[Music]
good afternoon Brighton this is this is
a local story and there’s no prizes for
being the most local story and TEDx
Brighton but this this place here is 200
metres up Edward Street on the Left it’s
the Brighton News Centre where ten years
ago we founded Brighton Table Tennis
Club this picture was within a month of
us opening and half of these 15 year
olds at the time most of them were 1415
they were still involved and this is
when we got our first grant and we’ve
got some new tables and some shirts and
it was one evening a week in the
Brighton youth center for the local kids
to give some local kids an opportunity
that they otherwise wouldn’t have so
table tennis is cheap space efficient
the ultimate level up everyone can play
against everybody and there’s something
uniquely intimate about table tennis is
the table tennis has lots of unique
features that make it such a wonderful
thing for for communities so this is 10
years ago and this is now so now we have
in the middle of Kemp town a seven day a
week 12 hours a day full-time Table
Tennis Club and yeah and thank you every
every every Tuesday after school we have
a session where unaccompanied refugee
minors from Afghanistan and and Sudan
and coaches that have down syndrom run a
session for Irish Traveller kids every
Tuesday for the last year so I don’t
know where else and how else that could
happen but to me and that is a utopian
ping-pong Wonderland devices yeah thank
you
[Applause]
so these are our four core values so we
have a minibus with those four values on
the side of the bus
we took the ladder off the bus so the
kids can’t get on anymore but community
respect solidarity and competition I’m
going to give a little story for each
each of our values we’ve got some
fantastic local players and legends to
come play a little exhibition at the end
but the the origins of the club are in
me as a seven or eight year old being
taught to play by the most patient youth
worker in East London guy called Laurel
Aiken who ran table tennis clubs in the
Isle of Dogs for 30 years and in
Willesden as a teenager there’s a table
tennis club called London progress Table
Tennis Club they were the British
champions for ten years in a row and
they had hundreds and hundreds of local
kids from Willesden that through table
tennis went on to become doctors and
teachers and lawyers so that was that
was an amazing place and that was run by
John Kaufmann so those two people were
my childhood heroes and then I moved to
Brighton met a really good player it’s
little bit older than me he’s called
Harry McCartney and we co-founded the
Table Tennis Club and if I’m the sort of
face of the club then he is the brains
so round of applause please for Harry
McCarney over there thank you so this is
the fitz herbert census we’ve got a
12-year lease on this unbelievable space
in Kempton that Tesco’s were interested
in and property developers are
interested in and the the catholic
priest there said he gave us a key and
the community there is unique uniquely
diverse and close-knit and we have a boy
Brandon seventeen year old boy from from
Queens Park who last someone came into
the club with two Afghan boys forehead
and the key and I said oh where have you
got come from and they’ve been swimming
and playing pool together so that
without anyone asking them to do that
it’s the friendships that are made in
the club they transcend the doors of the
club and there’s that’s just one example
of thousands of friendship so two people
coming on stage later are Harry
Fairchild the first coach in the world
of any sport with Down syndrome a 26
year old from William Dean and when we
zu 65 from 63 sorry from Shan Shanghai
and their brothers they identify as
brothers so it’s Table Tennis as a
platform for people to make these four
chips so that’s that that’s the strength
of the community the the the respect
this woman Betty is 98 and she plays in
patching LOD sheltered housing schemes
just up the road and she can hit them
all back three hundred times against
whenwe she’s an absolute star so that is
something to be respected Table Tennis
has to be played in a respectful way if
you get a net or an edge you have to
apologize this I think sport gives
people that respect I think the Table
Tennis Club normalizes the presence of
old people to young people of young
people to old people of Irish travelers
of Afghan refugees or people with bouncy
drove everyone is just identifying as a
table tennis player and as a person some
of the partnerships that we’ve made in
the last year that we’re most proud of
are with the Brighton Housing Trust so
street homeless lots and lots of good
table tennis players in the street
owners community in with the friends and
families of travelers really good local
charity in HMP high down and down view
