Penicuik Table Tennis Club
Contact us via:
  • Home
  • About
  • Coaching
  • News / Results
  • TEAMS
  • News Archives / Links
  • Contact
  • GALLERY

ELTTL - Week 23 Report

24/2/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
Six of our seven Teams were scheduled to be in action in Week 23 of the Edinburgh League season. 
 
In Division 1, Team 2 travelled to face bottom of the table Corstorphine 2 in a match which some had suggested was a “must win”. Krzysztof Laszkiewicz, Gary McDougal and Charlie Brindley feel that they could have got something out of all of their last three matches but despite that, a win v Corstorphine would have given them a two-point buffer over 2ndbottom Fife 2. This match really does sum up Team 2’s season so far. At 4-1 down, the omens were not good for the Penicuik trio, but they fought hard and won the next 3 matches to level the scores at 4-4 going into Matches 9 and 10 on the night. But just as things were starting to look good for the visitors, two fairly straightforward wins for Corstorphine inflicted a disappointing 6-4 defeat on the visitors. The manner of the 4 wins for the Penicuik side says it all – a doubles victory was added to by each player winning 1 singles match – but they all beat different opponents – that’s crazy! This may not have mathematically been a “must-win match” but Team 2 now know that they have it all to do to avoid relegation. Not only has their loss given Fife a real chance of avoiding relegation, it has brought bottom of the table Corstorphine back into contention, only a point behind both Penicuik and Fife and given that Fife and Corstorphine have still to play each other, Team 2 need points from somewhere in their last half a dozen matches!
 
Team 3 of James Wighton, Chris Markey & Abby Wighton were looking to build on their 9-1 defeat of Corstorphine in Week 22 as they faced North Merchiston 4 at Ladywood in Division 2. With their opponents bottom of the table and looking odds-on certainties for the drop, this should have been a fairly straightforward win for the hosts and at 5-0 up that’s exactly what looked like happening. But credit is due to the North Merchiston trio who fought hard at the back end of the night to pick up 3 wins out of the last 5 matches. James was once again the Player of the Match for the hosts with an undefeated night in singles and contributing in the doubles with Chris who added two singles wins. An out of sorts Abby had only squeezed through in her first match against Slav and that seems to have affected her subsequent matches as she fell to defeats v David Hale and Nick Thomas. In the end a comfortable 7-3 win for Team 3 although the question which was being asked at the end of the night was how NM find themselves languishing at the foot of the table – they look a much better side than the table suggests. 
 
In Division 3, Team 4 fell foul of the difficulty in arranging postponements. With only Tony Brentnall available from a team of four players, there was a late emergency call out to the Club for a couple of replacements. The problem which faces Club’s like ours is that we don’t have many “spare players” to pick from. Teams 5 and 6 were both playing on Wednesday night and there was no one else available to play – a concession resulted. 
 
Division 4 has been a cracker of a division all season. It remains probably the most exciting division if all in terms of promotion battles with probably 5 teams still in the hunt for a top 2 place. Team 5 had a stinker of a start to 2019 – 3 consecutive losses to promotion rivals seemed to have put paid to their chances of getting out of the Division. But as favours were done by other teams, a 10-0 victory v Edinburgh Uni made things interesting again. This week they faced Haddington 5 and without, arguably their number 1, Martin Hayman, this was going to be a straightforward win for John Bald, Craig Johnson and Millie Bennett. But no – this is Division 4 where it seems as if any team on their day can beat any other team! Knowing that anything other than a perfect end to their season will probably not be enough imagine the horror as John Bald took to the table in the last match of the night at only 5-4 up and proceeded to lose the first end against young Tom Wilson! If Craig had upgraded his 1998 Nokia 5110 mobile he could have streamed the excitement live on our FB page – instead we had to make do with pigeon post speed updates as John fought his way back to secure a 4 end win much to the relief of his teammates. Although his phone is ancient and his movement round the table is from the 50’s, well done to Craig who proved to be the difference on the night as he won all three of his singles matches. Millie contributed 1 win and with John’s last gasp victory he provided 2 wins in the overall 6-4 victory for Team 5. The Division 4 table makes interesting reading. The top 6 are only split by 5 points. Although in 5th place in the Division, Team 5 have a game in hand on all around them and if they convert that to a win, they will leapfrog into 3rd place and only a point behind 2nd. But as everyone is finding out, any result seems possible as the season moves into its last quarter for the Division 4 sides. 
 
As an example of how anything is possible, we just have to look at Team 6. They travelled to take on North Merchiston 6 and faced the same trio of young guns who a couple of weeks ago had despatched then 2ndplace WL 9 by an 8-2 scoreline. This would be a tough match for Team 6. Louis McLeod, Craig Linton and Adam Woodhouse had other ideas – 3 wins for Louis, two wins each for Adam and Craig and a doubles victory later and the Penicuik trio were leaving Watson Crescent with a huge smile on their faces after an impressive 8-2 victory. And it’s not as if it was even close - only the doubles went to five ends! Unbelievably, Team 6 secured their 13thpoint out of a possible 16 over the course of their last 8 matches with this victory! That run has only been bettered by top of the table WL 7 who have gained 14 points over the same period. If the season had started on 7th December 2018, Team 6 would be promotion favourites!! As we said last week though, it’s a pity that the Team went missing for the first 3 months of the season!! 
 
