Player's Guide to Table Tennis England Local Leagues Open Age 2026/27

A game (Law 2.11): the first player or pair to 11 points wins, unless it reaches 10-all. From 10-all, the first to get 2 points ahead wins (12-10, 13-11 and so on). Every rally scores a point, whoever served.

A match (Law 2.12): the best of any odd number of games, for example best of three or best of five. The Laws do not fix the number, so each league sets it in its own competition rules.

The ball must be white or orange, 40 mm, and of a brand and type approved by the ITTF (a Table Tennis England byelaw for regulated competitions).

Under Law 2.13.3:

• Every 2 points, the receiving player or pair becomes the serving player or pair, until the end of the game.
• At 10-all, or once the expedite system is in operation, the order stays the same but each player serves for only 1 point in turn.

Who chooses first is decided by lot. The winner chooses to serve, receive or start at a particular end, and the other player gets the remaining choice. Whoever served first in one game receives first in the next.

Under Law 2.6:

1. Start with the ball resting freely on the open palm of your stationary free hand.
2. Project it near vertically upwards, without spin, so it rises at least 16 cm after leaving your palm.
3. Strike it as it is falling, without it touching anything first.
4. In singles it must bounce on your court first, then directly on the receiver's court (it can go anywhere on the receiver's side). In doubles it goes right half-court to right half-court.
5. From the start of the serve until you strike it, the ball must be above the level of the playing surface and behind your end line.
6. The ball must not be hidden from the receiver by you, your doubles partner or anything you wear or carry.
7. As soon as you toss the ball, move your free arm and hand out of the space between the ball and the net.

It is your responsibility to serve so the umpire can see it is legal. On the first doubtful serve in a match, the umpire may warn you; after that, any serve by you or your partner that is not clearly legal is a fault. The umpire can relax these requirements for a player whose physical disability prevents compliance.

If the serve touches the net assembly (net, posts or clamps) and is otherwise correct, landing in the receiver's court, it is a let: the rally is not scored and you serve again (Law 2.9.1.1). There is no limit on how many net lets you can serve.

If the serve touches the net and then lands outside the receiver's court, or does not cross at all, it is an incorrect service and the receiver wins the point.

It is also a let if the receiver or their partner obstructs a serve that has touched the net, or if you serve before the receiver is ready (provided they do not try to hit it).

In a rally the net is different: a return that touches the net assembly and goes on to land on your opponent's court is good, and play continues (Law 2.7.1).

The serve (Law 2.6.3): the ball must bounce on the server's right half-court, then on the receiver's right half-court (diagonally). The centre line counts as part of each right half-court, so a serve on the centre line is good.

Hitting order (Law 2.8.2): server, receiver, server's partner, receiver's partner, and so on. Partners must alternate shots; hitting out of turn loses the point.

Who serves and receives (Law 2.13):

• In each game, the pair serving first chooses which of them serves first. In the first game, the receiving pair chooses who receives first.
• In later games, once the first server is chosen, the first receiver is the player who served to them in the previous game.
• At each change of service, the previous receiver becomes the server, and the partner of the previous server becomes the receiver.
• In the last possible game, the pair due to receive next swap their receiving order when one pair first reaches 5 points.

Under Law 2.13.7:

• After each game, players swap ends: whoever started a game at one end starts the next game at the other.
• In the last possible game of the match (for example the 5th game of a best-of-five), players also change ends when one player or pair first reaches 5 points.

Service alternates by game too: whoever served first in one game receives first in the next. In the last possible game of a doubles match, the receiving pair also swap their order of receiving when one pair first reaches 5 points.

Under Law 2.14:

• Wrong server or receiver: play stops as soon as the error is discovered and resumes with the correct server and receiver for the score reached, following the order set at the start of the match (and, in doubles, the serving order chosen for that game).
• Wrong ends: play stops as soon as the error is discovered and the players move to the ends they should be at for the score reached.
• In every case, all points scored before the error was found still count. Nothing is replayed.

Unless the rally is a let, you lose the point (Law 2.10) if you:

• fail to make a correct service or a correct return
• hit the ball and it touches anything other than the net assembly before your opponent strikes it
• hit the ball and it passes over your opponent's court or beyond their end line without touching their court
• hit the ball through the net, or between the net and the post, or between the net and the table
• obstruct the ball
• deliberately strike the ball more than once in succession
• hit the ball with a side of the racket whose covering does not meet the Laws
• move the table with your body or anything you wear or carry
• touch the net assembly with your body or anything you wear or carry
• touch the playing surface with your free hand
• in doubles, strike the ball out of turn

Touching the table with your racket hand, or leaning on it with your body, is not listed as a fault, provided you do not move it.

Not if it is still over, or heading towards, your half of the table. That is an obstruction and you lose the point (Laws 2.5.8 and 2.10.1.6).

You obstruct the ball if you, or anything you wear or carry, touch it in play when it is above or travelling towards the playing surface and has not touched your court since your opponent hit it.

If the ball has already passed beyond your end line (the end line counts as extending indefinitely sideways) or is travelling away from the table without touching your court, catching or hitting it is not an obstruction: your opponent loses the point because their shot missed your court (Law 2.10.1.4).

Note that the ball touching your racket hand below the wrist counts as a stroke (Law 2.5.7), so a return off your fingers is legal.

It depends which part of the edge it hits.

• The playing surface is the top of the table, including the white lines along its edges (Law 2.1.4). A ball that touches the top edge has touched the court, so it is good.
• The playing surface does not include the vertical sides of the tabletop (Law 2.1.2). A ball that hits only the side of the table has not touched the court, so the player who hit it loses the point.

Under Law 2.4 and Table Tennis England's national byelaws (mandatory in all TTE-regulated competitions, including affiliated leagues):

• Rubber must be ITTF-authorised: a brand and type currently on the ITTF's authorised list.
• Colours: one side black, the other a bright colour clearly distinguishable from black and from the ball. Both surfaces must be matt.
• Blade: any size, shape or weight, but flat and rigid, and at least 85% natural wood by thickness.
• Thickness: pimples-out rubber under 2.05 mm including adhesive; sandwich rubber (sponge plus pimpled layer) under 4.05 mm including adhesive.
• No treatment: the covering must be used without any physical, chemical or other treatment (no boosters or tuners).
• The covering must go up to, but not beyond, the edge of the blade.
• Before the match, and whenever you change racket, you must show your opponent and the umpire your racket and let them examine it.
• TTE byelaw: you may not change racket during an individual match unless it is accidentally damaged so badly it cannot be used.

Hitting the ball with a side that does not meet the covering rules loses you the point.

It stops very long, defensive games from running on (Law 2.15).

• It comes into operation after 10 minutes' play in a game, or at any time if both players or pairs ask for it.
• It is not introduced if at least 18 points have already been scored in that game.
• If a rally is in progress when time runs out, play stops and restarts with a serve by the player who served that rally. If the ball is not in play, the player who received the previous rally serves.
• From then on, each player serves for 1 point in turn.
• If the receiver makes 13 correct returns in a rally, the receiver wins the point.
• Once introduced, it stays in operation until the end of the match.