Table Tennis Table - 9ft - HD

The ITTF specify a playing surface 2.74 m long by 1.525 m wide, 76 cm above the floor. The net is 15.25 cm high along its whole length, suspended from posts whose outside edges sit 15.25 cm beyond each side line - which is why a regulation net spans 1.83 m, or 72 inches. The ball is 40 mm across and weighs 2.7 g.

The playing surface thickness in millimetres, and it is the one most listings leave out. Thicker tops give a truer, more consistent bounce and resist warping - the common steps are 12, 15, 16, 18, 22 and 25 mm. We are confirming the figure for this table with the supplier; ask us and we will tell you before you order.

The ITTF test is simple enough to do yourself: drop a ball from 30 cm onto the surface and it should bounce about 23 cm. Try it in several places. A top that bounces differently in different places is warped or poorly made.

Not an MDF-topped table, no. MDF swells and delaminates in humidity, and the rains here will destroy one within a season. Keep it indoors, off a damp floor and away from open windows. If you need an outdoor table you need an aluminium or melamine composite top - ask us.

Each half folds independently, so you can fold one half up vertically and practise alone against it. It is also how the table stores: both halves up, wheels down, rolled against a wall.

More than the table. A table is 2.74 by 1.525 m, but you need clear run-back behind each end - three metres is comfortable, two is playable, less and you are cramped against a wall. Allow about a metre each side as well.

A quality grade set by the maker: roundness, wall thickness consistency, hardness and bounce consistency. One star is a training ball, two stars a practice ball, three stars the match grade. The ITTF sets no specification at all for one and two star balls - only three star balls appear on the approved list. Anything advertised above three stars is marketing; three is the top grade that exists.

Better than you would need to elsewhere. Heat roughly doubles the rate at which rubber oxidises for every ten degrees, so a bat that lasts a year in a European club can be dead in months here. Never leave one in a parked car. Use protective film on both rubbers after every session and keep it in a case - that single habit does more than anything else. Clean with a proper rubber cleaner or a damp microfibre cloth, never with detergent or solvent, and let it dry fully before sealing it away.

Yes. We deliver across Dar es Salaam and send nationwide to Arusha, Moshi, Mwanza, Dodoma, Zanzibar and beyond by courier. A table is a bulky item, so tell us when you order and we will arrange the right transport.