And finally in Division 4, Team 7 travelled to take on University 6. The Students got some coverage in last week’s report when we commented that despite their pool of 11 or 12 players, a third of their matches had been played understrength. Lo and behold, they increased that ratio on Friday night as George Wilson, Kristian Skotzen and Hannah McDonell faced a two-player opposition of Agnieszka Wojciga and Islam Mostafa. The match was played in good spirits throughout and Team Captain George nearly spoiled a perfect night for his side as he squeezed home 11-8 in the fifth against an unlucky Agnieszka in Match 10 of the night. Perhaps feeling that his form was not quite there or maybe as a result of some scathing and harsh criticism of his doubles performances from 12-year-old Hannah, George dropped himself for the doubles and that decision worked as Kristian and Hanna combined well for a straightforward victory with the loss of only 16 points. A 10-0 victory for the visitors and if Phil had managed to stay healthy (he’s been out since Christmas), who knows where Team 7 might have ended up this season – only 3 wins behind second place is a great return at this stage of the season. 
 
And so, to our Player of the Week Award for Week 23. Before we discuss undefeated players, a special mention this week to Adam from Team 6. He recorded two singles wins against players rated miles higher than him according to Ratings Central. He was giving away almost 250 and 150 points respectively to Alex McKay and Kai Hely and as a result of these wins his rating has jumped by 56 points – it also marks the first occasion on which Adam has won a double so well done to him.  In terms of undefeated players this week, James was undefeated for Team 3, Craig won his 3 for Team 5, Louis was undefeated for Team 6 and all of Team 7 had undefeated nights. Team 7 played against only two players so they’re out the running. James and Louis both played in and won the doubles whilst Craig was allegedly dragged down to John’s level in his doubles loss – ordinarily that would put Craig out of the running – but hold on – there was only one match where an undefeated singles night was vital to the overall result – add to that the importance in their push for promotion and there can only be one winner – Well done to Mr Treasurer, Craig for a hugely important 3 wins. 

And finally, our controversy of the Week section. The Handicap Cup has reached its quarter final stage and this season, for the first time in our recollection, there is no dedicated week in the calendar for playing these fixtures. Now in fairness there are only 4 matches to play so the feeling of the League was that it wouldn’t be too difficult to have these matches arranged. The fact that we have three teams through to the quarter final stage doesn’t help, but actually that’s not the problem. The Committee appear to have suggested that the built in “free weeks” in the schedule will make it easier to arrange these fixtures – what a load of nonsense. What are the chances of both teams in any match having the same free week – probably remote. Add in to that the fact that the way we play the Handicap Cup is by mixing teams up with players from different divisions and the chances of all of us having the same free week is virtually negligible – we’d have more chance of winning the lottery than that happening. Add to that the fact that for Clubs like ours we only have one night a week where we can play matches (a Wednesday) and it becomes impossible to arrange a fixture to avoid a scheduled League match! The League want the matches played before 5th April. That effectively gives us four possible Wednesdays to arrange a home match – unbelievably, every Wednesday between now and 5th April sees at least 4 of our teams in action, all of whom include players who are playing in the Quarter finals. It’s a good job we only have one home match to arrange out of the three – the other two matches we will have to rely on the opposing teams being able to offer us dates which fit – that’s just crazy – when there was a dedicated week, rearranged games could be fitted in but for those still involved in the Handicap Cup there was a free week to fit in the matches – rather than helping the situation, this change has just made organisation of these matches much, much more difficult. Let’s hope that our opponents are understanding, not to mention that they don’t face the same difficulties as us!
 
Secondly, this week, postponements again come to the fore. Our Team 4 required to concede a match this week – the second time a Team from Penicuik have had to do so this season – that’s probably a pretty good outcome for a Club with seven teams in the League at this stage of the season. The impact of postponements can be significant though – although Team 4’s concession doesn’t necessarily have much of an impact on them (they’re probably going to finish in third or fourth place), it does have an impact at the bottom end of the table – we doubt whether ESC will want to do us any favours – they started the week just two points behind their fellow strugglers Corstorphine but a loss for them and a 10-0 walkover for Corstorphine puts them really up against it to avoid relegation. And isn’t it interesting that Team 4 have been involved in 2 conceded matches this season – in the first half, for whatever reason, guess which team had to concede to Team 4 – yip, you guessed it – Corstorphine 4! What goes around comes around…..
 
With most teams now only having 5 or 6 matches of their season left, we move into the final quarter of the season with much still to play for. Bring it on in Week 24. 



0 Comments

ELTTL - Week 22 Report

17/2/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
Week 22 of the Edinburgh League season should have seen all 7 of our teams in action on the same night but with postponement of the derby match between Teams 5 & 7, Ladywood was a bit quieter than anticipated on Wednesday. 
 
The theme of this week at Ladywood was Penicuik v University. In Division 1, Team 2 hosted Edinburgh Uni 2. The University side, despite their 8-2 loss to Team 1 in Week 21 started as favourites. Krzysztof Laszkiewicz, Gary McDougal and Charlie Brindley were still reeling from their Week 21 loss to fellow strugglers Murrayfield 5 but were provided with a boost when Charlie won the first match of the night. Wins, however, in matches 2 and 3 gave the Uni side the lead after the first round of singles. The next 3 singles followed the same pattern, Krzysztof this time providing the home win. From 2-0 up in the doubles the home side were pegged back to 2-2 and in the tightest of finishes, they squeezed over the line to reduce the deficit to 3-4 going into the last 3 singles matches. Gary had lost his first 2 matches in 5 tight ends and his night got worse as he lost out in 4 ends in Match 9 which ended the tie as a contest. With all three singles going the way of the students, Team 2 fell to a 7-3 defeat and with Murrayfield 5 picking up a win v Corstorphine, it looks like any two of Fife, Corstorphine 2 and Team 2 are likely to suffer relegation. Team 2 face a huge match next week v bottom of the table Corstorphine 2 – anything other than a win.............
 
