End of one era, the beginning of another.
The end of this season marks the twenty year anniversary of London Progress Table Tennis Club, the last ten of those years being as undisputed British League Champions. In addition to this now famous British sporting achievement, London Progress has won a host of other national titles including twice Women’s British League Champions, five times Ormesby Cup and Wilmott Cup Champions, and winners of the various British League non Premier Divisions on countless occasions.
In addition, the club has entrenched itself as untouchable champions of its two local leagues, winning the West Middlesex League an amazing 15 years in a row and winning the challenging Wembley & Harrow League 10 out of the past 11 years.
In recognition of this colossal sporting record, and in acknowledgement of the club’s groundbreaking social inclusion policies, the ETTA has twice awarded us the title of ETTA Premier Club of the Year. And, at the time of writing, we are awaiting the results of the CCPR Sports Club of the Year, cheered by the fact that we have already been placed amongst the top three sporting clubs in the country.
London Progress has created a club spirit perhaps unrivalled in the history of British table tennis and the mere name of London Progress strikes fear and admiration in our opponents in equal measure. Thousands of voluntary hours by dozens of dedicated volunteers have gone into constructing an incredibly dynamic community sports club stretching across the whole of West London and beyond and involving many long lasting partnerships with the West London boroughs, schools, universities and other like minded sporting organisations.
While it has been my privilege to help coordinate this huge undertaking over the past two decades, I recognise that, like any forward thinking organisation, it is essential that a younger generation of administrators step in, armed with fresh ideas and fresh energy. Any organisation that stands still is doomed to stagnate and it is with this in mind that I will be retiring from my managerial posts at the end of this season.
As I get ready to stand down as Manager of London Progress I would like to take this opportunity of saluting the many colleagues and friends that I have had the pleasure of working with over these past twenty years. Going back to our early history at Willesden High School there was the original coaching team of Malcolm Sugden, Ashton Jones and Patrick Tsang and of course the founder and inspiration of the Progress project, Mr Buxton Williams. Soon to join this brave band of table tennis fanatics came the unforgettable duo of Errol Skeet and Anthony Corbin, both of whom played a central role both in the playing and coaching side of the club. It is fair to say that without these six stars, London Progress would never have reached the Premiership at all, and the future stars, Jason Sugrue, Vidal Graham and Eli Bataty might never have reached their playing and coaching potential.
Also critical to laying the foundations of that early period was IT specialist, Sebastion Bazley. Without his database and IT wizardry, I would have surely made a real mess of things. Worthy of mention also from the Willesden days were the Brent Sports Development team led by Byron Miller and Rez Cameron. Without their continued support, London Progress may well have disappeared without trace after just a few seasons.
By the end of the Willesden epoch the club had developed a strong core of players many of whom are still playing for Progress and playing with the same determination as ever. The big names that come to mind are of course, Laikram Persaud, Joseph Mensah, James Sprackling, Daniel Fesehatsion, and the ever professional Christian Hundhausen.
Two youngsters, one from Lithuania and one from Israel also came onto the Willesden scene, Egle Adomelyte and Niv Bogen and together with our home grown talent of Jason and Vidal, Tim Holtam, Aparna Narendran, Michael and Luis Domingez, Eliza Masgunsen, Daniel Flash and the Fesehatsion brothers, London Progress was ready to make a noise.
By the time the club was forced to move to Edgware we had a new Chairman, Mr Anthony Small and Tony has been a vital asset to the club ever since. New friends had also joined the inner core and each made a significant contribution to the club’s development. Principal amongst the new wave was Charlie Alvarez, Daniel Cannon and Zayd Mauthoor. These three developed a whole new generation of young talent including Umair and Yasir Mauthoor, Matt Staines, Tony Halling Daniel Ives, Tony Alvarez and Rafi Marom and the ever improving Ashley Stokes and Egle Adomelyte. Egle proved to be a complete all-rounder, playing a significant role as coach, administrator and player.
