So here we are with our promised Week 27 Report – PTTC are all finished but as reported last week there were a couple of outstanding issues still to be resolved in Week 27. First up in Division 3 was the “Committee ordered” replay of the match between Corstorphine and Haddington. Going into the match Corstorphine needed a win or a draw to maintain their Division 3 survival whilst a win for Haddington would see them survive at the expense of their opponents. The original match where Haddington had wrongly been prevented from playing a third player resulted in a 6-4 win for Corstorphine.  The replay was nowhere near as tight – only two games on the night went to five ends, both won by Haddington. But Corstorphine were never really in the match as the East Lothian outfit ran out 9-1 winners. A big decision by the Committee and a huge impact on Corstorphine who end up relegated to Division 4.
 
In Division 2 there was drama at both ends of the table. As reported last week, Haddington 3 had 2 matches to play, and they needed a win or two draws for them to leapfrog ESC into safety. A 9-1 win v North Merchiston 5 on Tuesday 2nd April proved enough as they survived on game difference, ESC falling into the relegation places.
 
At the top of the Division there was real drama. We mentioned last week that a win for Edinburgh University in their outstanding match v Haddington would secure second place for them. Thursday 4th April saw a strong team make the trip to East Lothian and a comfortable 9-1 win followed for the students as they secured the second promotion spot.
 
Meanwhile Heriot-Watt played faced North Merchiston on Tuesday 2nd April knowing that a win was essential to keep their season alive. A 9-1 victory for the students against Merchiston 4 saw them set up a mouth-watering visit to long time Division 2 leaders Murrayfield 8. Going into the match, Murrayfield knew that a win or a draw would be enough for them to be crowned champions. The students needed a win to pip the leaders to the title. And what a match this turned out to be – Graham Muir got the hosts off to the perfect start with a win in Match 1 and when young Max Well held a 2-1 lead in Match 2 the tie looked as if it was going in favour of the Murrayfield outfit. A 12-10 fourth end win for the HW player was followed by a deciding end win and the match was all square. The next two matches were also shared to make it 2-2. Match 5 was to prove pivotal. Graham fought back from 2-0 down to force a decider but when he lost that 11-8 the momentum swung to the students – they won the next three games to take an unassailable 6-2 lead and although the last two matches went the way of the hosts, Heriot-Watt had done enough to secure the two points needed for them to win the Division 2 title.
 
What a terrific finish to the season – you’ve got to feel for Murrayfield who looked in control of the division for large parts of the season. Spare a thought also for West Lothian who went into the week in the second promotion spot but finished fourth. The top 5 sides in Division 2 were split by only 3 points with 2nd, 3rd and 4th all finishing just a point behind the winners – it couldn’t have been much tighter!
 
As for controversies…… None that we know off – that’s a good way to finish the season! We’ll be back after the Presentation Night and Handicap Cup Final with our Season Round-Up.

The final week of the regular season has come and gone - Week 26 saw four of our six teams in action as the 2023-24 league season was concluded.
 
On Monday 25th March Team 1 visited North Merchiston 1 to bring their Premier Division campaign to a close. Peter Aird, and Colin Green started off the night without Greig McDonell who was attending the Edinburgh League Committee Meeting. After turning up after 8.30pm and being allowed to play, Greig is now wishing Merchi had just said no – he could have protected his 40% average! A 6-4 defeat for the visitors but the late night was worth it after a classic (for all the wrong reasons) doubles match where Greig and Colin won in five against Willie Mabon and Graeme Sutherland. All in all, it’s been a good season for Team 1 – they were in a lofty third place at Xmas but fell away somewhat in the second half of the season. Still a top half finish to be pleased about. Colin led the way for the side with a 71% average. Also worthy of note this week is Colin’s excellent results in the Scottish Veterans Events throughout the year – he reached the final of the Over 50s Veterans Championships on Sunday 24th March (his hardest match in reaching the final surely being his win over teammate Greig in the quarter final!) and over the season his points tally from the other assessment tournaments sees him finish top of the pile of the Over 50s – well done to him.
 