In Division 3, Team 4 of Julian Taylor, Tony Brentnall & Sonny Taylor faced Edinburgh Uni 4 as they looked to bounce back from a couple of disappointing results. Having only defeated Uni 5 by a 6-4 scoreline a couple of weeks before, there was concern that this might be a difficult match. With the first set of singles all going the way of the hosts, however, those concerns disappeared. Although Tony lost Match 4 in 5 ends, the home side were never troubled as they cantered to a good 9-1 win. 
 
With the overall score 1-1, it was left to Team 6 to secure a victory for Penicuik in this week of Uni fixtures. They faced Uni 6 in Division 4. Uni 6 are worthy of special mention. They lead the whole of the league in having the most players registered in any one team – 11 players to choose from (maybe 12 at one point - 12 different players have played this season). For Clubs like us we could make 4 teams out of that!! Remarkably, however, there have been 5 occasions when they have played with only two players and once when they had to concede (1/3rd of their matches played). That must be very frustrating for their Team Captain. Anyway, back to the match – Rachel Petrie, Craig Linton and Louis McLeod have been on a bit of a run in recent weeks and this 10-0 victory gave them their 11th point out of a possible 14 over the course of their last 7 matches! Such a pity that their previous 11 matches only yielded 3 points!! 
 
Away from Ladywood, Teams 1 and 3 both travelled to Corstorphine on Wednesday evening. In Division 1 Team Captain Greig McDonell was left panicking after the late call off by Iain Johnstone due to illness. With Colin Green already out for the match a check of the fixture list showed that every other Penicuik team was in action other than the Division 4 derby match! Oh dear! After some further manic phone calls, Colin was forced to rearrange his night and for only the third time this season he and Greig played together (just like the good old days!) as they joined forces with David Melrose. Corstorphine 1 on paper look a difficult prospect and when Stan Stoodley won Match 1 on the night v David in 5 long ends, this looked like it could get ugly! From there, however, Team 1 took control as they secured a 9-1 victory to keep them at the top of the Division 1 table.
 
Team 3 of James Wighton, Chris Markey & Abby Wighton meanwhile were taking on Corstorphine 3 in the other half of the hall. The first two matches were extremely tight affairs, James coming through 11-6 in the fifth in Match 1 before Chris secured an 11-5 in the fifth win in Match 2. Like Team 1, however, they also seemed to put that nervy start behind them as they raced on from that point - not wanting to be outdone by Team 1, they also lost only one match on the night (Chris losing Match 10) as they secured a 9-1 victory. 

Before we get on to a number of good performances in the League this week, a special mention to Hannah who, last Sunday, qualified to represent Scotland in the Senior Schools Home Nations to be held in Guernsey later this year – well done to her. And so on to our Player of the Week Award - Team 1 saw Colin and Greig undefeated, Abby & James were both undefeated for Team 3, Julian and Sonny didn’t lose in Team 4’s win and all of Team 6 were undefeated in singles play. It doesn’t get any easier when we look at the doubles – 8 of the 9 undefeated players were also victorious in the doubles matches – sorry Rachel, having not played you’re out of the running!! Let’s look at our opposing teams – Team 6’s match was against bottom of the table University – Louis and Craig – gone! Team 3’s match was against 2nd bottom Corstorphine – sorry James & Abby! Teams 1 and 4 both played against opposition who lie 8th in their respective divisions! Jings this is tough. There was one player who stood out from the crowd – what on earth happened since we last saw him – dark haired one week and then suddenly we have a blonde in the Club – for his undefeated night and for the snazzy new hair – well done to Sonny! 

And finally, our controversy of the Week section. Would you believe it – our intrepid reporter is away for a weekend of romance seemingly (some sort of anniversary!) – he’s clearly gone soft and didn’t complete this part of his report before he left!! He tells us we should be grateful that with all the matches taking place on Wednesday this week, he was diligent enough to get his round-up completed before he set off on Friday! Does he not know that many of our avid readers only look at this report for the weekly controversy item!! The only thing he did write about was Tuesday’s League Committee meeting which amongst other things had on the agenda “Incidents involving altercations between players late last year”!

Oooh – this would be juicy. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a damp squib and was left on the basis that the dust had settled and the Committee didn’t need to take any action – how disappointing!! We didn’t even get into the nitty gritty of what happened. The view expressed again was that umpires needed to take more control – we couldn’t resist in pointing out, as we have done in previous reports, that such a suggestion is crazy when we don’t have qualified umpires and, in many matches, certainly in the lower divisions, loads of youngsters “take their turn” at umpiring. 
 
Oh well – that’s all for this week seemingly – hopefully our reporter’s “romantic side” will have gone by next weekend and we’ll get back to some decent controversies!!


0 Comments

ELTTL - Week 21 Report

10/2/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
Week 21 of the Edinburgh League season and 6 of the Club’s 7 teams were in action.

In Division 1 it was time for Team Captain Greig McDonell to have a rest - he was replaced by Colin Green who joined David Melrose & Iain Johnstone as they travelled to take on Edinburgh University 2. The reverse fixture at Ladywood had been a very hostile affair and the visitors were therefore somewhat wary of making the journey to the weirdly named St Leonard’s Land! In the end, there was a much better atmosphere and the scoreline from the first half of the season was repeated. Colin was undefeated and combined with David to win the doubles whilst Iain and David both won 2 as Team 1 recorded a good 8-2 win to remain at the top of the Division1 table.
 
