Will Me On

British League Play off Weekend 24th May

2009-06-02T07:35:07+01:00

Match reporting By Steve Kerns - British League Press Officer

Below an excerpt from the recent British League play off weekend in Derby by Steve Kems -:

Round three - Sycamore beat Urban Progress in 5-3 thriller

Round three produced some of the best play of the weekend with Sycamore excelling by getting the better of Urban Progress 5-3. Sean Cullen was outstanding and his 11-8, 9-11, 13-11, 13-11 victory against Tibor Kadar (just one defeat in 28 games over the Season) was amongst the best performances of the weekend. Adam Frost also played his part and his win over Zoltan Hosszu from two games down (11-13, 9-11, 12-10, 11-8, 11-8) was absolutely vital from the overall match perspective. Sam Perry had given Sycamore an early lead by getting the better of Costas Papantoniou 11-8, 12-14, 4-11, 11-8, 11-9 which proved vital as Urban Progress’s William Maybanks retained his 100 % record for the weekend by beating Kevin Dolder 11-7, 9-11, 11-9, 11-9 and Adam Frost (11-7, 11-5, 11-6). Currently ranked no. 33 nationally but training very hard in Hungary it is quite clear that William Maybanks is heading for the England top ten.

Comments : Chris Ogle

Clearly from the above Steve agrees with all of us at Team WillMeOn that Will is destined for the top, but top ten in England is not enough for Will, top ten in Europe has to be the Goal !!

For the full write up of the two days visit British League Play off weekend - day 1 and British League Play off weekend - day 2. Urban Progress TTPro Premier Club came runner up overall but gained promotion to the Premier Division next year.

Will unbeaten at 1st Division Play-offs

2009-05-25T11:06:19+01:00

This weekend was the Play-Offs for the British League Division 1 teams with two places up for grabs in the UK's Premier division next season.

Urban Progress TTPro the winner of their division one league were competing along with 5 other teams in Derby, two from each 1st Division league (of which there are three), all fighting for the two available spaces.

William Maybanks playing at number 2 won all his games and the team secured 2nd place overall and so next year are eligible to play in the UK's top table tennis league.

William has just one more day left in the UK before he travels back to Hungary to continue his busy training regime throughout the summer. In the next few days discussions with potential teams in Austria will be concluded and then we'll be able to post on here who Will is going to represent from this August.

Table tennis pro launches Watford academy at former school

2009-05-20T19:10:54+01:00

4:50pm Wednesday 20th May 2009

By Michael Pickard (Watford Observer) »

A 2012 Olympic hopeful returned to his former Watford school this afternoon to launch the UK's first table tennis academy with Urban Progress TTPro.

Will Maybanks, 17, is set to sign with an Austrian table tennis team after leaving Watford Grammar School for Boys last summer to pursue his sporting ambitions.

And he put his ping pong ball skills to the test in front of a packed school hall this lunchtime after the Rickmansworth Road school was selected to help increase the sport's popularity.

The academy, based at the school sports hall, will open to pupils and the public in September Will, whose parents live in Bushey Grove Road, left Watford Boys last summer and has spent the last eight months training in Hungary. He is now set to join a team from Linz where he will play competitive matches, having competed in Belgium last year.

He started playing for Watford Jets seven-and-a-half years ago before teaming up with Urban Progress TT Pro, who will also run the academy.

Will said: “You've got to really focus (during training). It's just table tennis, table tennis, table tennis. You've got to be mad to play it but it's always what I've wanted to do and I'm happy doing it.

“Table tennis is like an addiction. It's such a rush and a lot of people, once they start playing, they play until they're 70.

“My goal is 2012. England haven't had a team in the Olympics for a good while but now it's on the way up and because it's in London, they automatically get a team. It would mean everything to be at the Olympics.”

Watford Boys' headteacher Martin Post, who took on his former pupil in several furious rounds of table tennis in front of a boisterous crowd, said: “It's opened my eyes to find table tennis players are earning €150,000 a year. It's pretty big in Europe. The aim is to make it big in this country.

“We're really pleased (to be chosen for the academy). There's quite a strong tradition here but it would be nice to make it into the next league and develop a local schools league.

“We're very proud of Will and glad he's found time to come back.”

Chris Ogle, from Urban Progress TT Pro, said the academy would be a “Centre of Excellence” for the sport.

