A Bushey-based charity is helping to find England’s future table tennis stars.

Greenhouse Sports, which coaches young people from inner-city schools in a range of sports, has partnered with Table Tennis England to become one of its Talent Development Centres.

This will provide extra coaching and support for the top young table-tennis players among the hundreds who currently participate through Greenhouse and create a route to join the England Youth Squad.

The Talent Development Centre will select 20 youngsters aged nine to 14 from across the schools they work in to be trained by head coach Helder Neves. The Bushey Academy is one of four hubs Greenhouse Sports has.

Programme manager Andries Pienaar said they would be pushing for girls to get involved and ensuring the team had close to a 50/50 gender split.

He said: "What we need to do is support the young people as much as possible to stick around in table tennis.

"If we talk three or four years down the line, there need to be some of our young people that are a part of the England Youth Squad.

"We are probably the biggest table tennis deliverer in the country, so it makes sense for us to work with Table Tennis England and be part of their structures and not be seen to work on our own and outside of those structures.

"It will really benefit our young people to be a part of this pathway - they can see the pathway right into England representation and that’s something we are very excited about."

Table Tennis England’s Head of Coaching & Performance, Simon Mills, said: "The aim of the Talent Development Centre project is to significantly increase the quality and quantity of players in the England performance pathway, eventually contributing to sustained international success.

"Greenhouse Sports have significant experience and expertise, backed up by outstanding infrastructure, making them ideal partners for us - we look forward to working with them to create sustainable success."