At the opposite end of the Division, there was a crucial match for Team 2 as they hosted Murrayfield 5 at Ladywood. The Edinburgh outfit on paper look like a decent side and it’s been surprising to see them struggling towards the foot of the table. Krzysztof Laszkiewicz, Gary McDougal and Charlie Brindley had all been at Coach Greig’s Saturday Training session in preparation for this vital encounter (a first for the season) – and they found themselves one position and one point ahead of Murrayfield at the beginning of Week 21. A victory would boost their chances of avoiding relegation substantially. Having trained like a donkey (not sure that’s the correct expression – maybe it loses something in translation from Polish), Team Captain Krzysztof didn’t even make it to Ladywood on match night, instead having to look after baby at home! Really??? Sonny Taylor played up from Division 3 (Our Division 2 team were playing away from home). Although Sonny wasn’t far away, he was unable to get on the scoreboard. All was not lost though. Arguably Murrayfield’s best player, ex-Penicuik youngster, Luke Hennessey was defeated by both Gary and Charlie. And even better news was that in the first half of the season, both Gary and Charlie had defeated the other two Murrayfield players, Simon and Stella Hughes. Nothing’s ever that straightforward – Somehow, Charlie managed to lose to Simon and Gary lost to Stella. A draw wouldn’t be the worst result in the world – a straightforward doubles loss put an end to that! A hugely disappointing 6-4 loss for Team 2 and they’re now right back in the relegation quagmire. Young Adam was happy though – he had Daddy all to himself!  
 
In Division 2, Team 3 of James Wighton, Chris Markey & Abby Wighton travelled to take on promotion certainties, Edinburgh International 3. Probably the less said about the 10-0 whitewash defeat the better! In fairness, James commented that the team had probably played better than they had the previous week v Granton and that just shows how strong EI are. Babu Valaguruvan is the star of the EI team – 39 games played, and 39 games won. He’s also played up 4 times in Division 1 and has won 10 out of 12, on two occasions being the player of the match for promotion challenging EI2. Why on earth he is registered in Division 2 is beyond us! Good tactics though by EI to try and ensure a strong 3rd team!
 
With Team 4 having a free week our attention turns to the tense battle raging in Division 4. As we have mentioned previously, this looks like the tightest of all the divisions with any of the top 6 capable of winning promotion. 
 
The week started with Team 7’s trip to league leaders West Lothian 7. George Wilson, Hannah McDonell and Kristian Skotzen had dented Haddington’s promotion hopes last week but no one really anticipated that they were capable of putting a spanner in the works for the league leaders. George got the match off to a great start with a victory over Ros Beck before a cracking match between the youngsters, Hannah and David McRae – in a tight match filled with some great attacking play, Hannah kept her cool to pull through 11-8 in the fifth. Even better was to come as Kristian then pushed Bob Lander to five ends – at 5-1 down at the change of ends, Kristian suddenly found his form again and came back to win the match 11-8 in the fifth. 3-0 became 4-0 as George defeated David in 4 ends before Ros kept the match alive with a win v Kristian. But when Hannah again played some terrific stuff to beat Bob in 4 ends a point was secured. A doubles loss was followed by a great win for Kristian v David to secure the win and in the battle of the two number 1s, George came out on top. Ros spoiled Hannah’s night in Match 10 by playing with “some sort of funny rubber” according to a frustrated 12-year-old who couldn’t work out what to do (ah she’s like her father in so many ways!!). In the end a 7-3 victory for Team 7 and the chasing pack in the Division 4 title race were most grateful.

Then on Wednesday night at Ladywood, Team 6 faced another of the title contenders, West Lothian 8. Although only a place above our Team 5 and 5 points adrift of top spot, WL 8 had a couple of games in hand on the teams above them at the start of the night. Louis McLeod, Craig Linton and Rachel Petrie were to add to West Lothian’s woes and do yet another favour for Team 5. When Craig lost the first match of the night, it didn’t look good for the home side but wins for Louis and Rachel then gave the hosts a 2-1 lead. Match 4 between the sides’ top two players, Louis and Tommy Hamill, was to be pivotal – at 2-0 down Louis recovered to draw level at 2-2. The fifth end was mammoth – in typical Louis fashion (he can’t win in a straightforward manner) he squeezed home 18-16 in the deciding end and with that it appeared that the West Lothian resolve was broken. The only other win on the night for the visitors was Tommy’s win in Match 9 as Team 6 recorded an excellent 8-2 victory.
 
Before we go on to our own promotion candidates, Team 5, a match not involving Penicuik is worthy of note (that’s a first in these reports). In what turned out to be a miserable week for West Lothian in Division 4, their 9th Team who sat in 2nd place in the Division were turned over by the youngsters of North Merchiston 6. As WL 9 Captain, Tommy Toner indicated, the youngsters played out of their skins. Our roving reporter managed to see some of the matches and witnessed some brilliant attacking play from both Aiden Davis and Alex Mackay, both undefeated, as they secured an 8-2 win. 
 
