Records were again broken at the weekend when the West London Zone qualifying tournament  of the LJTTS notched up a massive 82 entrants beating the previous record of 75 set by Fellows Cranleigh in East London last season. Held at the West London Table Tennis Centre in Southall, home of seven times and current British Champions, London Progress, the tournament produced some electric results right from the start.

Highlight of the day came when Alex Fegredo comfortably defeated fellow Progress clubmate Yasir Mauthoor using his tricky backhand pimples to great effect. Mauthoor's misery continued later on in the day when Terry Howe from the West London Academy pulled off an equally surprising victory. No doubt Yasir will be out for revenge in the all London finals in two weeks time when National ranking points are being awarded for the first time.

The overall standard of the tournament was first class with outstanding performances by all eighteen competitors in Band A. Rafi Marom and Bhavin Savjani from London Progress were undeafeated and there were great performances from Terry Howe, Tony Wilkinson, Daniel Basterfield  and Sullivan Morias from the TTK,West London Academy.

Under the coaching direction of Jason Sugrue, the Academy notched up no less than seven qualifiers.The other TTK school, Wembley High also had a large squad and the rapidly improving Damilola Thomas and Fatlum Sadiku both comfortably came through the qualifying round.

Under the supervision of former England star, Gareth Herbert, we can expect this Wembley High team to go from strength to strength.The other strong performer at the tournament came from Hillingdon TTC and their Mark Cotton, Ricky hardcastle, Shuneill Butcher and Jack Smith will all be heading to the finals.

Girls were well represented at the tournament with Laura Higham from York Gardens gaining direct qualification and Jenny Simms, Lauren Page, Rhea Bhadresha, Alex Hedges and Dipa Tamang as the strongest performing girls, all hoping to win a place in the finals in two weeks time.

Finals Qualification West London Zone

Advanced
- Rafi Marom   London Progress
- Alex Fegredo  London Progress
- Yasir Mauthoor  London Progress
- Bhavin Savjani  London progress
- Sullivan Morais  West London Academy
- Daniel Basterfield  West London Academy
- Terry Howe West London Academy
- Tony Wilkinson West London Academy
- Mark Cotton Hillingdon
- Ricky Hardcastle  Hillingdon
- Fatlum Sadiku Wembley High
- Damilola Thomas Wembley High

Intermediate
- Zak Zilesnik London Progress
- Yilli Vllasolli London Progress
- Shuniel Butcher  Hillingdon

Novice
- Laura Higham  York Gardens
- Jack Smith Hillingdon
- Joe Hopla West London Academy
- Danny Spaull London Progress
- Aaron McKibbon York Gardens
- George Lloyd London Progress
- Jack Basterfield West London Academy
- Mandeep Bagri London Progress
- Kallum Reed West London Academy

Girls Qualification ( to be confirmed depending on Finals numbers)
- Jenny Simms
- Lauren Page
- Rhea Bhadresha
- Alex Hedges
- Dipa Tamang

Finals take place on the 26th November at the Southall Sports Centre,
Registration at 9.30 am. Thanks go to London Progress and their partners,
Active Ealing, Southall College, Positive Futures/Brentford FC, TTK , West
London Academy, London Academy, Tees Sport and Hillingdon TTC for their
assistance.

Jon Kaufman