Week 21 was a busy one for the Club with all six of our teams in action.
 
First up on Wednesday 21st Feb was Team 6’s trip to Bathgate to take on West Lothian 7 in Division 5. Roscoe Cairney, Mat Dyluk and Ian Millar took to the table for the visitors against the side who sat in 2nd place in the Division and a mammoth 16 points ahead of them in the table. The Penicuik trio knew it was going to be tough and so it proved as the first three matches went the way of the hosts. Roscoe got the team on the board with a win in Match 4 but two further wins for the hosts secured at least a point and that was converted to a win when the doubles also went WL’s way. The last three games of the night shows what team 6 need to work on – consistency! After losing ends 2 and 3 heavily, 11-2 and 11-4, Ian fantastically turned around his match winning the last two ends 11-9, 13-11. Roscoe then lost in three before Mat somehow turned it on against WL’s best player – a 90% average with 19 wins out of 21 played and Mat took him to a fifth end decider, narrowly losing out 11-9 in the fifth! An 8-2 loss but some real positives to take away from the match.

Team 2 of David Melrose, James Wighton and Steve Collins made the long trip to Ocean Terminal on Thursday to take on Murrayfield 7 in Division 1. David continued his terrific form winning all three of his singles (all by 3-1 scorelines). Steve picked up one win in his first two matches and going into the doubles Team 2 were tied at 3-3. Steve and David combined to give the visitors the advantage going into the last three games of the night. Could they record their first win of the season – David’s win in Match 9 secured the point and it was left to Steve to hold his nerve in Match 10 to record the win – a fine four end victory and the “so close” team picked up two points! Even better news - the win took them off the bottom of the table. Bad news followed however when it was noted that the teams around them had also recorded victories and third bottom is now six points ahead of them! Miracles can happen, but…….
 
In the Premier Division, Team 1 was without the holidaying, Greig McDonell (how dare he) as they hosted West Lothian 1 at Ladywood. Craig Linton got his first taste of Premier action playing up from Division 3 as he joined Peter Aird and Colin Green. Matches 2, 3 and 4 were pivotal – Peter lost match 2 in 4 ends after looking comfortable in the first end, Colin then lost in five before Peter lost in five in Match 4 – that effectively ended the match as a contest. The home side found themselves 5-0 down before Colin recorded a five end win in match 6. He was the only winner on the night, another five end win in Match 9 resulting in an 8-2 loss for the hosts.
 
At the beginning of 2024 Team 3 sat in second place in the Division 2 table and after their first match of 2024, a win against ESC, they looked strong contenders for promotion back to Division 1 from where they had been relegated last season. Krzysztof Laszkiewicz, Bob Porteous and Gary McDougal then went on a terrible run, picking up only 1 point from a possible 8 and just when they thought things couldn’t get any worse, Edinburgh Uni rolled into Ladywood and quickly left again with a win under their belts. In Team 3’s worst result of the season, only Gary troubled the scorers as the hosts fell to a 9-1 defeat. In the space of five weeks Team 3 have fallen from 2nd to 7th and their promotion hopes have all but disappeared – yikes!  
 
Team 5 were also at home on Thursday as they hosted Murrayfield 11 in Division 4. Rachel Petrie, Patrick Shanks and Chamika Diyunugalge were looking for a better outcome than in the first half of the season where they had fallen to a 7-3 loss. Only one player from the Murrayfield side that secured that win made the trip to Ladywood and perhaps that made a big difference. It didn’t start well for the hosts, however, as they fell 3-1 behind. However, 2 singles wins and a win for Chamika and Patrick in the doubles suddenly gave the hosts a 4-3 advantage with the final round of singles left to play. When Chamika lost match 8 the scores were tied at 4-4. Patrick secured a four end win to secure a point and it was left to Rachel to see if that could be converted to a win. She had lost to her opponent in three straight ends in the reverse fixture, but on this occasion it was completely different – a straightforward 3-0 win gave the Penicuik trio an excellent 6-4 victory.

