The Progress Barmy Army was out in force at the weekend to cheer the seemingly unstoppable British Table Tennis Champions, London Progress, over the finishing line for the eighth consecutive time. What had started off as the most competitive season for years turned out to be just another walk in the park for the Londoners as they imperiously swept aside their opponents from Nottingham, Darlington, Middlesbrough and Barnet, 8-0, 7-1, 6-2 , 6-2 respectively. There was a sense of resignation, almost hopelessness as London Progress turned up at Ormesby's new centre at full strength with Ireland's Colum Slevin joining the multi talented squad for the first time. Only the hosts Ormesby seemed to have any real spirit but that soon evaporated as the Progress juggernaught steamrolled over their lower order with only young England superstar, Paul Drinkall, able to temporarily hold back the inevitable.

From the perspective of the club's development programme, the highlight of the weekend was the arrival at Premier level of young Ashley Stokes, who was given a chance to prove himself against the talented young stars of Ormesby. Showing great maturity and resilience, Stokes was able to weather the hard-hitting Ormesby youngsters and, with the help of the coaching experience of Sugrue, came out of the experience undefeated. This stands as a magnificent achievement when one considers that just under four years ago Ashley Stokes walked into a London Progress after-school club to see what it was all about. Full credit to Ashley Stokes for his talent, determination and sheer hard work, but credit too to the entire Progress coaching team that made such a rapid transformation possible. The Bristol Academy, where Stokes is now studying and training under the guidance of Scottish International, Kevin Satchel, will also be feeling pleased with themselves today.

A second highlight of the weekend was undoubtedly the 'friendly' match on Saturday evening, between the Ormesby and Progress youngsters. Fought out in a highly competitive manner, it highlighted just why these two clubs are in the forefront of English table tennis. It is clear that whenever a club opens its doors to the community and embarks on a junior programme, that club will emerge as a viable and competitive table tennis club. That has been the open secret of London Progress success for years, yet still too many clubs in the country seem yet to have absorbed this lesson. Backed by the exciting partnership between Sport England, the ETTA, the local borough of Ealing and the local Southall Southall College, London Progress have laid the foundations that should keep them at the cutting edge of the sport for years to come. Not content with the above, the club is actively seeking to expand the partnership base and already excellent links have been forged with the local boroughs of Barnet and Brent, the local school academies including the London Academy in Edgware  and the West London Academy in Northolt. Even the local football club, Brentford FC are linking up with Progress to develop further their excellent community programme. 

Working alongside the visionary schools charity, TTK/Greenhouse, London Progress have become part of a huge renaissance of schools table tennis in the Capital. Ashley Stokes learnt his table tennis at the London Academy which at the time was part funded by TTK. Many of the youngsters that had travelled to Middlesbrough to cheer on London Progress were also introduced to the sport by TTK funded training sessions. In fact, it was the giant achievements of Darius Knight, a talented youngster from South London, that first inspired the TTK project, so it was wonderfully appropriate that Ashley Stokes should find himself playing along side Darius, a serious Olympic hopeful for 2012.

With the 2005/06 season drawing to a close, London Progress are now busily putting the finishing touches to their new six year plan that will see their community programme expand across West London and their ambitions of becoming a modern European style club come to full fruition.

Some major surprises will be unveiled at the start of the new season, indicating that London Progress have no intentions of resting on its laurels. The unofficial motto at Southall is simple but telling: LONDON PROGRESS NEVER SLEEPS!