The importance of those three results was not lost on Team 5 – their promotion challenge seemed to be in tatters after 3 consecutive defeats to other promotion candidates, but in this crazy week they knew that a win v bottom of the table Edinburgh University would put them into 4th place but still with a game in hand over 1st and 2nd and two games in hand over 3rd place. Their season maybe wasn’t over after all!! With some strong words from El Presidente still ringing in their ears, John Bald, Craig Johnson and Stuart Bennett were never troubled, dropping only 6 ends on the night as they recorded a 10-0 victory. Three points behind second with a game in hand for Team 5 and their hopes of promotion remain alive.  
 
There were a number of good performances this week from our players. Colin was undefeated for Team 1 whilst George and Louis again showed their importance to their teams with undefeated nights in singles play. All of Team 5 were also undefeated but they are ruled out of contention as they were playing the team bottom of the division. George, according to Hannah, was rubbish in the doubles – sorry George you’re out the running! That leaves a straight fight between Colin & Louis. Hang on hang on – we’ve had a complaint from Team 5 – in a week where there were lots of surprises in Division 4, they argue that just because Uni were at the foot of the table, that should not detract from their 10-0 performance to get them back on track in the Division 4 title race. Fair point we think – this week’s winner lost only 45 points in singles play and his performance in the doubles was seemingly brilliant given that he had to play with Craig – his undefeated night also puts him into equal third in the individual averages – Well done to John Bald, proving that 80 years of TT counts for a lot against youngsters!

And finally, our controversy of the Week. What can we say about Team 2’s match v Murrayfield? Season on the line (almost); a relegation battle; a win for Team 2 and the pressure would ease; all 3 players had trained hard at the weekend in anticipation of this vital match; we hear from Murrayfield that this was the first game since Xmas that they had managed to field their full team. And what do we do? Play with only two regulars!! Oh my goodness, or words to that effect. Would Murrayfield have granted our request for a postponement late in the day? We’ll never know as we never tried to get one. Had we tried and they refused that would at least have given us something to write about! There was nothing we could have done seemingly – a last minute family matter and Krys had to babysit. Hold on a minute, what’s more important a young baby or TT?? He would have been fine on his own wouldn’t he - he’s over a year old now – or if you didn’t want to take a chance on that, Gary was seemingly happy to look after him while Daddy played his matches! Of course, we don’t blame Daddy or Adam – players spouses just don’t seem to understand the importance of table tennis….
 
In the same match there was seemingly some rather loud screams and some rather angry behaviour from one of our opponents. According to some at the Club, perhaps caused by frustration at not winning, the yelps of disgust got a little out of hand. Whilst this type of behaviour can be dealt with by the opposing player (most of the time) and it’s often a sign to an opponent that they’re on top, what players often forget about is that, particularly in a venue such as ours, there are other matches going on which have to try and shut themselves off to such conduct – it’s often more difficult for those players not to be effected than it is for those involved in the match itself. We’ve all been there. Can anything be done about it? Some may have had words with the individual concerned? Some may just take it as part of the game. Perhaps a little consideration and respect for others though wouldn’t go amiss.
 
To end on a positive, however, we would like to pay tribute to one youngster who visited Ladywood on Wednesday night. So impressed by the behaviour of West Lothian’s Aidan Kerr, Team 6 took the time to make us aware of what they termed his “excellent manners, great humour and good sportsmanship throughout the night”. He even took the time during the warm-up with Rachel to ask how her day and week thus far had been – probably something that we don’t even do between ourselves! So, to our friends at West Lothian, forget about your shocking week in Division 4 and concentrate on what a credit young Aidan was to your Club. It’s not the winning that matters anyway, it’s the taking part…………



0 Comments

ELTTL - Week 20 Report

3/2/2019

0 Comments

 
Week 20 of the Edinburgh League season will probably turn out to be pivotal for a number of our Teams chances of promotion this year.

In Division 2, James & Abby Wighton were joined by Chris Markey as they hosted Granton at Ladywood. After dropping a point to an understrength West Lothian side last week, the home team knew that any more slip ups would, avoiding miracles, end any chance of a second-place finish. With a 7-3 victory in the first half, the trio went into the match with some confidence but after six fixtures they quickly found themselves 4-2 down, the two wins both coming from Chris. Abby combined with Chris for a victory in the doubles to cut the deficit and James then squared the match score at 4-4. However, on a night to forget for Abby, she lost match 9 and it was left to Chris to try and salvage a point. Although he dug deep to win the first end, he lost the next 3 as Granton recorded a surprise 6-4 win. 9 points behind second place and only 1 point out of a possible 5 since Xmas – Disappointingly, Team 2’s target will now probably be to try and catch University for 3rd. 
 
At the beginning of the season there were also high hopes for Team 4 of Julian Taylor, Tony Brentnall and Sonny Taylor in Division 3. They faced a must win match against Haddington 3 on Thursday night knowing that a win would bring them within a point of their East Lothian hosts. In the reverse fixture at Ladywood, Haddington won 6-4 but the Penicuik side were without Tony. On this occasion after the first round of singles fixtures, wins for Tony and Julian gave the visitors a 2-1 lead. With match 5 going the way of Haddington’s best player, Will Coley, games 4 and 6 on this night were to prove crucial. With Sonny losing in 5 ends to Tommy Crooks in match 4, it was vital for Julian to try and defeat Bruce Murie in game 6 – Julian stormed into a 2-0 lead including an 11-0 granny in end two and it looked like plain sailing. Spurred on by that granny it seems, or was it a lack of concentration from Julian, back came Bruce to remarkably win the next 3 ends 11-7, 12-10, 12-10. At 4-2 down father and son Taylor reduced the deficit to 4-3 before Tony pulled the scores level at 4-4. Bruce showed his guile against a dejected Sonny to guarantee a point and not for the first time this season, Julian was left with the task of trying to rescue a point. Alas it was not to be as he suffered another five-end defeat. This 6-4 loss has probably finished off any chances of promotion for Team 4, five points behind second place and they’ve played a match more.  
 