prison so in in prisons table tennis has
the potential to have a huge impact and
with Millview psychiatric hospital in
Hove so all of these places have table
tennis but with a little bit of
structure and some some some coaches
going in it can become more than just a
youth club game of table tennis so this
this is a great picture of some of our
young Irish travelers that come every
Tuesday the idea of solidarity which is
our third value in the club is that
there’s an informal support network
people help each other move house people
people help each other find jobs for
advice and support network is is what
the the Solidarity is about in the club
lastly and not least the competition our
senior British League first team is in
the national a who just been promoted
into the national a division British
League and all of those all of that all
of the members of that team are involved
in the grassroots of the club coaching
and working at the club and table tennis
has to be about competitive sport it
isn’t just the community space where
people can come and just hang out people
come to the club to improve on their
game get good at table tennis and this
was last weekend
been to quite a lot of competitions for
adults with lone disabilities where it
isn’t really competitive it’s not
competitive enough everyone gets a medal
this one in Portugal was the world Down
syndrome championships and it was a
proper tournament knockout groups and
then the knockout stage and everyone
involved got so much more out of it so
without more of me
can I please welcome to the stage all
over the table tennis players that are
coming on today so and you can’t please
radicals
don’t get you back okay so if Damon’s
Damon’s at the front like you having
stands just behind and in a mean and
then Jodi like this so you’re gonna play
one back end one forehand go to the back
of the queue so one two go to the back
of the queue so when way there’s been in
Brighton for 15 years this man is a
legend of Brighton and of table decades
to here this man the UK Chinese champion
of the UK Chinese community ping-pong
champion 63 still beats everyone so just
play and I’ll just talk while you’re
playing yeah so one back down one
forehand hit the ball on the table Damon
go Harry unlucky forehand one to go no
problem
so I mean good Jodi Elise and Rosemarie
so far heard then we go back to the
beginning so Damon lives across the road
from the Table Tennis Club he’s 11 he’s
got ADHD and every morning before he
goes to school he is given some ritalin
so he can concentrate at school he’s
come away on residential week-long
training camps with the National
national team and hasn’t needed it table
tennis is the ultimate way of channeling
all his energies he’s so bright and
Sparky and
okay
okay Rose Marie Rose Marie came to the
Table Tennis Club a year ago to a
session that was funded by Macmillan
ricochet plus for people affected by
cancer to deal with having cancer and
deal with the recovery through playing
table tennis and on the back of that
started a club in Denton near New Haven
and she has 80 people playing a week
kids adults all people in Fenton amazing
fantastic ripple Farhat this guy here
farhad Barakzai is walked here from
Helmand province and come through the
Calais jungle he’s been at the club for
two and a half years 20 hours a week
unbelievable man 20 hours a week
voluntarily coaching in the club playing
at a really high level and just
generally being an amazing man I mean
coming after Harry he’s coming in three
months ago from Darfur on his own and in
three months he’s become an absolutely
top player and he’s doing his level one
coaching course Nick’s mom so I mean
it’s like a signal and hope Harry is
next but we’re gonna save Harry to the
end Jody’s coming after a mean Jody was
in my tutor group at patch him high
school in year 7 three years ago picked
up table tennis played with whenwe at
school loads and then made the
transition to the table tennis club now
Jody’s top 20 in England for her age and
she’s the best young player we’ve got
Brighton
and Elise lives next door to Damon
across the road from the Table Tennis
Club in Camp town and lease is in year
ten at home park she’s only been playing
for a year but from having you know few
problems at score or Thea’s at school
through Table Tennis she’s now flying
she’s playing for Sussex winning all the
matches for Sussex and sir and he’s part
of this this family that we’ve got at
the club so as you can see of course
relief right last one smash bank right
Jodie and Harry Jodie and Harry when
they just does a few lobs there’s no
there’s not much space there when made
but just few smashes so one ball for
Jodie one before you change into change
in it’s more space okay one ball each
rallies yeah good good yes yes
huh
[Laughter]
all right everyone come around please
