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Success at Southall
7th March 2006

BBC Document the Rise of London Progress Well into its second year at the Southall Sports Centre, the West London Table Tennis Centre has much to be pleased with. Having hosted over thirty regional and national tournaments, Southall has established itself as one of the foremost table tennis centres in the country. One of the many highlights of the year must surely be the BBC documentary outlining the rise of London Progress and its impressive work with youngsters from the local communities. Screened during prime-time viewing with an estimated audience of two million viewers, this is precisely the sort of advertising that table tennis needs in this country.
	Southall Becomes a British League Centre Another obvious highlight of the past 18 months has been the hosting of the Premier Division of the British League and in particular the dramatic moment when London Progress captured their seventh consecutive British League title last April. That magnificent sporting spectacular was quickly followed by Southall hosting the opening weekend of the current season where London Progress set out to capture their eighth British League title. In addition to the Premier Division weekends, Southall has become a regular British League venue for the non Premier British league teams. The venue offers a relaxed but professional environment boasting excellent lighting and flooring and world class ancillary facilities including a fully equipped gym and sauna. The entire centre is well run by the friendly and professional Active Ealing staff who have gone out of their way to facilitate the rapidly expanding table tennis programme. The abundance of nearby hotels and restaurants and its close proximity to the motorway network and Heathrow, make Southall the ideal venue for national tournaments, and players and spectators invariably leave very satisfied.
Junior Programme Explodes Across London Important as the British league tournaments have been, it has been the huge junior programme that perhaps has been the biggest success story for Southall. This season has seen twenty junior tournaments programmed into to the Southall Sports Centre including the four finals of the London Junior Table Tennis Scheme and the West London section of the National Junior and Cadet Leagues.The latter have attracted teams from across the Capital and West London has now established itself as the largest Junior and Cadet leagues in the country.With more schools coming into the network next season, the future of junior table tennis in the West London area looks assured. One of the key aims of the Southall Sports Centre was to create a table tennis community beyond the central activities of London Progress Table Tennis Club. This has been largely achieved with two nearby clubs, Hillingdon and Ealing making Southall their home venue. Other clubs are now considering making Southall their home for next season. With the three clubs sharing the one venue, an exciting atmosphere has been created as clubs across the huge swath of North and West London come to Southall every Friday night to do battle in the local leagues.
	The Progress magic formula Another key aim of Southall Sports Centre was to attract local youngsters into the table tennis programme. Working along side the Positive Futures programme run by Brentford Football Club and the schools holiday programme organised by Active Ealing, London Progress has managed to attract dozens of local youngsters into their structured coaching programmes while hundreds just come in to the centre for a friendly game of ping.There is no doubt that the London Progress unique formula of mixing internationals with complete beginners is again paying handsome dividends. With the Greater London Championships, the Middlesex Junior Closed the Maccabi Great Britain Championships and the West London Tournament for Players with Learning Disabilities coming up in the next few weeks, Southall will again be in the very forefront of British Table Tennis. And at the very centre of this exciting sporting project will be seven times British Champions, London Progress Table Tennis club.
Playing Programme 4 x British League Weekends 4 x West London LJTTS qualifying events 4 x All-London Junior Finals 4x National Cadet League 4 x National Junior League Middlesex Junior Closed Middlesex Schools Championships Greater London championships Maccabi Great Britain Championships Tournament for Players with Learning Disabilities West Middlesex Table Tennis League Wembley & Harrow Table Tennis league Southall school holiday multi sport programme ETTA coaching courses Open training sessions (4 x per week x 20 tables) Partners Active Ealing Sport England English Table Tennis Association ESTTA Southall College Middlesex University Brentford FC in the Community Ealing Positive Futures London Academy West London Academy TTK/Greenhouse Barnet Sports Development Hillingdon TTC Ealing TTC London Sports Forum Connexions Kensington Sports Centre

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London Progress, Southall & West London College, Beaconsfield Road, Southall, Middx. UB1 1DP