Sadly we have had to say goodbye to Kaori Saijo, who has now returned to Japan to work at her mother's table-tennis coaching school. Kaori has played a massive role in the club over the past season both at National and local levels. Her playing and coaching contributions will be missed greatly.

As a measure of her committment, she will be flying back to England in January to compete in the 2nd weekend of the Women's British League, where hopefully London Progress can capture the title for a second time.

That shows lots of dedication and it marks Kaori out as one of the great Progress players in the mould of Christian Hundhausen and Tajudeen Agunbiade.

Jon Kaufman