He said: “We're very excited about this project. It's a fantastic opportunity with the Head being so positive about it.

“If we can get kids playing table tennis, there's a natural progression from seven and eight-year-olds right to international standards though the academy.

“England is not on the world stage as far as table tennis is concerned. There's an opportunity to raise the profile of the game and I hope we can put table tennis on the map.”

To follow Will's progress, visit www.willmeon.com.

Photography by Eddie Dillon of Promedia Ltd http://www.promedia.ltd.uk

William gets Silver at the Junior Masters!

2009-05-19T18:23:29+01:00

Last Weekend (16th 17th May 2009) William was competing in the Junior Masters Tournament. After the last two previous outings where Will had struggled to find form he was looking for a good performance to end his days as a Junior! Training abroad brings its own set of mind games as people 'expect' to see improvements and quickly judge when things don't go so well. Integrating new techniques into your match play doesn't happen instantly though as we all know. Anyhow nothing to lose this time, the last Junior tournament, and just an outside chance of going to Poland with England if Will won everything convincingly. So what happened ??

Well here are the results :-

Daniel Basterfield 3-0 win
Sam Walker 3-0 Win
Lewis Gray 3-0 win
Kim Daybell 3-0 Win
Emran Hussain 3-0 Win
Richard Andrews 3-2 Win
Zak Zilesnick 3-2 Win
Danny Lowe 3-0 Win
Ping Ho 3-0 Win
Chris Doran 3-2 Lose
Matt Ware 3-0 Win
Reece Tan 3-1 Win

Well there it is, 11 wins and one loss. Most of the matches were 3-0 with only two being a final leg decider 3-2. Well it was good but not quite good enough to impress the England Selectors and Chris Doran and Matt Ware were chosen to go to Poland.

Urfi (Gergely Urban) was with William for the weekend and made comprehensive notes at the change of service situations recording the scores at crucial moments within the matches. These are vital clues now for William to study and picture how was the mindset at these trigger points. Understanding the mental attitude and working on the right appoach at the big points will increase Will's consistency and bring about victories when the pressure is on. With a year in the Austrian league and working hard on these psychological aspects with his Sports Psycologist Beryl Whiting, Will is determined to show the England selectors that he has both the talent and the desire to be the best we have !!

WillMeOn Fundraising - Pie Throwing Gallery

2009-05-16T18:00:19+01:00

Let it be known that today 16th May 2009 was a day that Chris Ogle was humbled. How could that be so I hear you gasp, well let me tell you the story -:

Today I went along to the Chapel Road Park in Pinner to attend what is called the 'Pinner Revels', a now 5 year old tradition staged to raise funds for the renovation of West House in Pinner itself. The fund raising comprises of stalls offering typical 'English Fayte Faire' which are in turn also raising money for good causes.

Let me tell you in particular about one stall. Richard Merrett stood alone next to his stall a table full of Foam filled plates representing custard pies when I arrived. Richard was already covered in foam from previous visitors to the stand.

Richard was standing in a field, in indifferent weather, alone, having custard pies pushed into his face for 5 hours on saturday and the reason? to raise money for the WillMeOn campaign. Richard has only played Table Tennis at school and that was eons ago, he doesn't even know Will, had never met me before but decided to do this on seeing Will's story in the Watford Observer back in February.

Now I don't know about you, but my hat is off to Richard, 'Big Time'. Richard might only collect £20-£30 for the whole day, but he sees this as one way he can help William Maybanks get to the 2012 London Olympics.

This may not be the largest contribution in monetary terms that the WillMeOn campaign receives but as far as personal effort (and from someone we have never even heard of before) it is topping the bill in my books! I don't suppose getting pies pushed in the face suits everyone, but why not help the WillMeOn campaign along a little and make a donation here and now even if its just in respect and support of what Richard has done.

Richard belongs to a social group for 30-50 year olds in the Watford, Pinner, Uxbridge and Harrow areas called the Coffee Pot which arranges a wide range of social functions to improve social lives of people in the vicinity. In the last week alone, the group have been to a concert, attended a quiz night and been out for a walkabout in Rickmansworth.

I gave an extremely warm and heartfelt thanks for what he did today and he even suggested he would do it again in September when a similar event takes place. For those like me who would like to recognise Richard's efforts today and thank him personally or make contact, his email address is Mtakethat@aol.com

Check out these videos below for more of the fun :-