Friday evening saw Team 4 make the trip to League Leaders Edinburgh University in Division 3. Kristian Skotzen, Craig Linton and Aidan Craig visited St Leonards Land and they got off to a great start as Aidan won the first match of the night against a player he had lost to 3-0 in the reverse fixture. When Craig and Kristian also won their first matches the Midlothian outfit led 3-0 and were looking strong. Aidan lost match 4 but Kristian made the gap 3 again with a win in Match 5. The final match before the doubles was to prove crucial – Craig has been in super form this season and when he went 2-0 up he looked like he was going to get the fifth win for the visitors. His opponent had other ideas – in an agonising turnaround, Craig lost the next three ends 12-10, 14-12, 11-9! That seemed to give the students a real boost and when they won the doubles the comeback was well and truly on. From 4-1 down they won the next 4 matches as Kristian and Aidan both lost their last matches and suddenly the students held their first lead of the night at 5-4. It would have been a travesty had the Penicuik trio not got something out of the match and Craig recovered well from his earlier loss to win Match 10 and secure a 5-5 draw – oh what might have been.     

And so, to our player of the week award. Only David was undefeated in singles play this week. Well done to him. But being undefeated isn’t the only criteria for winning this award – sorry Dave! A crucial first win of the season for Team 2 looked very much in doubt after this player had been ill and nearly never made it to the match at all – but with Hannah unavailable and no one else able to play, he answered the plea from his team captain who needed him - he lifted himself from his bed, made the horrendous trip to Ocean Terminal, was definitely under the weather but still played a blinder pulling David through in the doubles (according to James) and held his nerve in match 10 to secure a 6-4 win for the team – well done to Steve!  
 
And finally, our controversy of the week section. That old chestnut of the Player of the Match award reared its head again this week! Team 6 were soundly beaten 8-2 by West Lothian in Week 21 – two of the West Lothian players were undefeated in singles play with their third player only winning 1 out of 3 – how were team 6 going to decide between the top two players – maybe on ends won – Neil Webb won his three matches 3-0 whereas his teammate’s wins were 3-1, 3-0 and 3-2. It must be Neil then! Oh, hold on neither of those players won it – it went to the player who was the only one to lose. We thought there was maybe a mistake on the card so checked with Team 6 – no mistake, the player was very happy, the soul of the team and epitomised what the sport should be about! Well, there you go! As we have said many times before, depending on your opponents, this award is more of a popularity contest than a mark of who the best player is – and we think we like that!
 
It was another busy night at Ladywood on Thursday with three teams in action. 6 tables crammed into our half of the main hall is just about manageable – although there can be quite a lot of disruptions with balls flying in from other tables etc. During Team 5s match one of our home players was umpiring and got a real fright from a shriek of horror (or maybe it was joy) that came from the adjacent Premier Division match. The Murrayfield player was in the process of serving and “duffed his serve” – such was the loudness of the scream that the Umpire decided a let should be played, much to the annoyance of the umpire’s teammate! But actually, we think the umpire was right – Rule 2.1 indicates that a let can be called if “the failure to make a service or a return or otherwise to comply with the Laws is due to a disturbance outside the control of the player”. If the Umpire got a fright then surely that’s sufficient reason to decide that there had been a disturbance! Good umpiring we think!
 
Only 5 weeks left of the League season! Wow that’s gone quick! 

