly equal as possible. In this case that will be of 1x11 and 3x10. Use the smallest chart which caters for the largest division you have. As the largest size division has 11 teams this will be the 12-team chart. If teams are playing each other twice, home and away, teams in the division of 11 will have two byes, one in each half of the season, and teams in the divisions of 10 will have four byes, two in each half of the season.
• If your league prefers to have divisions of 6 and 27 teams enter. Since 27 is bigger than 4x6 (=24) there will have to be five divisions. Divide the teams into five divisions as nearly equal as possible. In this case that will be of 2x6 and 3x5. Use the smallest chart which caters for the largest division you have. As the largest size divisions have 6 teams this will be the 6-team chart. If teams are playing each other twice, home and away, teams in the divisions of 5 will have two byes, one in each half of the competition.

Teams or players unavailable to play

If a team is unable to play on the scheduled date, then the options are:

1. The match may be postponed with the consent of the opposition. This approach is used by the majority of leagues. The advantage of this is that is more satisfactory for everyone if the match can be played.

The disadvantage is that teams sometimes agree a postponement without having a specific date and difficulties can arise later when a mutually acceptable date cannot be found.

1. Postponements are not allowed. The opposing team is awarded all the points available for the match.

The advantages of this are:

• Teams are likely to make more effort to play.
• It is simple to administer.

The disadvantages are:

• Players join a league to play table tennis and will be disappointed if a match is cancelled.
• It may give the “innocent” team an unfair advantage over the remining teams in the division.

1. It is possible to supplement one of the above options with a financial penalty which will discourage postponements unless essential. Fines can be deducted from the guarantee deposit.

Similar problems arise if one side cannot raise a full team on the scheduled date.

The options then are for them to play one short and forfeit the points for the resulting unplayed matches or to postpone the match. Again, there can be a financial penalty for fielding an incomplete team if desired.

Governance

Leagues are governed by a constitution and rules which may be two separate documents or a single combined one. The constitution sets out the way the league is organised and is similar to a club constitution. The rules set out the rules of the league competition.

Leagues are run democratically by their members. Those who play in it are members and will have a vote at its AGM and in electing its committee. The day to day running of the league will be carried out by an Executive Committee elected by the AGM.

Leagues should state in their rules who are members of their Executive Committee. These will always include the officers and may also include other representatives. Officers and representatives are normally elected at the AGM.

Officers

Leagues should list the titles of its officers in its rules. Each league should decide what other officers it wishes to have. Each officer will have a particular responsibility. It is often difficult to obtain volunteers but if each officer’s responsibilities are fairly small it may be easier to find members who are willing to carry them out. For this reason, it is suggested that it is better to share the work between a number of officer positions.  Officers often include:

• Chair (always)
• General Secretary (always)
• Treasurer (always)
• Welfare Officer (to deal with any issues of safeguarding or welfare)
• Vice Chair (often)
• Webmaster (to manage the website)
• Membership secretary (to find teams for new members)
• Press Officer (provide copy for local press)
• Social secretary (running social events such as end of season awards ceremony)
• County representative (to represent the league on the county committee)
• Competitions secretary (for running competitions other than the league itself)

The competition rules cover the details of the competition. For example, they may say that matches will be two aside or three aside, or that there will be both formats. Alternatively, they may allow the Executive Committee to decide which format or formats to use depending on the demand at any particular time.

Communications

You are advised to set up a website to communicate with teams and members. The website should include the Association’s constitution and rules, the names and contact details of its officers and committee, and those of the clubs and teams in the league and the location their venues.

It should also provide details and results of the league and other competitions and a section for up-to-date news. IT is suggested that you elect a webmaster to oversee the web rather than just making it a job for the General Secretary.