Team 5’s start to the second half of the season in Division 4 has been a dreadful one. With Craig Johnson unavailable, John Bald was joined by father and daughter duo, Stuart and Millie Bennett. After An 8-2 loss to promotion chasing Fife was followed by a 6-4 defeat at the hands of Haddington 4, Wednesday’s match v top of the table WL 7 was vitally important. With David McRae playing up from Team 9, the hosts were in confident mood – a sign of things to come however was probably shown in match 1 as Team 5’s number 1, John only just squeezed over the line with an 11-9 win in the 5th v David. The next 5 matches were over in a flash as WL stormed into a 5-1 lead. A doubles victory for the hosts kept the match alive, but only briefly as Millie and Stuart both had nights to forget. John won match 10 to give some respectability to the scoreline but a 7-3 win for WL really didn’t flatter them on the night. These are worrying times for Team 5 – top of the table at Xmas, three defeats in a row leave them languishing in 6th place although they do have a match in hand on most of those above them and two games in hand against second placed WL 9. 6 points behind top spot though means they need help from others and realistically second place would now appear to be their target. 
 
After a run of dreadful results for the Club’s promotion challenging teams, it was with some relief that Team 1 kept their undefeated season going as they hosted relegation threatened Fife at Ladywood. In a rather one-sided affair, Greig McDonell, David Melrose & Iain Johnstone only dropped one end in singles play (Steve McKay taking the first end of Match 4 v David). The whitewash was avoided, however, as Team Captain Greig threw David & Iain together for their first doubles match of the season so he could go and support daughter Hannah playing for Team 7. When he returned David pointed out that he was never playing doubles with Iain again just as Iain then pointed out that David had been absolute, eh, we don’t think we can publish that word actually! A 9-1 win for Team 1 sees them retain top spot in the Division 1 title race and there was further good news for the Penicuik side as one of their closest challengers, Murrayfield 4 could only record a 5-5 draw with NM 3 on the same night. 
​
Team 6 of Louis McLeod, Adam Woodhouse and Craig Linton travelled to take on WL 9 at Bathgate, hoping to continue their excellent run of form against one of the “top 6”. At 3-1 down Craig had a chance to reduce the deficit in Match 5 and was 10-7 up in the fifth. Desperate for the win he perhaps tried too hard to finish the match there and then as he foul served and before he knew it the fifth end was lost 12-10. 4-1 became 5-1 and the match was then over as Louis and Craig lost the doubles. There were good 5 end wins for Louis and Craig in the last round of singles matches but the hosts were too good on the night and recorded a 7-3 victory.  

In the continued absence of Phil Daly, Team 7 of George Wilson, Hannah McDonell and Kristian Skotzen hosted Haddington 4 who had conquered Team 5 the previous week and were looking to put in a good run to give themselves a chance of promotion from Division 4. At 3-1 down, Team Captain George took on Martin Hayman (playing up) and when surprisingly, Martin strolled to a straight sets win the match looked dead and buried as a contest, especially as Kristian then went on to lose match 6. 5-1 down and the visitors looked nailed on for two vital points. George and Hannah played one of their best doubles matches to defeat the East Lothian duo in straight sets to keep the match alive. Hannah then took on Martin who had defeated her in 4 ends the previous week for his own Team 5. This time the result was reversed as Hannah won in 4. That was then followed by a terrific comeback from Kristian from 2-1 down to win match 9 and before the visitors knew it, George took the table for match 10 with a point still in sight. His win was never in doubt as he won in straight sets to produce an unlikely draw for the hosts. Haddington 4 may be ruing their matches against Team 7 come the end of the season – only one point gained from a possible 4 against the Penicuik team. 

The player of the week decision this week is a difficult one in a week where good performances were at a premium. Only 3 points out of a possible 12 for the Club with only Team 1 gaining a victory. All three Team 1 players had undefeated singles nights but David and Iain lost the doubles! It’s easy then, Greig must be this week’s winner! But hold on, we’re going to break from tradition this week – as we’ve said before this award is about performing under pressure and for that reason this week the award is shared between all of Team 7! Well done to George, Hannah & Kristian – 5-1 down and 4 terrific wins on the bounce to secure the draw – not only a point gained, but in the tightest of promotion races, they may have done Team 5 a big favour by denting Haddington 4’s points total – at the end of the season that point may turn out to be huge!

And finally, our controversy of the Week. Let’s have a go at ourselves this week. Our Team selection at the beginning of the season was a difficult one. Whilst Team 1 picked itself, the other Teams could quite easily have been chosen with different combinations of players. There was disappointment for some Club members who felt they were playing at a lower level than they should have been. Teams 2, 3 and 4 all posed difficult choices but perhaps the clearest picture of how wrong we perhaps got it is in Division 4. Before last week’s matches 3 Penicuik players were in the top 6 of the individual averages for the division. George Wilson, John Bald and Louis McLeod were all in the hunt for the individual award. The problem with that stat is that they all play in different teams! 
 