​Week 20 was a quiet one for the Club. Our one remaining handicap cup team was in action as they played their quarter final v Merchiston 2. There was talk of mixing the team up and bringing in some fresh faces for the match but ultimately the trio who reached the quarter final kept their places. Jim Jack, Chamika Diyunugalge and Aidan Craig made the trip to Edinburgh on Monday 12th February. Chamika was first up but his 6 point start against an opponent two divisions above him wasn’t enough and when Jim fell to Premier division opposition in Match 2 the visitors were in trouble. Aidan got the side going with a three set win in match 3 and that was followed by a four set win for Chamika to draw the scores level. The visitors then took the lead as Aidan won his second match of the night but back came Merchiston in match 6 to tie the scores. In the best quality match of the night Aidan then took out the premier player in striaght sets – the highlight was Aidan being caught in the third end at 14-14 but somehow then winning 5 of the next 7 points for a 19-16 win. 4-3 to Penicuik and the semi-final was so close. Match 8 was close – Chamika just losing out 13-11, 12-10, 10-12, 12-10. Could Jim pull out the win in the decider? A 12-10 loss was followed by a 12-9 win, but he then lost the third 14-12 before sending the match to a decider with a 12-10 fourth end win. The match was there for the taking but agonisingly, Jim lost the decider 12-10 and the dream was over. A terrific effort and some fantastic play from Aidan in particular.
  
Team 6 took the opportunity of handicap cup week to get their postponed fixture with Edinburgh University played. A new look Team 6 of Sian MacDonald, Mat Dyluk and John Bald took to the table at Ladywood. They were given a boost when their opponents turned up with just two players. 3-0 up straight away! Sian made it 4-0 with a straightforward win in her first match. It wasn’t such plain sailing for John as he had a marathon five ender against his Uni opponent. He held his nerve and secured the decider 15-13 to secure a point for the Ladywood side. Mat tried to secure the win, but he fell in five ends but shortly thereafter John got the important sixth win with a straight sets victory. The doubles saw John and Sian combine to make it 7-1 and wins for both Mat and Sian rounded off an excellent night for Team 6 – their first win of the season, 9-1. Well done to them

And so, to our player of the week award. Sian, John and Aidan were all undefeated this week. We have to give a special mention to Aidan – a not very generous +3 handicap but against players who played respectively One, Two and Three divisions above him, he played some super stuff and didn’t deserve to be on the losing end of a 5-4 result. But this week’s award goes to a man who must now be well into his hundreds. Our Club President started out with him as his team captain in the 1980s and he was a pensioner then! He keeps on going and in his first match for Team 6 he was undefeated, still grinding out results with that famous backhand push/chop. Well done to John.
 
And finally, our controversy of the week section. Normally we would have a go at ratings central and handicap issues, but we can’t really say much this week. Although there were some straight sets wins and losses for our handicap cup team, the scores were generally really close. We still do have an issue with the top end handicaps. Sian for example has a rating which is more than 300 points greater than Ian and yet if they played Ian would get a 1 point start – that can’t be right. A similar rating difference can be seen between on Steve and Colin – in that scenario, Steve would get a 9 point start. We’re not sure what the answer to this problem is but in our view it does need addressed.
 
The only other controversy this week relates to our Reporter – having castigated various of our own players over many seasons for taking holidays during the TT season and missing important matches, off he went on a jolly meaning our Week 20 Report is being published after Week 21 has ended – Shocking!!

​Week 19 started for the Club on Monday 5th February as Teams 1 and 3 both travelled to take on North Merchiston opposition.
 
In the Premier Division, Team 1 welcomed back into the fold Peter Aird as he joined Colin Green and Greig McDonell to take on Merchiston 2. The first three matches all went the way of the visitors and when Peter and Colin then won matches 4 and 5 a point was secured. Lewis Hills kept the match alive in Game 6 but a terrific doubles victory for Colin and Greig was then followed by three more wins for Team 1 as they recorded an excellent 9-1 win.
 
Team 3s bad start to 2024 unfortunately continued as they took on Merchiston 4 in Division 2. Krzysztof Laszkiewicz, Bob Porteous and Gary McDougal were looking to bounce back from a damaging 6-4 loss to league leaders Murrayfield the previous week – this performance resulted in more disappointment. Team Captain Krys was a doubt before the match due to illness and he’s now wishing he’d stayed at home – he wasn’t his usual self as he lost all three played. Only once the match was over as a contest (at 6-0 down) did the visitors show some signs of quality – a good doubles win was followed by excellent wins for Bob and Gary but the result was a poor 7-3 loss.
 