The websites that are used for fixture generation and results management also provide tools for ensuring effective communication with league members. The act as an “Information Hub” to facilitate communication of relevant information to League Members. Regular News Articles about League activities are common and there are also facilities for providing information about the League including contact details for members of the League Committee, Club Secretaries, and Team Captains. Contact details are all provided using standard templates that either generate the information automatically or which are easy to update.

Those operating and playing in the league will need to know each other’s email addresses.

This raises data privacy questions. Each league super admin agrees to be the data control so is responsible for the data of the members within that league and agree to only use the data for the administration of the league.

For example, apart from the legal requirements of GDPR and related legislation, some league officials may not want to use their personal email addresses. It may be prudent to establish a set of special email addresses called BarchesterTTLGeneralSecretary or similar. These addresses can then be handed over when the office holder changes.

In addition, the website should provide an additional layer of privacy and security by ensuring that there is the option to make contact details and other personal information private so that it is only available on log-in by league members and so not on general display to the public. Of course, the website is often intended to be a “shop window” for the league and its clubs – hence they must be easy to contact. That’s where generic club and league email addresses can be helpful

New members

Your leagues will inevitably lose some members and teams as time goes on. If they are not replaced, then your league will shrink. This will result in a reduction in the number of divisions and hence a wider range of ability in each division which leads to more one-sided matches. Ultimately a league which does not find new members will collapse.

Some new players and teams will find their way into your league’s clubs and teams on their own, but it is fairly simple to set up arrangements to match potential new members to clubs without a lot of ongoing work. The following are suggested:

1. Make sure your website contains an email contact for new members. (Some people do not want to put their personal email address on a website in which case it is suggested you set up an email address [e-mail] or similar.

You should have a standard email you can send to those who contact you wanting to play. A suggested format is included as Annex 2. You can then circulate the prospective members email to all team secretaries asking them to contact them direct if they can offer anything suitable. A suggested format is included as Annex 3. Players circumstances often change over the season leaving their teams struggling to raise a side for some matches. So prospective new members can generally be accommodated.

You should do all you can to offer players something. Young players in particular will not generally be prepared to wait and will start some other sporting activity instead.

Safeguarding

Every young person has the right to have fun and be safe in sport.

The TTE website contains detailed safeguarding advice: https://www.tabletennisengland.co.uk/about-us/safeguarding/

Please study these carefully

Affiliating to TTE

This note assumes your league is, or wishes to become, affiliated to TTE which is essential if you wish to use the programme TTLEAGUES to administer the league.

Affiliation to TTE is free of charge though your players must also affiliate for a modest fee. Affiliation gives them many other benefits. which are outlined on the TTE website: https://www.tabletennisengland.co.uk/membership/what-membership-fees-fund/

How to Affiliate

To affiliate to TTE you need to apply by email to the Helpdesk at [e-mail]

You will need to list the names and contact details of your Chair and General Secretary and complete the Annual return form which can be accessed on the website.

Each Affiliated Local League is entitled to appoint a League Representative Company Member (LRCM) of TTE to participate in TTEs governance. The LRCM can attend, speak and vote at TTE General Meetings and vote in the election of four of TTEs Directors. Details are explained on the Elections and Voting page of the TTE website: https://www.tabletennisengland.co.uk/about-us/elections-and-voting/

TTE allows its affiliated leagues to organise themselves as they think fit with only a minimum of basic requirements. You must recognise TTE as the National Governing Body for table tennis in England and comply with its Articles and regulations which are on the TTE website. The main requirements are set out in Part of the regulations and include:

• All those in your league must affiliate to TTE as individual members
• You must play your competitions in accordance with use the ITTF laws of table tennis and the national bylaws. The main requirements of the national bylaws are that you must use ITTF balls and all players to use ITTF rubbers.
• You must also affiliate to your County Association (see below).

Affiliating to your County

England is divided into traditional counties for table tennis - for example Birmingham is part of Warwickshire and Manchester is part of Lancashire - and leagues affiliate to the appropriate county. A list of the TTE counties and the geographical areas they cover is contained in an annex to the county regulations. County Associations are governed democratically by the organisations and members affiliated to them. Counties generally charge their leagues a fee per affiliated team. These vary considerably. Leagues usually set their league fees to include county fees.

