Week 19 saw five of our six teams in action with Team 4 sitting out.

Haddington 5 v Penicuik 6 (Division 5)

The week started with Team 6’s trip to Haddington in Division 5 on Tuesday 10th February. John Grant, Tony Walker and Ian Millar made the trip to our East Lothian friends who started the night ten points ahead of the Midlothian side.  A close 6-4 loss in Week 18 had been a good result and when John won two of the first four matches on the night, there was positivity in the camp and that increased when Tony won match 5 to give the Midlothian side the lead. The East Lothian outfit won match 6 to level the scores going into the doubles. John and Tony combined well to restore the lead for the visitors but a 3-1 loss for Tony and it was level again. John has been in a rich vein of form over the last couple of weeks – 7 consecutive wins in singles and doubles going into his last match of the night. At 2-1 down he looked in trouble but an 11-9 fourth end win was followed by an 11-4 win in the decider, and a point was secured for the visitors. Ian was unlucky in Match 10 but a good point for Team 6 away from home.  

Penicuik 1 v Edinburgh International 1 (Premier Division)

It was a busy night at Ladywood on Wednesday with three matches on the go. Team 1 of Colin Green, Peter Aird and Ryan Docherty were in confident mood after their 10-0 victory in Week 18 but tougher opposition awaited with their opponents starting the night 5 points ahead of the Penicuik trio, although they had played a couple of games more. 2-0 down in match 1, Colin showed his fighting qualities to pull out an 11-9 win in the fifth. Ryan and Colin were undefeated by the end of the second round of singles – 4-2 up going into the doubles. A five-end win for the away side kept them in the contest but all three home players then won their final singles in five ends as the Penicuik trio recorded an excellent 7-3 win.

Penicuik 5 v Heriot-Watt (Division 4)

Roscoe Cairney, Rachel Petrie and Mat Dyluk were not in confident mood as they hosted the students who are almost certain of promotion and fighting to win the division. But wait, the students turned up with only two players – a chance presented itself for the hosts. 3-0 up before a ball was hit, could they win at least two games to secure a point. Roscoe won his second match of the night in five ends to give the fourth win of the night but neither Mat nor Rachel could win that elusive game, Rachel falling just short, agonisingly losing in five ends. A 6-4 defeat for Team 5 and while the fat lady has not quite sung yet, with five matches left for the Midlothian side, they need to win at least four of them to have any chance of survival.  

Penicuik 3 v Haddington 2 (Division 2)

A bit of a weird one for Team 3 as they faced Haddington for the first time this season, still to play the first half match which had been scheduled for October! Kristian Skotzen, Charlie Brindley and Bob Porteous took to the table for the home side in what was to turn out to be a very tight match. After the first round of singles matches the hosts held the lead 2-1 with wins for Charlie and Bob, the latter a tight 12-10 win in the fifth. The next two singles were won by the visitors before Bob was in action again in match 6 – at 2-1 up it was looking good for Bob but this time he was on the receiving end of a close loss, 12-10 in the fourth end was repeated in the decider. 4-2 down and it got worse as the doubles also went the way of the East Lothian outfit before a win in match 8 gave them a 6-2 lead. Bob was then involved in his third 5 end battle of the night but couldn’t get over the line. 6 matches in a row for Haddington and it was 7-2 in their favour. The night ended on a positive note as Kristian won match 10 but a 7-3 defeat for the home side.

Murrayfield 6 v Penicuik 2 (Division 1)

The week was rounded off with Team 2’s visit to Edinburgh on Thursday evening. Krzysztof Laszkiewicz, James Wighton and Hannah McDonell made the trip to the Church of The Good Shepherd, and it looked like being a long night given the hall set-up was for just one table. The good news about losing heavily is that at least the night goes quick! The first 6 matches were over in a flash, five of them going to the hosts. Krys and James then combined for the doubles and they somehow pulled back from 2-1 down to win a classic 13-11 in the fifth. That kept the team in the match but while the last round of singles produced two five-enders that went to deuce, all three final matches were won by the hosts to give them an 8-2 win. With Div 1 reduced to only 9 teams, there are only three matches left for Team 2 – their only hope for survival is that because of the lack of teams, reorganisation of the divisions might result in only one team going down! To finish second bottom though, they will need to win at least two of their last three matches.