Tuesday evening and it was the turn of Team 5 to visit Edinburgh as they took on Corstorphine 5 in Division 4. An indifferent start to 2024 has seen Team 5 become embroiled in a tussle at the wrong end of the table. Having defeated their opponents 6-4 in the reverse fixture at Ladywood, Rachel Petrie, Patrick Shanks and Chamika Diyunugalge were in confident mood that they could pick up another win. Five wins on the bounce for the visitors and a point was secured in super quick time. Match 6 went the way of the hosts and when they won the doubles a mini comeback was on the cards. Match 8 was crucial – Patrick sneaking over the line 13-11 in the fifth. That secured a point before a loss for Rachel was followed by a win for Chamika as the visitors recorded an excellent 7-3 victory.
 
It was another busy night at Ladywood on Thursday evening with Teams 2, 4 and 6 all in action. Team 2 of David Melrose, James Wighton and Hannah McDonell hosted North Merchiston 3 in Division 1. The story of the season so far for Team 2 has been match after match where they nearly get something from the game – oh so close yet so far. This was no exception. David was in terrific form but the only other win on the night came in the doubles when he and Hannah combined. Another 6-4 loss and is that the fat lady warming up her vocal chords we can hear?
 
Team 4 were back in action after a couple of weeks off as they hosted Murrayfield 10 in Division 3. Kristian Skotzen, Craig Linton and Aidan Craig took to the table for the hosts in super confident mood after the reverse fixture had gone their way by a 9-1 scoreline. They faced a different player from the first half encounter with someone playing up from Div 4. An even easier night in store for the hosts then - eh no! The Div 4 player won all his matches and nearly did enough to get the visitors over the line in the doubles – but not quite. Other than those three losses, the Penicuik trio all won two singles as they triumphed by a 7-3 scoreline.
  
Team 6 rounded off the week as they hosted Murrayfield 12 in Division 5. Like Team 4 the reverse fixture had seen a 9-1 result – unfortunately for Team 6 that had been a loss! Sian MacDonald, Roscoe Cairney and Ian Millar took to the table for the hosts and this match was far more competitive than the reverse fixture. A win for Sian and two for Roscoe gave the hosts an encouraging 3-1 lead after four matches played. The difference on the night was Murrayfield’s Marcin Well who was too strong as he picked up his three singles wins. He also contributed for a doubles victory and with Ian unable to pick up a win against the other two players, Team 6 fell just short with a 6-4 loss.

And so, to our player of the week award. Colin, Peter, David and Patrick were all undefeated in singles play this week – well done to them for some terrific TT. But this week’s award goes to a player who returned to the fold in the New Year, picked up a new blade and some new rubbers - a massive change given what was being used previously and has subsequently coped brilliantly in only her second season of table tennis – 4 matches played, and she leads the way for Team 6 in terms of percentage of wins – she picked up another two victories in Week 19 to give her an overall 50% win rate so far – well done to Sian.
 
And finally, our controversy of the week section. Really quiet after last week! This season has seen far fewer difficulties with suggestions that players are playing out of position across the divisions. Much of that has to do with the fact that the old “100 point rule” has been changed so that the rule is that there needs to be a 200 point difference before issues arise. As we referred to in our Report, Team 4 faced a Murrayfield team who played a player up from Division 4. Oh well this would be an easier ride for the Penicuik trio – nothing could be further from the truth. The player in question won his three singles defeating our three players who all find themselves in the top 10 of the individual averages in Division 3. The Murrayfield opponents, it appears, have seven players registered but still needed to call upon a player from Division 4. It turns out that in terms of ratings the player is higher rated than all of the Division 3 players (other than a player who has only played one league match and was given an arbitrary rating). He is more than 200 points higher than a few of the Division 3 players. No doubt after his three wins his rating will climb higher? Our Team 4 were certainly surprised by his performance which they say was clearly of a far higher standard than anticipated for a Division 4 player. It is of course very difficult at the beginning of a season to put people into place if they are new players to your club etc. And if he hadn’t played up it probably wouldn’t even have been an issue. Maybe Murrayfield played him up with a view to seeing what his standard was? They know now!
 