Leagues sometimes complain to TTE about their County Association – for example that the fees are too high or that its players have not been chosen for county teams. Counties are run democratically by their own leagues, clubs and members. If you have a complaint about your County, you should take it up initially with the County Association Secretary. If you are not happy with the reply you should ask if you can attend a County Executive Committee to discuss it. If that too fails, you should raise the matter at the County AGM. Ultimately you can put formal proposals at the AGM and even change the County’s officers and committee.

Annex 1 – Template Constitution and Rules for a League

In this template words shown in angle brackets <thus> are examples and you should replace them with your own requirements.

Text in italics is to explain how to use the template and is not intended to be included in the constitution or rules themselves.

<Barchester and District Table Tennis Association>

Constitution

1.  Name
2. The Association shall be called "<Barchester and District Table Tennis Association>".
3. Objects
4. The objects of the Association shall be to foster and promote table tennis, in particular to run a league competition between club teams, and to do anything that is incidental or conducive to this.
5. Area of operation
6. The Association’s activities shall be based in < Barchester and the surrounding area>.
7. Venues must be acceptable to the Executive Committee and shall be situated <within a 12 mile radius of Barchester Cathedral as the crow flies> except where the Executive Committee expressly agrees otherwise.
8. Governance
9. The Association recognises Table Tennis England as the National Governing Body for table tennis in England and shall affiliate to it.
10. The Association shall be governed by an Executive Committee comprising of the Officers, namely <Chairman, Vice Chairman, General Secretary, Treasurer, list other officers> and <six> other members.

Note: It is advisable to divide the duties of running the league between a significant number of officers each doing a fairly small part of the work, as it is easier to get people to volunteer for a small rather than a large amount of work. Similarly, in deciding the size of the Executive Committee you should bear in mind that not everyone will be able to attend every meeting – they may be playing that night, so it is best to have extra committee places>.

1. The Officers and Executive Committee shall be elected at the Annual General Meeting.
2. The Executive Committee shall have the power to fill any vacancy which may arise.
3. The Executive Committee shall hold regular ordinary meetings. A special meeting shall be held if called for by the Chairman or <five> members of the Executive Committee. The General Secretary shall give each member of the Executive Committee reasonable notice of its meetings.
4. The Executive Committee may meet in person or online or a combination of the two.
5. The quorum of the Executive Committee shall be [five].
6. The Executive Committee may appoint such sub committees as it deems necessary and delegate to them and to officers such of its powers as it thinks fit.

General Meetings

The Annual General Meeting of the Association shall be held in <May, June or July>.

The Executive Committee may call an Extraordinary General Meeting at any time.

The Executive Committee shall also call an Extraordinary general Meeting within <42 days> of a written requisition by <25> members specifying the business to be discussed including any proposed alterations to the constitution or rules or other propositions.

Subject to these rules the Executive Committee shall decide the date, time, place and agenda of a General Meeting.

All members of the Association are welcome and shall have power to vote.

At least <14> days’ notice of the meeting shall be given to each member together with the agenda. The agenda shall include any proposed alteration to the constitution or rules or other proposition.

Any proposed alteration of the constitution or rules or other proposition submitted in writing shall be included in the agenda if received by the General Secretary at least <28 days> before the Annual General Meeting or with the requisition for an Extraordinary General Meeting.

A proposition not on the agenda may be discussed at a General Meeting but no decision may be taken on it and it shall, after discussion, be referred to the Executive Committee.

Finance

The financial year shall end on <31 March>.

The accounts of the Association made up to the end of the financial year shall be inspected annually by a suitably qualified person appointed by the previous year’s Annual General Meeting.