Player of the Week
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Last week’s player of the Week was at it again in Week 19 as he won all three of his singles and was in the winning doubles team in Team 6’s 5-5 draw – a terrific couple of weeks but you can’t win the award two weeks in a row, John! The only other undefeated players this week were Colin and Ryan in Team 1’s 7-3 win v close rivals Edinburgh International. How do we split them? Both combined in a narrow doubles defeat so it’s down to ends won and lost. Colin won 9 and lost 5 whilst Ryan won 9 and lost 4 – by the narrowest of margins well done to Ryan – the last two weeks have seen him pick up 6 wins out of 6 – well deserved.

Controversy of the Week

People may recall the “controversy of the season” being Murrayfield 1 having points deducted for a breach of the rules in relation to fielding an ineligible player. It looks like that’s going to cost Murrayfield 1 the Premier Division title. The matter was brought to the league’s attention by Heriot Watt. Well, this week it appears that “what goes around comes around”. We’re told by the students that they received a little bit of payback from Murrayfield (they’re not bitter) – apparently HW had requested a postponement of the fixture against Murrayfield scheduled for 8th January. They went back to Murrayfield to try and reorganise the date on 11th February. Murrayfield brought to the league’s attention Rule 6 b which is in the following terms:
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“A team may not postpone a fixture except with the prior written confirmed consent of the other team, such consents and confirmations to be obtained no later than three days prior to the scheduled date of the fixture.……… In the event of the revised date not having been agreed upon and the fixture played within four playing weeks of the originally scheduled date, the fixture will be awarded against the team requesting the postponement, unless with the express permission of the Match Sub-Committee”

Now, we have to say that we have never seen this rule enforced – maybe that’s because teams agree to play outwith the four-week period and they get the express permission of the Match Sub-Committee. We can point to numerous examples, season after season, where matches are rescheduled beyond this 4 week period – not wanting to get ourselves in trouble, but we’'re just about to play a match next week in Division 2 which was postponed from October!

Heriot Watt, we understand, attempted to appeal against the match being awarded to Murrayfield suggesting that there is a principle in the rules that matches should be played if at all possible. They pointed out part of Rule 4 c which states:

“The ELTTL principle is that both teams should whenever possible make all reasonable efforts to enable fixtures to be played rather than forfeited.”
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Now in fairness we think that principle applies specifically in relation to Rule 4 although we have heard it used generally and if we turn the clock back to season 24/25, who can forget the outrageous decision of the Committee not to award a handicap cup match to Penicuik when Murrayfield couldn’t field a team in the required week. What were we told by the Committee? They decided that all efforts should be made to play the match (the principle - better for a match to be played than not)! Different circumstances but an outcome which basically ignored the rule and forced a game to be played. Maybe HW should try and found on previous examples like that! That said, you’ve got to admire Murrayfield’s ability to “get back at their opponents”! Would they have taken this stance had the earlier incidents not occurred? We think not! So back to where we started – what goes around comes around!!

Fun and games continue next week!

Week 18 was another quietish one for the Club in the League with four of our six teams in action.

North Merchiston 1 v Penicuik 1 (Premier Division)

The week started with Team 1’s trip to North Merchiston in the Premier Division on Monday 2nd February. Colin Green, Peter Aird and Ryan Docherty took to the table for the visitors, the same trio who had inflicted a 10-0 defeat on their opponents in the first half of the season. The first three singles ties all went the way of the visitors, Colin getting over the line 3-2 in Match 2 and Peter and Ryan winning their encounters 3-1. The match was over as a contest after the second round of singles, two further 3-1 wins for Ryan and Peter and a 3-0 victory for Colin. The doubles was tight but went to Colin and Ryan 3-2 and the night was rounded off in style with three further wins for the visitors who repeated the job on their opponents with a 10-0 victory.
 