We often talk about umpiring difficulties in the ELTTL – it’s not just in the league that issues arise – A couple of our players played in the British Veterans League at the weekend in Derby – official umpires are provided for the top divisions, but the lower divisions umpire themselves. On a table next to where our players were playing there was an almighty row as a player refused to play on because the umpire (from the opposing team) had called him for “shielding the ball” at service. We think the issue was with him doing the pendulum serve and either getting his body in the way of the ball or not moving his arm away. A tough call to make. It seemed to take an eternity for the problem to be resolved – eventually the Tournament Referee was called, and he made the decision to replace the umpire with an “officially sanctioned one”. We of course don’t have that ability in the league. There's been many a time apparently when opponents would have loved to have had James replaced after his dodgy umpiring calls!
 
Handicap Cup Quarter finals in Week 20 – should be a short report next week with our one remaining team travelling to North Merchiston. Good luck to them.

Week 18 started for the Club on Monday 29th January with Team 3s trip to Bathgate to take on West Lothian 3 in Division 2. Krzysztof Laszkiewicz, Bob Porteous and Gary McDougal have stuttered in recent weeks, and this was going to be a tough match, having lost the first half game at Ladywood by a 6-4 scoreline. When Krys and Bob lost their opening matches, Team 3 knew they were in for a tough night. Gary got the visitors on the board in match 3 and there then followed three crucial five setters. Krys won 11-5 in his decider to pull the scores level, but Gary then lost in five against the impressive Mark Robertson before Bob won 11-5 in the fifth v Keith MacKay to bring the scores level at 3-3. Krys and Gary were never really in the doubles, and it was advantage WL but wins for Gary and Krys gave the visitors their first lead of the night at 5-4. Bob had the chance to secure a win but against West Lothian’s number 1 that was always going to be difficult – he fell to a four end defeat and the match was tied, 5-5. Another point dropped for Team 3 but they had a chance to get things back on track on Thursday night at Ladywood as they hosted League Leaders, Murrayfield.

​The same trio for the hosts got off to a dreadful start with losses for both Bob and Gary. When Krys found himself 8-1 down in the deciding end against young Max Well, the writing was on the wall for the home side. Surely the match was over – Krys somehow got back in it and won the decider 11-9. It looked like Gary was then going to draw the scores level but from 2-1 up he lost match 4 and when Bob lost match 5, the visitors lead had extended to 4-1. Match 6 was crucial. More on the controversy later but in an eventful game Krys lost out in 5 and a point was secured for the visitors. With another bad night on the cards, Team 3 showed some fighting spirit – Gary and Bob won the doubles and there then followed wins for Krys and Gary and suddenly going into match 10, a draw was still a possibility. Alas it was not to be as the tricky anti-loop of Graham Muir proved too difficult for Bob. A 6-4 defeat and a real dent has been made in Team 3’s promotion chances over the last few weeks – one point from a possible 6 sees them drop to fifth place.
 
Team 2 of Steve Collins, James Wighton and Hannah McDonell had the unenviable task on Wednesday evening of travelling to Edinburgh to take on the runaway leaders in Division 1, Murrayfield 4. The Murrayfield outfit, even at this early stage, seem certainties to win the Division – their closest rivals are already 9 points behind them, and the Penicuik side started the night a staggering 21 points behind! This was not a match identified by team Captain, James, as a chance of picking up points. And so it proved! Although there were some good games the youngsters of Rory Thomson and Angus Halliday, guided by the experienced Lindsay Muir were too strong – the highlight of the night was some terrific play in the doubles from Hannah and Steve forcing a five set match against the “young guns”. They fell just short of the win – it was left to Steve in match 10 on the night to win the only game for the visitors against Lindsay – a 9-1 defeat and a deserved win for the top of the table side – in young Angus Halliday, Murrayfield appear to have unearthed another rising star – his play was beautiful throughout the night.