The approved statement of accounts, including the balance sheet, shall be submitted for approval to the Annual General Meeting.

1. Affiliation of Clubs
2. A table tennis club or the table tennis section of a club may apply to the Executive Committee to become an affiliated club of the Association.
3. The Executive Committee may refuse to affiliate, or may disaffiliate, a club if it considers this to be in the best interests of the Association.
4. An affiliated club shall keep the General Secretary informed as to the name and contact details of its Club General Secretary. The Club General Secretary shall be responsible for liaison with the club’s members and teams, with the Association and with other affiliated clubs on administrative matters.
5. Individual Members
6. The Association welcomes individual members regardless of ethnicity, religious belief, gender, age, sexual orientation or disability. (I am not sure if this terminology is up to date. It would be helpful if someone could check).
7. Any person affiliated to TTE may apply to the Executive Committee to be admitted as an individual member.
8. There shall be two classes of individual members, player members and associate members.
9. The player members are the individual members who are affiliated to TTE in the Compete or Compete Plus class and. who are registered to play in the league competition
10. The associate members are the individual members who affiliated to TTE in any class and are not registered to play in the league competition.
11. Individual members shall remain in membership for as long as they meet the qualifications and pay the prescribed fees, or until they resign, or their membership is terminated by the Association.
12. Only individual members may hold official positions in the Association.
13. Conduct and Discipline
14. Clubs, teams and individual members shall conduct themselves in accordance with the Association’s constitution and rules and so as not to bring the sport or the Association into disrepute. They shall treat everyone in the sport with dignity and respect. Clubs shall take all reasonable steps to ensure their members comply with this rule.
15. Individual members shall ensure that anyone accompanying them at matches or events who is not a member is aware of and complies with the provisions of this rule.
16. The Executive Committee shall conduct any disciplinary procedure in accordance with the rules. Where the rules do not specify the procedure, it shall proceed in accordance with the Table Tennis England fall back disciplinary procedure for affiliated organisations.
17. Website
18. The Executive Committee shall maintain a website which shall include the following information:
19. The constitution and rules
20. Names and contact details of the Association’s officers

III. Names and contact details of affiliated clubs and teams including their general secretaries, team secretaries and other officers and the location their venues.

12. details, rules and results of the league and other competitions.
13. Each club, team and individual member shall supply the Executive Committee the up to date information about themselves required for the website at the start of the season and whenever it changes.
14. General
15. In the event of any question not provided for in the constitution or rules such question shall be referred to the Executive Committee whose decision shall be final.
16. The Executive Committee may supplement the constitution and rules with regulations but if any conflict arises between those regulations and the constitution and rules, the constitution and rules shall prevail. Regulations shall be published on the website.
17. Dissolution

The Association may only be dissolved by a motion carried by a three quarters majority at a General Meeting, the proposition having been included on the agenda given to members through their club secretaries at least 21 days before the meeting under rule 4e. On dissolution the assets of the Association shall become the property of Table Tennis England for use in promoting table tennis in or near the locality concerned.

This constitution was adopted at the Annual General Meeting of the Association on <17 June 2025>.