Penicuik 4 v Dunbar (Division 3)

It was a top of the table clash at Ladywood on Wednesday evening as Team 4 took on Dunbar.  Jay Jayalath, Chamika Diyunugalge and Aidan Craig were selected for the hosts who got off to a bad start losing the first two matches – Chamika was unlucky losing in five including an 18-16 loss. Aidan took on Antonio Cassino in a much anticipated contest – at the end of 2025 both players were undefeated in singles play and going into the match the Dunbar player had won 29 out of 30 matches whilst Aidan had won 27 out of 30. It was thought this would be and it was. From 2-0 down Aidan brilliantly pulled it back and secured a 11-8 fifth end win to get the home side on the board. When Jay won match 4 the scores were level. Matches 5 and 6 on the night proved crucial – both went to five ends, Chamika desperately unlucky again losing out 11-8 in the fifth before Aidan agonisingly lost 14-12 in the fifth, and when the doubles was lost Dunbar held a 5-2 advantage. A terrific win for Jay and another for Aidan kept the match alive but Chamika couldn’t pull off the miracle recovery as the home side lost out 6-4. The home side can take solace in the fact, however, that the individual average leader, Antonio was beaten by both Aidan and Jay and the difference on the night was their new player Paul Marshall who has a rating of 1386, miles ahead of anyone in Team 4. Dunbar leapfrogged Team 4 into the lead of the Division but promotion very much still in Team 4’s grasp.

Penicuik 6 v Edinburgh International 4 (Division 5)

Team 6 were also in action on Wednesday night at Ladywood as they hosted Edinburgh International.  John Grant, Tony Walker and Stuart Bennett were looking to bounce back from a couple of difficult weeks John got the side off to a great start with a 3-0 victory over the very experienced Alan Gracie. Stuart had a mammoth encounter in Match 2 against Mike Eggar – it went all the way and then some! A 17-15 loss in the fifth was a hammer blow for the home side. Three of the next four matches went the way of the visitors and it was 4-2 going into the doubles. A fifth end win for John and Stuart kept the match alive but losses for Stuart and Tony ended the contest. John finished with a flourish – his third 3-0 victory of the night to round off a terrific night for him personally. Overall, a 6-4 defeat and that 17-15 in the fifth game was the difference. Unlucky for the hosts.

Murrayfield 11 v Penicuik 5 (Division 4)

The week was rounded off for the Club with a trip to The Gyle for Team 5. Roscoe Cairney, Rachel Petrie and Iain Caddell took to the table in the knowledge that they need to start winning quickly or relegation awaits them. This match saw five contests go to a deciding fifth end – the visitors won two of them and lost the other three. If nothing else it proves that Team 5 are competing and despite their results they have the ability to win matches at this level. Rachel and Rosco both had two five end singles matches and were involved in the doubles match which went to five, Unfortunately one win for Roscoe and one for Rachel saw them slip to another heavy defeat, 8-2 and with confidence low, it’s difficult to see how they can get out of this predicament. Winning breeds confidence and a win for the side would give them a huge boost – Unfortunately for them their next match is against the Students of Heriot Watt who are going to be promoted this season!

Player of the Week

Shout outs this week to both Jay and Aidan – only a 14-12 defeat in the fifth stopped Aidan picking up his three and securing a point in the top of the table clash in Div 3. Team 1 had an excellent week, all three players undefeated in an excellent 10-0 win v North Merchiston.  But this week, it’s a first undefeated night that wins the award. He only started competitive play for the Club this season and it was great to see him stroll through his three matches for his first ever undefeated singles night – well done to John.

Controversy of the Week
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Well away from the action in Edinburgh, we were told of a rule in the West of Scotland League which seems harsh by anyone’s standards. If we post a score late then there is a fine involved but in the West, apparently, if you don’t submit the scores appropriately you forfeit the match! Wow! Can you imagine if we had that in the Edinburgh League. The rule states:

“Completed League scorecards must be provided to the appropriate League Manager by 6.30 pm on Sunday of the week in which the match is played. Failure to do so will result in the home team forfeiting the match.”

And that’s just what happened in a recent West match! Some of the rules of the West of Scotland do seem to go far further than ours do – whilst Clubs can be fined for failing to turn up for a match etc. what about the following rule:

“Should less than 72 hours’ notice be given of a match cancellation, then the home team may claim the match, purvey costs to a maximum of £5 and hall hire costs to a maximum of £30. The Exec Committee will consider such claims, which must be presented in writing within 21 days of the cancellation, and if upheld will collect agreed amount on behalf of that team.”

Jings! Can you imagine the league committee of Edinburgh basically acting as debt collectors for Clubs who might have a claim against other clubs! We get the rationale behind it – if clubs are booking premises and incur costs then if cancelled late why shouldn’t they be able to recover such costs! Who’s going to propose these new rule changes at the end of the season!! 
 