everybody turn around onto this red
carpet in the middle Harry need to get
the microphone now how you’re gonna have
a little speech don’t get your okay
so Harry Fairchild has been in the club
for four years and last weekend this
this team this is Team GB Down syndrome
squad through it the three boys are all
from our club in Brighton and Jenny’s
from Cheshire very quickly how you’ve
got a minute
so everyone in here what happened in
Portugal and what and what what we got
to say hello I am vulnerable chubby from
Team GB so we told our teachers our
China team
I shall be doing in a painting party too
already it was amazing Masha and I did
our playing in pttt another one with you
and Tim Haram and another one is a big
majority and your surprise is about I
chose my own interface it’s a curious
person and improve our cutie patooties
okay thank you thank you so much
purchase a tortilla I know I will pass
it over to the man
the manager property he Timothy Martin
huh drama
[Music]
well I put one more slide definitely I
want you but as many as you like go so
this is the first we hope of many world
champions from from BT TC so amazing
that last week and Harry best best
competition ever the world Down syndrome
champion men’s doubles next year’s gonna
win the singles as well if he keeps
getting better so round of applause for
Harry again please
[Music]
nobody likes suck so um what the kind of
message that we want to give everyone in
here is find your passion find find
something that you are passionate about
I think for the last ten years the first
seven or eight people just what I was a
bit mad always talking about table
tennis too much yeah but now it’s
happened yeah so fight find what you’re
passionate about start small share share
it share that idea and share that
passion with people that can help you
and then just don’t stop just keep going
right so we are making a network of
clubs with Cardiff London is a few in
London
Nottingham Malmo Berlin there is
[Music]
and we’re gonna link all of these people
together doing progressive things
through Table Tennis whether it’s with
in prisons or whether it’s with refugees
or whether it’s with anyone table tennis
for everyone
so in our club we have it big on the
wall and this is testament to that quote
Helen Keller once said that alone we can
do so little but together we can do so
much thank you very much
[Applause]
good afternoon Brighton this is this is
a local story and there’s no prizes for
being the most local story and TEDx
Brighton but this this place here is 200
metres up Edward Street on the Left it’s
the Brighton News Centre where ten years
ago we founded Brighton Table Tennis
Club this picture was within a month of
us opening and half of these 15 year
olds at the time most of them were 1415
they were still involved and this is
when we got our first grant and we’ve
got some new tables and some shirts and
it was one evening a week in the
Brighton youth center for the local kids
to give some local kids an opportunity
that they otherwise wouldn’t have so
table tennis is cheap space efficient
the ultimate level up everyone can play
against everybody and there’s something
uniquely intimate about table tennis is
the table tennis has lots of unique
features that make it such a wonderful
thing for for communities so this is 10
years ago and this is now so now we have
in the middle of Kemp town a seven day a
week 12 hours a day full-time Table
Tennis Club and yeah and thank you every
every every Tuesday after school we have
a session where unaccompanied refugee
minors from Afghanistan and and Sudan
and coaches that have down syndrom run a
session for Irish Traveller kids every
Tuesday for the last year so I don’t
know where else and how else that could
happen but to me and that is a utopian
ping-pong Wonderland devices yeah thank
you
[Applause]
so these are our four core values so we
have a minibus with those four values on
the side of the bus
we took the ladder off the bus so the
kids can’t get on anymore but community
respect solidarity and competition I’m
going to give a little story for each
each of our values we’ve got some
fantastic local players and legends to
come play a little exhibition at the end
but the the origins of the club are in
me as a seven or eight year old being
taught to play by the most patient youth
worker in East London guy called Laurel
Aiken who ran table tennis clubs in the
Isle of Dogs for 30 years and in
Willesden as a teenager there’s a table
tennis club called London progress Table
Tennis Club they were the British
champions for ten years in a row and
they had hundreds and hundreds of local
kids from Willesden that through table
tennis went on to become doctors and
teachers and lawyers so that was that
was an amazing place and that was run by
John Kaufmann so those two people were