With Team 5 in a bit of a mess after their first two matches of the New Year, there was chat about dropping regular players for the match v top of the table WL 7 and pulling in George and Louis to combine with John. Whilst nothing is a certainty, surely that trio would have come out on top?? A need win match - would it have been “unfair” to put out our best three players in the Division for such an important game? Unfair on who? Our opponents? Who cares about them (only in the sporting sense WL)! Unfair on our regular Team 5 players? Maybe? The philosophy of the Club has been that if a team has done well then you stick by those players. Thus when Team 5 gained promotion to Div 3 two seasons ago it was felt they deserved the chance to play together in that Division. The fact that they immediately returned to Division 4 probably showed that that decision was wrong, but it was felt that was the fair thing to do. So what about for the rest of the season? Team 5 cannot afford to drop any more points. Then there’s the question as to what the teams below would think if they were deprived of their best players? Should Club come before team?? This is probably a topic which should have been raised long before now – the horse may already have bolted before we gave the slightest thought to closing the stable door! What would other Clubs do in this scenario? Oh well – maybe a lesson for next season!

And finally, the Rule about nominating one person as “coach” raised its head at Ladywood on Wednesday night. With a certain youngster playing against Haddington, a certain relative made his way over to give some “encouragement” Match 7 by that time and he’d never been seen at all up to that point! In WL’s match, Clive had wandered in to watch a couple of games and got in on the act of giving some advice to Team 5 – not that it did much good – it was about as helpful as when he tried out his physio skills on El Presidente causing him to be unable to walk for about 6 weeks! Whilst only mentioned in jest (maybe) after the event, it does raise the question again about the purpose of the Rule, especially when matches are being played on two tables and youngsters are involved. Of course, the response was that our opponents must not have been listening when these two senior players were nominated as non-playing coaches at the beginning of the matches! 
​
Week 21 will hopefully be more successful for the Club – it can’t be much worse can it??

 
0 Comments

ELTTL - Week 20 Report

3/2/2019

0 Comments

 
Week 20 of the Edinburgh League season will probably turn out to be pivotal for a number of our Teams' chances of promotion this year.

In Division 2, James & Abby Wighton were joined by Chris Markey as they hosted Granton at Ladywood. After dropping a point to an understrength West Lothian side last week, the home team knew that any more slip ups would, avoiding miracles, end any slim chances of a second-place finish. With a 7-3 victory in the first half, the trio went into the match with some confidence but after six fixtures they quickly found themselves 4-2 down, the two wins both coming from Chris. Abby combined with Chris for a victory in the doubles to cut the deficit and James then squared the match score at 4-4. However, on a night to forget for Abby, she lost match 9 and it was left to Chris to try and salvage a point. Although he dug deep to win the first end, he lost the next 3 as Granton recorded a surprise 6-4 win. 9 points behind second place and only 1 point out of a possible 5 since Xmas – Disappointingly, Team 2’s target will now probably be to try and catch University for 3rd. 
 
At the beginning of the season there were also high hopes for Team 4 of Julian Taylor, Tony Brentnall and Sonny Taylor in Division 3. They faced a must win match against Haddington 3 on Thursday night knowing that a win would bring them within a point of their East Lothian hosts. In the reverse fixture at Ladywood, Haddington won 6-4 but the Penicuik side were without Tony. On this occasion after the first round of singles fixtures, wins for Tony and Julian gave the visitors a 2-1 lead. With match 5 going the way of Haddington’s best player, Will Coley, games 4 and 6 on this night were to prove crucial. With Sonny losing in 5 ends to Tommy Crooks in match 4, it was vital for Julian to try and defeat Bruce Murie in game 6 – Julian stormed into a 2-0 lead including an 11-0 granny in end two and it looked like plain sailing. Spurred on by that granny it seems, or was it a lack of concentration from Julian, back came Bruce to remarkably win the next 3 ends 11-7, 12-10, 12-10. At 4-2 down father and son Taylor reduced the deficit to 4-3 before Tony pulled the scores level at 4-4. Bruce showed his guile against a dejected Sonny to guarantee a point and not for the first time this season, Julian was left with the task of trying to rescue a point. Alas it was not to be as he suffered another five-end defeat. This 6-4 loss has probably finished off any chances of promotion for Team 4, five points behind second place and they’ve played a match more.  
 
Team 5’s start to the second half of the season in Division 4 has been a dreadful one. With Craig Johnson unavailable, John Bald was joined by father and daughter duo, Stuart and Millie Bennett. After An 8-2 loss to promotion chasing Fife was followed by a 6-4 defeat at the hands of Haddington 4, Wednesday’s match v top of the table WL 7 was vitally important. With David McRae playing up from Team 9, the hosts were in confident mood – a sign of things to come however was probably shown in match 1 as Team 5’s number 1, John only just squeezed over the line with an 11-9 win in the 5th v David. The next 5 matches were over in a flash as WL stormed into a 5-1 lead. A doubles victory for the hosts kept the match alive, but only briefly as Millie and Stuart both had nights to forget. John won match 10 to give some respectability to the scoreline but a 7-3 win for WL really didn’t flatter them on the night. These are worrying times for Team 5 – top of the table at Xmas, three defeats in a row leave them languishing in 6th place although they do have a match in hand on most of those above them and two games in hand against second placed WL 9. 6 points behind top spot though means they need help from others and realistically second place would now appear to be their target. 
 