Week 19 here we come.

Week 17 saw four of our six teams in action with both Teams 1 and 2 having free weeks.

ESC 3 v Penicuik 4 (Division 3)

First up in Week 17 were Team 4 who made the trip to ESC on Tuesday night (27th January). With the duo of Ian Hislop and Aidan Craig both unavailable, this was an easy selection for Captain Patrick Shanks as he was joined by Jay Jayalath and Chamika Diyunugalge in the trip to the centre of Edinburgh. The reverse fixture had seen a straightforward 9-1 win for the Penicuik side. There was nothing straightforward about this fixture – the hosts fielded two different players compared to that defeat, but when Chamika and Jay won the first two matches there was positivity amongst the visitors. Defeats for Patrick and then Camika, however, brought the scores level but two further wins for the visitors gave them what looked like a comfortable 4-2 lead. So often the doubles is crucial and it was again as Chamika and Jay fell just short, losing out 11-9 in the deciding fifth end. When Patrick lost match 8 the scores were level again. Match 9 saw Chamika take a 2-1 lead against Richard Lo, but the home player rallied to win in five ends and for the first time, the visitors were behind. Jay rounded off a terrific night for him with his 3rd win to secure a point, but the visitors made the journey back to Penicuik disappointed that this was a point lost rather than one gained.

Penicuik 3 v Edinburgh Uni 3 (Division 2)

Up to Wednesday night, 2026 had been terrific for Team 3. Craig Linton, Charlie Brindley and Kristian Skotzen were looking to keep that going as they faced a home match against the students. An 8-2 loss in the first half of the season, however, meant that the Penicuik trio knew they were in for a tough night. 6 matches during the evening went all the way to a deciding fifth end.  Only one of them went the way of the hosts and that made all the difference on the night. A 14-12 loss in the fifth for Craig, an 11-9 in the fifth loss for Charlie and three other fifth end heartaches resulted in a 9-1 victory for the students. This was never a 9-1 game but that’s how it’s going into the record books. Team 3’s excellent start to 2026 has hopefully just stuttered rather than come to a shuddering halt!

Penicuik 5 v West Lothian 6 (Division 4)

Wednesday night also saw Roscoe Cairney, Rachel Petrie and Mat Dyluk take to the table as they hosted third placed West Lothian 6.  Team 5 are running low on confidence after a bit of a shocker of a season and this looked like another difficult fixture for them. The first three matches were over in a flash, Roscoe the only home player to pick up an end. The match was over after the next three singles, Roscoe this time unlucky to lose out 11-9 in the fifth in match 6. 0-6 down and only pride to play for. Roscoe was by far the home team’s player of the match and he deservedly picked up a win in his last singles but overall this was another heavy defeat for the hosts as they fell 9-1. Mathematically, Team 5 are still in with a chance of avoiding relegation but they need to start winning quickly!

Penicuik 6 v Edinburgh University 7 (Division 5)

Finally in Week 17, Team 6 travelled to Bathgate where they took on West Lothian 9 in Division 5.  John Grant, Michael Daly and Arran Fitchett made the trip west. John was the only winner in the first three matches of the night and Arran then won his first match in only his second outing for the Club in the second set of three games. Entering the doubles, the visitors were 4-2 down but they couldn’t pull off a recovery as they lost out 8-2, Michael unlucky to lose his final match of the night in five ends.

Player of the Week

For the second week in a row a shout out to Arran as he picked up his first win since joining the league. Well done to him. But this week, there really isn’t much room for debate – only one player was undefeated in singles play and his three wins led to a 5-5 draw for his side – well done to Jay.

Controversy of the Week

In Team 5’s match v WL, team captain Roscoe was spoken to by his opponents about one of our favourite topics – service. There are many aspects of the serve which can lead to debate but surely one of the most difficult to deal with is the angle of the throw up. The rule says that the ball should be thrown “near vertically upwards”.  Do any of us actually know what that means? We can all spot really obvious ones where the ball is thrown almost horizontally backwards, but what about the ones which are a “bit” backwards? How big a deviation from vertical is too much? Apparently, Roscoe’s projection of the ball was not straight up – but it doesn’t have to be. Such a tricky rule to enforce – VAR and protractors required.
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Week 18 is just round the corner.