<Barchester and District Table Tennis Association>

Rules of the League Competition

1. Registration of League Teams
2. Each club wishing to enter teams in any of the Association’s leagues shall submit registration forms for them by <31 July> unless the Executive Committee shall specify a different date. The Executive Committee shall have discretion to accept late entries to fill vacant slots but shall not admit late teams at the expense of teams which enter by the specified date.
3. The annual registration fee shall be determined by the Executive Committee.
4. Any county affiliation fees due must be paid in addition to the above.
5. Teams shall also pay a guarantee deposit at the time of entry. This will be returned on request (less any fines incurred) when the team has fulfilled all its fixtures. If the fee is not returned it may be used towards the following season’s guarantee deposit.
6. The Executive Committee may refuse to register or disqualify a team if it considers this to be in the best interests of the Association.
7. If a team resigns or is disqualified from the League Competition without completing its fixtures its playing record shall be disregarded
8. A team may not play a league match until it has paid all its registration fees and any other sums due to the Association.
9. A team must state its home venue on its registration forms. Venues must be acceptable to the Executive Committee.
10. A club must state the name and contact details of its general secretary and each of its team secretaries on its registration forms. A team secretary, who shall be responsible for liaising with the Association and with other teams on administrative matters and need not be a player.
11. Registration of Players
12. Players must pay an individual registration fee determined by the Executive Committee. The fee is additional to team registration fees. Before being registered a player must also provide proof of affiliation to TTE in an appropriate class.
13. Each team in a two-aside competition shall register at least three player members as players. Each team in a three-aside competition shall register at least four player members as players. Teams may register one less player if a registered player is eligible and available to act as a reserve.
14. The Executive Committee may refuse to register a player either for a particular team or at all if it considers such registration would be contrary to the best interests of the Association.
15. No player may take part in a league match until the Association has accepted that player’s registration. Should an unregistered or ineligible player take part in a league match, that player’s individual matches shall be awarded to the opposing team.
16. Reserves and Transfer of Players
17. A player may only play for one team in the two-aside competition and one team in the three-aside competition <except either as a reserve> or <if the Executive Committee approves a permanent transfer to another team>.

Note: The circumstances, if any, in which a player may play as a reserve or may be transferred vary widely between leagues and is something each league should consider individually. This rule gives one example but there are many other arrangements.

1. A registered player may play as a reserve:
2.  (I) only in a higher division; and
3. (II) only for one team in any division; and
4. (III) only up to <four> times in any division.
5. The closing date for the transfer of players shall be <31 December> or, where separate Autumn and Spring competitions are played, half way through the competition concerned.
6. A transferred player may not play against a particular team more times than would have been possible had that player represented a single team throughout the competition.
7. The League Competition
8. All league matches, and other competitions shall be played in accordance with the Laws of Table Tennis and the National Bylaws.
9. The home team shall provide the balls for a league match.
10. A player taking part in a league competition must be affiliated as a player member.
11. d League matches shall commence on a date decided by the Executive Committee.
12. The Executive Committee may organise a two-aside competition or a three-aside competition or both. The number of divisions in each competition, the number of teams in each division, the number of times teams shall play each other in each division in each competition and the number of competitions each division shall hold each year shall be decided by the Executive Committee.
13. It is suggested that you retain wide range of options provided for in this rule so that if your league wants to change in the future it does not have to amend its rules.
14. The top two teams in each division shall be promoted to the next higher division and the bottom two teams relegated to the next lower division. The Executive Committee may depart from this rule in exceptional circumstances if it considers it to be in the best interests of the Association.
15. In the event of teams tying with equal league points their relative positions shall be determined by the difference between individual matches won and lost.
16. League Match Arrangements
17. All teams must state a weekday night (Monday to Friday) as their home night on their registration forms. Except where these rules provide otherwise league matches shall be played on the home night of the home team in the week specified in the fixture list or chart.
18. In a two-aside competition teams shall consist of two singles players and one doubles pair. In a three-aside competition teams shall consist of three singles players and one doubles pair.
19. The doubles pair may be, but need not be, chosen from the singles players.
20. A league match shall consist of each singles player playing an individual match against each of the opposing team’s singles players and the doubles pair playing an individual match against the opposing team’s doubles pair.
21. The order of play shall be decided by the team captains who shall alternate in nominating their players first before the commencement of each individual match. The team to nominate first in the first individual match shall be determined by the toss of a coin.
22. One league point shall be awarded to the winning team for each individual match of a league match. Except where the rules expressly provide otherwise league points shall only be awarded for individual matches actually played.
23. League matches shall start not later than <7.30pm>. Players shall arrive not later than <7.15pm> to warm up. The home team shall make the match table available for the away team to practice from at least <7.15pm to 7.30pm>
24. Where there is no sign of a team or explanation as to its absence by <8pm> the opposing team is entitled to leave and report the position to the League Secretary.
25. Except by prior agreement of the opposing team a player not present by <8pm> may not take part in the match.
26. If a team is only partially represented the resulting unplayed individual matches shall be awarded to its opponents. No league point shall be awarded for an individual match where neither side is represented.
27. Postponements
28. Postponement of a league match will be allowed only if:
29. (I) The opposing team agrees; and
30. (II) The postponing team immediately informs the League Secretary.
31. A penalty of two league points may be imposed if the above is not strictly adhered to.
32. League matches may be brought forward from the date specified in the fixture chart by mutual consent of the teams concerned.
33. Postponed league matches shall be played by <30 April> (or in the case of an Autumn competition by <31 December> or such other date as is specified by the Executive Committee).
34. Unplayed Matches
35. No league points shall normally be awarded for an unplayed league match.