In the Premier Division, Team 1 were without the services of Peter Aird as they hosted West Lothian 2. Colin Green and Greig McDonell were joined by James Wighton and the visitors were also understrength, their best player, Ben Hart being unavailable. WL were unable to field a third player so advantage Penicuik from the start. James lost out in four in the first match of the night before Colin had an epic five end victory over the impressive Jamie Toner – his hitting off his anti-loop side was a sight to behold. Greig was then involved in another five end battle – at match point in the fifth he did a fresh air serve – before going down 14-12. A James loss was followed by a Colin win, and it was 5-3 to the hosts. With time running out (more on that later) Jamie did enough to defeat Greig and we won’t comment on the doubles, other than in our controversy section below!! A 5-5 draw was not what the hosts had expected!
  
Team 6 rounded off the week with a visit to Dunbar in Division 5 on Friday evening. The first half match had been very one sided with the East Lothian outfit triumphing 9-1. Sian MacDonald, Roscoe Cairney and Mat Dyluk made the trip east and found the Dunbar side to be equally as tough in the second half of the season! There were, however, some close games. Sian lost match 1 in four ends before Roscoe lost the next in five. Match 4 saw Sian come back from 2-1 down to win the fourth set 11-9 and then the decider 13-11 and the visitors were on the board. Mat’s last match of the night was a little bizarre – having only won 8 points in total over the first two ends he then decided to go toe to toe with his opponent and deuce after deuce after deuce followed in the third set. EIGHT deuces in total before Mat lost out 18-16! A 9-1 loss for Team 6 but some good performances against the Division 5 runaway leaders.

And so, to our player of the week award. It’s a tough one this week – Although Colin was undefeated in singles play, Team 1 only played against two players (and Colin had a nightmare as Team Captain – more on that later). Steve was the only winner for Team 2 with one win and Sian achieved the same for Team 6. Whilst Krzysztof won 4 out of 6 matches played he was very disappointed to fall from top spot in the individual averages - going into Week 18 he had 36 wins out of 39 but those two crucial losses saw him fall to third place in the averages and with his team picking up only 1 point out of a possible 4 this week we can’t give the award to him. Who does that leave us with? Let’s look at the Scottish National League at the weekend – the Club were in trouble after the first weekend of matches in Perth – rooted to the foot of the Division 4 table after two losses. A trip to Largs followed for the second round of fixtures and things improved. They then ended with another horror trip, this time to Saltcoats, on Sunday 4th February for the final matches. Greig and Colin steered the team to safety and a fourth place finish – Colin finished with a 90% win rate and Greig was undefeated with 100% - but hang on – the award doesn’t go to either of them – we still can’t get over their “controversial” night in the league below! The winner this week may not have had many wins, but this award is about more than that. He did have an important win against “Mr Walkover” whilst playing up for Team 1 (without it, Team 1 would have lost!) and he had a very busy week – he played six matches in the Edinburgh League, played both final matches in the SNL and is the only player that has played every round of fixtures in the National League. Add to that his fantastic commitment to Saturday morning coaching sessions and we’re surprised it’s taken us 18 weeks to give him this award – well done to James!  
 
And finally, our controversy of the week section. Ladywood on Thursday night saw some angry and frustrated exchanges. In Team 3’s match against Murrayfield there were a couple of outrageous calls from the Murrayfield Umpire in the crucial match between Krys and Graham. The calls resulted in fairly heated discussions between the players and between Krys and the umpire. Both came in the deciding fifth set. The first one came after Graham hit a shot off the end of the table – he put his hand up to apologise. Apologise for what? He claimed the ball had clipped the edge of the table – suddenly the umpire said they thought they had heard a noise and gave the point to their Murrayfield teammate. Krys was in shock. He was absolutely adamant that the ball had been nowhere near the table. The umpire maintained the position that although the touch had not been “seen”, there was a definite noise and hence the point to Murrayfield – are we playing cricket? Claims from the bowler of an edge come to mind – of course no TV replays available at Ladywood. Patrick who was standing watching the match almost in line with the end of the table said afterwards that the ball had been nowhere near the edge – he had the best view of everyone. Is hearing a noise sufficient to enable an umpire to award a point? One of the worst calls ever made according to those watching!
 