my childhood heroes and then I moved to
Brighton met a really good player it’s
little bit older than me he’s called
Harry McCartney and we co-founded the
Table Tennis Club and if I’m the sort of
face of the club then he is the brains
so round of applause please for Harry
McCarney over there thank you so this is
the fitz herbert census we’ve got a
12-year lease on this unbelievable space
in Kempton that Tesco’s were interested
in and property developers are
interested in and the the catholic
priest there said he gave us a key and
the community there is unique uniquely
diverse and close-knit and we have a boy
Brandon seventeen year old boy from from
Queens Park who last someone came into
the club with two Afghan boys forehead
and the key and I said oh where have you
got come from and they’ve been swimming
and playing pool together so that
without anyone asking them to do that
it’s the friendships that are made in
the club they transcend the doors of the
club and there’s that’s just one example
of thousands of friendship so two people
coming on stage later are Harry
Fairchild the first coach in the world
of any sport with Down syndrome a 26
year old from William Dean and when we
zu 65 from 63 sorry from Shan Shanghai
and their brothers they identify as
brothers so it’s Table Tennis as a
platform for people to make these four
chips so that’s that that’s the strength
of the community the the the respect
this woman Betty is 98 and she plays in
patching LOD sheltered housing schemes
just up the road and she can hit them
all back three hundred times against
whenwe she’s an absolute star so that is
something to be respected Table Tennis
has to be played in a respectful way if
you get a net or an edge you have to
apologize this I think sport gives
people that respect I think the Table
Tennis Club normalizes the presence of
old people to young people of young
people to old people of Irish travelers
of Afghan refugees or people with bouncy
drove everyone is just identifying as a
table tennis player and as a person some
of the partnerships that we’ve made in
the last year that we’re most proud of
are with the Brighton Housing Trust so
street homeless lots and lots of good
table tennis players in the street
owners community in with the friends and
families of travelers really good local
charity in HMP high down and down view
prison so in in prisons table tennis has
the potential to have a huge impact and
with Millview psychiatric hospital in
Hove so all of these places have table
tennis but with a little bit of
structure and some some some coaches
going in it can become more than just a
youth club game of table tennis so this
this is a great picture of some of our
young Irish travelers that come every
Tuesday the idea of solidarity which is
our third value in the club is that
there’s an informal support network
people help each other move house people
people help each other find jobs for
advice and support network is is what
the the Solidarity is about in the club
lastly and not least the competition our
senior British League first team is in
the national a who just been promoted
into the national a division British
League and all of those all of that all
of the members of that team are involved
in the grassroots of the club coaching
and working at the club and table tennis
has to be about competitive sport it
isn’t just the community space where
people can come and just hang out people
come to the club to improve on their
game get good at table tennis and this
was last weekend
been to quite a lot of competitions for
adults with lone disabilities where it
isn’t really competitive it’s not
competitive enough everyone gets a medal
this one in Portugal was the world Down
syndrome championships and it was a
proper tournament knockout groups and
then the knockout stage and everyone
involved got so much more out of it so
without more of me
can I please welcome to the stage all
over the table tennis players that are
coming on today so and you can’t please
radicals
don’t get you back okay so if Damon’s
Damon’s at the front like you having
stands just behind and in a mean and
then Jodi like this so you’re gonna play
one back end one forehand go to the back
of the queue so one two go to the back
of the queue so when way there’s been in
Brighton for 15 years this man is a
legend of Brighton and of table decades
to here this man the UK Chinese champion
of the UK Chinese community ping-pong
champion 63 still beats everyone so just
play and I’ll just talk while you’re
playing yeah so one back down one
forehand hit the ball on the table Damon
go Harry unlucky forehand one to go no
problem
so I mean good Jodi Elise and Rosemarie
so far heard then we go back to the
beginning so Damon lives across the road
from the Table Tennis Club he’s 11 he’s