There are a range of different ways of dealing with unplayed matches. An alternative is to award all the points to the team responsible for the match being unplayed. It is generally better to have rules which encourage playing all matches if possible. Otherwise you may end up in the situation a team wins the division on points awarded for unplayed matches beating a team who won more points in actual matches.

Where exceptionally a team satisfies the Executive Committee that it has made repeated efforts to play and is in no way responsible for the league match being unplayed the Executive Committee shall either:

(I) award that team alone the most league points it could reasonably have expected to have won had the league match been played; or

(II) instruct that the match takes place under whatever arrangements it directs. A team which does not comply with the arrangements shall be deemed to have resigned from the competition and its playing record disregarded. 

1. The Executive Committee shall impose a penalty on a team if its opponents substantiate a complaint that they were caused a wasted journey because the team failed to field any players for a match without giving, and ensuring its opponents received, adequate prior warning. The penalty shall be five points for a three aside match or three points for a two aside match and shall be in addition to and separate from any decision taken about the resulting un-played match.
2. Every league match shall be played to completion. If a league match is interrupted for reasons beyond the control of the teams (for example lighting failure) they shall make arrangements for its continuation to completion as soon as possible thereafter.

1. Reporting Results
2. Each team shall submit the results of its matches as directed by the Executive Committee within <three> days of the match.
3. Each team shall retain a record of its results in case a result is lost.
4. Trophies
5. All perpetual trophies are the property of the Association. Clubs and players holding perpetual trophies are responsible for their safe custody and cleanliness and must return them to the Association in good clean condition by <March 31>.
6. The Association shall provide the winners and runners up of each division with three personal trophies or medals in a two-aside competition and four personal trophies or medals in a three-aside competition.
7. Individual Award
8. The player who achieves the largest number of wins in individual singles matches in each division shall receive the Individual Award for that division. Individual matches not actually played (for example because of the absence of an opponent) shall be ignored.

These Rules here adopted at the Annual General Meeting of the Association on <16 June 2026>.

Annex 2 – Suggested standard reply for those asking to join the league

Dear …

Thank you for your email asking about table tennis in the <Barchester> area.

<Barchester League> is the umbrella organisation to which all the clubs in the area belong. Its main function is to run a local league in which they compete. To play table tennis you need to join one of these clubs. Clubs vary considerably. Some only compete in the league; others have coaching sessions and club nights. Some cater specifically for juniors. Others are mainly adults.

I will forward your request to all our club secretaries with a request that if they have any suitable vacancies they contact you direct.

If you do not receive any suitable offers in the next 10 days or so please contact me again and I will see wha else I can do.

With best wishes

…………………………

General Secretary

Annex 3 – Suggested standard email to clubs and/or teams when a player enquires about suitable places to play.

Dear Club/Team Secretary

The player whose email is attached below has asked about suitable opportunities to play table tennis in the area. If you can offer him anything suitable please email him direct.