As if that wasn’t bad enough for Krys, later in the end Graham played a shot which sailed off the end of the table – as the ball was sailing long the Umpire shouted let because they thought another ball was coming into the court (it didn’t actually make its way into the court). Krys moved on expecting the umpire to turn the scoreboard in his favour – oh no – a let had been called so a replayed point was necessary. Krys couldn’t believe it – the point was over when the let call came – he felt his opponent would agree with him – yikes! Not a chance of agreement – the umpire called let and so a let should be played said his opponent! This left a very sour taste in the mouth for Krys – he felt his opponent should have done the decent thing and told the umpire that the point was over – not a bit of it! He insisted on a let, much to Krys’ bewilderment. The view of Krys was that winning was more important than playing honestly and fairly. The Murrayfield player went on to win the fifth end and an exasperated exchange of views then followed!
 
Now any regular readers of this article will be aware that whilst we are often critical of others, when the need arises we will happily have a go at our own shortcomings! So here we go! As we indicated earlier, Team 1 hosted a two man team at Ladywood on Thursday night. The hall had originally been set up with four tables (2 Teams in action – two tables each). Team Captain Colin, however, decided to “make a night of it” and rearranged Team 1’s half of the hall so that one table would suffice for their match. Greig queried the situation with Colin and suggested that the match should still be played on two tables despite there only being two opponents. No was the answer to that suggestion. There were a couple of other club members in attendance who could have helped with the umpiring if two tables had been used. Never mind there’s only 7 matches to get through in 3 hours. When Team 3’s match ended, Greig asked them to leave one of their tables up in case Team 1 needed it. With 3 games still to go, Greig again suggested that play move onto two tables – we’ll be fine was the response. You know what’s coming…..
 
The penultimate match of the night saw Greig take on Jamie with the doubles still to follow – Team 1 were 5-3 up but somehow were already under time pressure. Greig got off to a horror start and lost the first two ends. Clock watching had well and truly kicked in and with the 10pm deadline fast approaching panic set in. It was already after 9.40 pm. Colin (somewhat tongue in cheek, we think) suggested that Greig could just concede, and they could go straight to the doubles. Greig thought about conceding but decided to play on. When he won the third end matters became desperate! They might get away with staying on past 10pm but if the match went to a fifth end there was no way the doubles would get played. Now to be clear we are taking nothing away from the excellent play of young Jamie Toner – he played some terrific stuff but as the fourth end went on and on and on with some long tactical rallies it became obvious that Team 1 were in real trouble. A four end defeat which took far too long, and it was straight on to the final match of the night with the clock ticking on.
 
It was well past 10pm as Greig and Colin got themselves 2-0 up. Five more minutes was the plea from the home side – no was the answer to that request – and fair enough – the Club knows where it stands in relation to time constraints. Despite the request to finish, they played on incurring the further wrath of the Centre staff and they had a chance to win it. As the clock ticked towards 10.20pm the match had to be conceded. The staff member was irked (and we apologise to her for the inconvenience) - she had a home to get to and was very late in getting the centre closed. Greig was seething – not at his opponents but at his Team Captain! How on earth could Team 1 have got themselves into this situation – they had played against a two player team and ended up having to concede because they didn’t have enough time to get the fixtures completed – unbelievable stupidity according to our Club President or words to that affect! (The actual words used are not printable!). It proves that there is simply no way, these days, to get a 10 game match played on one table with time constraints like ours – we couldn’t even get 7 matches completed! Another fallout between the Aussie and our President – what’s new there! But by Sunday they’d made up – they had to or the 2 and a half hour journey to Saltcoats for National League would have been unbearable!! Lesson learned hopefully for the future that, as all Club members should know, we should always listen and always do what our Club President says - he knows best apparently! Unbelievable!
 
On to week 19 we go.