After a run of dreadful results for the Club’s promotion challenging teams, it was with some relief that Team 1 kept their undefeated season going as they hosted relegation threatened Fife at Ladywood. In a rather one-sided affair, Greig McDonell, David Melrose & Iain Johnstone only dropped one end in singles play (Steve McKay taking the first end of Match 4 v David). The whitewash was avoided, however, as Team Captain Greig threw David & Iain together for their first doubles match of the season so he could go and support daughter Hannah playing for Team 7. When he returned David pointed out that he was never playing doubles with Iain again just as Iain then pointed out that David had been absolute, eh, we don’t think we can publish that word actually! A 9-1 win for Team 1 sees them retain top spot in the Division 1 title race and there was further good news for the Penicuik side as one of their closest challengers, Murrayfield 4 could only record a 5-5 draw with NM 3 on the same night. 
​
Team 6 of Louis McLeod, Adam Woodhouse and Craig Linton travelled to take on WL 9 at Bathgate, hoping to continue their excellent run of form against one of the “top 6”. At 3-1 down Craig had a chance to reduce the deficit in Match 5 and was 10-7 up in the fifth. Desperate for the win he perhaps tried too hard to finish the match there and then as he foul served and before he knew it the fifth end was lost 12-10. 4-1 became 5-1 and the match was then over as Louis and Craig lost the doubles. There were good 5 end wins for Louis and Craig in the last round of singles matches but the hosts were too good on the night and recorded a 7-3 victory.  

In the continued absence of Phil Daly, Team 7 of George Wilson, Hannah McDonell and Kristian Skotzen hosted Haddington 4 who had conquered Team 5 the previous week and were looking to put in a good run to give themselves a chance of promotion from Division 4. At 3-1 down, Team Captain George took on Martin Hayman (playing up from Div 4) and when surprisingly, Martin strolled to a straight sets win the match looked dead and buried as a contest, especially when Kristian went on to lose match 6. 5-1 down and the visitors looked nailed on for two vital points. George and Hannah played one of their best doubles matches to defeat the East Lothian du in straight sets to keep the match alive. Hannah then took on Martin who had defeated her in 4 ends the previous week for his own Team 5. This time the result was reversed as Hannah won in 4. That was then followed by a terrific comeback from Kristian from 2-1 down to win match 9 and before we knew it, George took the table for match 10 with a draw still in sight. His win was never in doubt as he won in straight sets to produce an unlikely draw for the hosts. Haddington 4 may be ruing their matches against Team 7 come the end of the season – only one point gained from a possible 4 against the Penicuik team. 

The player of the week decision this week is a difficult one in a week where good performances were at a premium. Only 3 points out of a possible 12 this week for the Club with only Team 1 gaining a victory. All three had undefeated singles nights but David and Iain lost the doubles! It’s easy then, Greig must be this week’s winner! But hold on, we’re going to break from tradition this week – as we’ve said before this award is about performing under pressure and for that reason this week the award is shared between all of Team 7! Well done to George, Hannah & Kristian – 5-1 down and 4 terrific wins on the bounce to them – not only a point gained, but in the tightest of promotion races, they may have done Team 5 a big favour by denting Haddington 4’s points total – at the end of the season that point may turn out to be huge!

And finally, our controversy of the Week. Let’s have a go at ourselves this week. Our Team selection at the beginning of the season was a difficult one. Whilst Team 1 picked itself, the other Teams could quite easily have been chosen with different combinations of players. There was disappointment for some Club members who felt they were playing at a lower level than they should have been. Teams 2, 3 and 4 all posed difficult choices but perhaps the clearest picture of how wrong we perhaps got it is in Division 4. Before last week’s matches 3 Penicuik players were in the top 6 of the individual averages for the division. George Wilson, John Bald and Louis McLeod were all in the hunt for the individual award. The problem with that stat is that they all play in different teams! 
 
With Team 5 in a bit of a mess after their first two matches of the New Year, there was chat about dropping regular players for the match v top of the table WL 7 and pulling in George and Louis to combine with John. Whilst nothing is a certainty, surely that trio would have come out on top?? A need win match - would it have been “unfair” to put out our best three players in the Division for such an important match? Unfair on who? Our opponents? Who cares about them (only in the sporting sense WL)! Unfair on our regular Team 5 players? Maybe? The philosophy of the Club has been that if a team has done well then you stick by those players. Thus when Team 5 gained promotion to Div 3 for last season it was felt they deserved the chance to play together in that Division. The fact that they immediately returned to Division 4 probably showed that that decision was wrong, but it was felt that was the fair thing to do? So what about for the rest of the season? Team 5 cannot afford to drop any more points. Then there’s the question as to what the teams below would think if they were deprived of their best players? Should Club come before team?? This is probably a topic which should have been raised long before now – the horse may already have bolted before we even thought about closing the stable door! What would other Clubs do in this scenario? Oh well – maybe a lesson for next season!

And finally, the Rule about nominating one person as “coach” raised its head at Ladywood on Wednesday night. With a certain youngster playing against Haddington, a certain relative made his way over to give some “encouragement” Match 7 by that time and he’d never been seen at all up to that point! In WL’s match, Clive had wandered in to watch a couple of games and got in on the act of giving some advice to Team 5 – not that it did much good – it was about as helpful as when he tried out his physio skills on El Presidente causing him to be unable to walk for about 6 weeks! Whilst only mentioned in jest (maybe) after the event, it does raise the question again about the purpose of the Rule, especially when matches are being played on two tables and youngsters are involved. Of course, the response was that our opponents must not have been listening when these two senior players were nominated as non-playing coaches at the beginning of the matches! 
​
Week 21 will hopefully be more successful for the Club – it can’t be much worse can it??
 

0 Comments

    Penicuik TTC

    Midlothian's only ELTTL representatives.

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.