got ADHD and every morning before he
goes to school he is given some ritalin
so he can concentrate at school he’s
come away on residential week-long
training camps with the National
national team and hasn’t needed it table
tennis is the ultimate way of channeling
all his energies he’s so bright and
Sparky and
okay
okay Rose Marie Rose Marie came to the
Table Tennis Club a year ago to a
session that was funded by Macmillan
ricochet plus for people affected by
cancer to deal with having cancer and
deal with the recovery through playing
table tennis and on the back of that
started a club in Denton near New Haven
and she has 80 people playing a week
kids adults all people in Fenton amazing
fantastic ripple Farhat this guy here
farhad Barakzai is walked here from
Helmand province and come through the
Calais jungle he’s been at the club for
two and a half years 20 hours a week
unbelievable man 20 hours a week
voluntarily coaching in the club playing
at a really high level and just
generally being an amazing man I mean
coming after Harry he’s coming in three
months ago from Darfur on his own and in
three months he’s become an absolutely
top player and he’s doing his level one
coaching course Nick’s mom so I mean
it’s like a signal and hope Harry is
next but we’re gonna save Harry to the
end Jody’s coming after a mean Jody was
in my tutor group at patch him high
school in year 7 three years ago picked
up table tennis played with whenwe at
school loads and then made the
transition to the table tennis club now
Jody’s top 20 in England for her age and
she’s the best young player we’ve got
Brighton
and Elise lives next door to Damon
across the road from the Table Tennis
Club in Camp town and lease is in year
ten at home park she’s only been playing
for a year but from having you know few
problems at score or Thea’s at school
through Table Tennis she’s now flying
she’s playing for Sussex winning all the
matches for Sussex and sir and he’s part
of this this family that we’ve got at
the club so as you can see of course
relief right last one smash bank right
Jodie and Harry Jodie and Harry when
they just does a few lobs there’s no
there’s not much space there when made
but just few smashes so one ball for
Jodie one before you change into change
in it’s more space okay one ball each
rallies yeah good good yes yes
huh
[Laughter]
all right everyone come around please
everybody turn around onto this red
carpet in the middle Harry need to get
the microphone now how you’re gonna have
a little speech don’t get your okay
so Harry Fairchild has been in the club
for four years and last weekend this
this team this is Team GB Down syndrome
squad through it the three boys are all
from our club in Brighton and Jenny’s
from Cheshire very quickly how you’ve
got a minute
so everyone in here what happened in
Portugal and what and what what we got
to say hello I am vulnerable chubby from
Team GB so we told our teachers our
China team
I shall be doing in a painting party too
already it was amazing Masha and I did
our playing in pttt another one with you
and Tim Haram and another one is a big
majority and your surprise is about I
chose my own interface it’s a curious
person and improve our cutie patooties
okay thank you thank you so much
purchase a tortilla I know I will pass
it over to the man
the manager property he Timothy Martin
huh drama
[Music]
well I put one more slide definitely I
want you but as many as you like go so
this is the first we hope of many world
champions from from BT TC so amazing
that last week and Harry best best
competition ever the world Down syndrome
champion men’s doubles next year’s gonna
win the singles as well if he keeps
getting better so round of applause for
Harry again please
[Music]
nobody likes suck so um what the kind of
message that we want to give everyone in
here is find your passion find find
something that you are passionate about
I think for the last ten years the first
seven or eight people just what I was a
bit mad always talking about table
tennis too much yeah but now it’s
happened yeah so fight find what you’re
passionate about start small share share
it share that idea and share that
passion with people that can help you
and then just don’t stop just keep going
right so we are making a network of
clubs with Cardiff London is a few in
London
Nottingham Malmo Berlin there is
[Music]
and we’re gonna link all of these people
together doing progressive things
through Table Tennis whether it’s with
in prisons or whether it’s with refugees
or whether it’s with anyone table tennis
for everyone
so in our club we have it big on the
wall and this is testament to that quote
Helen Keller once said that alone we can
do so little but together we can do so
much thank you very much
[Applause]
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