01/10/2026
Exactly thirty years ago, on 1st October 1996, the purpose-built Cippenham Table Tennis Centre was opened.
It was way back In early 1992, inspired by the amount of funding possible from the newly created Foundation for Sport and the Arts, that Cippenham drew up imaginative and elaborate plans for its own purpose-built facility. A Building Sub-Committee was formed, and in the summer of 1992 an application was submitted to the FSA. A year later the news that this had been rejected came as a blow but was not unexpected. By now the bandwagon was rolling and agencies such as Slough Council, Sports Council and the ETTA were extremely supportive and gave the Club encouragement to pursue the project further.
Sometime later The Westgate School in Cippenham was identified as having the necessary attributes to become a successful partner with the Club and a company limited by guarantee was incorporated to be the legal lessee. After four years of intense work and not a few tears came the news in December 1995 that a National Lottery grant of £255K had been awarded to add to the £70K secured by then from the FSA via the ETTA. However, when the tenders came in at £100K over the estimated cost it took a further award of £105K from the Funding Agency for Schools and considerable goodwill from the English Sports Council for the project to become viable.
Building work commenced in March 1996 and on 1st October 1996 Cippenham Table Tennis Centre was opened, the first ceremonial ball being struck by Graham Trimming, mainstay of the Building Committee and the Club's founder 23 years earlier.
Photos show the original site, the build in progress, the finished project as it was in 1996 and before more recent changes, plus the final Building Committee (l-r): Graham Trimming; Frank Earis; Alec Watson; Steve Joel. Unfortunately, Frank and Alec have since passed but Graham and Steve both still play for the Club.