While the above players formed the new elite level of Progress juniors another generation of Progress youngsters were being produced, including Danny Spaull, George Lloyd, Reece Manning, Minakshi Gohel and Abbas Alharazi. But the biggest prize from the Edgware days was Bhavin Savjani and his importance to the club grows by the day. Special mention and thanks must also go to Deputy Principal at Edgware, Mr Stefan Hastings who helped turn a difficult situation into winning formulae.
After Edgware came Southall and I would like to acknowledge the Southall recruits who have readily adopted the Progress spirit and made their own significant contribution. Underlining the community dimension of our club I am proud to be associated with Albert Wood, Swaram Matheau, Emmanuel Acar and of course the indefatigable Flavia Wade. On the administration side, Bruce Fegredo and Wendy Han have been indispensable and it is fair to say that without the daily work of Maggie Curran the whole club might have ground to a halt. Child welfare officer, de-facto treasurer, catering manager and all round club counsellor are just a few of Maggie’s day to day tasks. On behalf of London Progress We offer our sincere thanks.
New out of town faces have also stepped in to help build the Progress machine and it is a special thanks to Mark Kinlocke ,Geoff Ware and Rowden Fuller.
They have been mainly responsible for the emergence of new and exciting Progress players particularly Matt Ware, Garth Kinlocke, Hannah Hicks and Michelle Quach. Add to these our own Ashley Stokes, Emran Hussein, the Collins brothers and Rafi Marom and it is easy to see why we have been so competitive in the JBL.
Our close relationship with Hillingdon TTC has also seen some excellent recruits including Andrew Hagger, Alex Fegredo and Dipesh Chudasama. Thanks to Allan Roper for his understanding and cooperation.
And as would be expected a whole new generation of young players have emerged from Southall including Bhuwan Sing Limbu, Harpal Juttla, Indiveeer Virk, James Han, Rammone Campbell, Simion and Marcus Giles and Charleigh Kirby. More senior recruits include Jonathan Hyland, Axel Raeder and the magnificent team captain, Ashley Hayes. Steve Giles does his bit as well!
In addition to the above, our close partnership with WLA/TTKGreenhouse has seen an excellent group of young talent, all trained by Jason Sugue, play an ever important role in the development of London Progress. In particular, I would salute the efforts of Daniel Basterfield, Sullivan Morais, Tony Wilkinson, Ryan Maynard and Bradley King.
The three Southall years have also produced excellent partnerships particularly with Active Ealing and I should like to acknowledge the assistance of Paul Hyman, Ullash Karia, Julia Robertson and the whole Southall Sports Centre team expertly led by Andrew Rogers. Their cooperation, along with the West London and Ealing College have been central to our continued growth.
Our partnership with Brentford FC has also been very productive and thanks go to Chris Edwards and Gurpal for their ongoing support.
In our twenty year history we have had two significant sponsors and I would like to offer my thanks on behalf of the club to Alan Ransome of Tees Sport and Charlie Childs of TTLinks. Your help has been crucial.
Thanks also to the staff at the ETTA, particularly Diccon Gray, Richard Yule and Judy Rogers who have remained loyal to the concept of the Premier Club. Your support has been invaluable.
Finally it remains to pay tribute to the British League team that includes such a rich array of talent that it is little wonder that we have held the title for so many years. So in no particular order I take my hat off to the champions: Darren Blake, Anthony Corbin, Errol Skeet. Gareth Herbert, Andrew Eden, Terry Young, Cris Sladden, Tomak Gretskell, Danny Fesehatsion, Egle Adomelyte, Vidal Graham, Henry Medellin, James Sprackling, Tajudeen Agunbiade, Christian Hundhausen, Colum Slevin, Marco Essomba and our TTLinks team Zhang Zhi Tao, Jaing Hong Ming and Jaing Chang Hong.
Everybody knows who has been the Club and British League captain throughout the past ten years, through the easy times and the very difficult times. Love him or hate him, there is only one Jason Sugrue and there is no doubt that Jason has been absolutely central to the success of London Progress. I have no doubt he will be central to the success of the club in the coming years. The very best of luck to Jason and the very best of luck to London Progress.
Jon Kaufman 16-Apr-08
We've got a great deal going on!