Another trip to Merchiston awaited the following night as Team 3 made the trip to Edinburgh in Division 2. With Krzysztof Laszkiewicz unwell, Bob Porteous and Gary McDougal were joined by Craig Linton from Team 4. And what a terrific night it turned out to be for Craig – even though one of the Merchiston players was playing up from Division 5, Craig was unbeaten, defeating two regular Div 2 players as Team 3 ran out comfortable 9-1 winners. For Team 3, their division 2 campaign has been extremely disappointing – hopes were high of bouncing straight back to Division 1 after relegation last season – in the end a horrible run of results at the turn of the year saw them drop from a position challenging for promotion to a 7th place finish. On a positive note, however, Krzysztof had a good season finishing with a 76% average.
 
At Ladywood on Thursday night, Teams 2 and 4 brought their seasons to an end. Team 2’s match against Haddington summed up their miserable Division 1 campaign. Against a side with two players playing up from Div 2, Team 2 could only field on regular player in Ian Hislop. Chamika played up from Division 4 and Gary from Div 2. The player of the night, although not according to Haddington, had to be Chamika – playing against far higher rated players he gave all three of his opponents a good game. None of the home players could get on the board as the season ended in a very flat 10-0 defeat. David led the way for the team, but he’ll not be hugely happy with a 62% return – what that proves however is just how hard Division 1 has become.  
 
And finally, it is fitting that the season is brought to an end by Team 4 – they will surely be our Team of the Year.  Craig Linton, Kristian Skotzen and Aidan Craig faced Haddington 4 in Division 3. They have had a super season and if it hadn’t been for two defeats in November, they would more than likely have won the division.  As it is, a second place finish for the Team sees them win promotion to Division 2 for next year – they are under no illusion that the step-up will be difficult – just ask Team 3! Craig has been an ever present and has played some excellent TT throughout. Although he finishes in 2nd place in the individual averages, we reckon he should be awarded the individual award. The University player who tops the averages has played far fewer games than Craig who finished with 48 wins out of 54 games played. Credit also to Kristian for a top 5 finish and to Aidan – his first season at this level and he can be very pleased with a 60% average. It’s good to finish the round up on a high!

And so, to our player of the week award. If we are basing this purely on league performances there can really only be one winner – not only was he undefeated for his own team but playing up he was undefeated for Team 3 – a fantastic week for Craig. But hold on – there are a few late entrants who wish to be considered! As we mentioned, Colin has had an excellent season in the Scottish Vets Events and a Runners-up medal in the National Championships was enough for him to secure top spot and automatic selection to play for Scotland in the Veterans Six Nations later in the year. On the same day Ian Hislop secured 2nd place in his age category at the Vets Nationals - (Over 75's - he's never that old we hear you cry). Well done to him. Fast forward 7 days to Easter Sunday and at the other end of the age scale, Hannah was in action in the Under 18’s Scottish Schools Championships. After a loss in her first match of the morning, she was in trouble. Going into her last match of the day, she needed to defeat the number 1 seed to finish in the top 2 and secure selection for her country in the British Senior Schools Championships. A 3-0 win would have seen her win the event on countback, any other win would see her finish second and a loss and she’d be out of the running. She did brilliantly as she recovered from a first set loss to record a 3-1 victory to secure a second place finish – a great end to the week and for her performance under huge pressure with everything on the line, she deservedly picks up this week’s player of the Week award.
 
And finally, our controversy of the week section. Our complaint from Week 23 was dealt with by the Committee – we accepted in advance of the meeting that we could not really seek to overturn the result of the match – no one could actually say what would have happened had the point in question been awarded, as it should have been, to Colin. He may have won the match, but he may not have. We indicated to the league Committee that we were happy simply to rest on the opinion given by the League’s Lead Umpire, Roger Thomas, who came to the view that the point ought to have been awarded to Colin, as we had argued. We indicated that we would withdraw our complaint on that basis. We had hoped that that would have been an end to the matter but Murrayfield still wanted the matter to be aired! Not to worry though, everyone was friends again by the end of the night…
 
In relation to the appeal we mentioned in our Week 25 Report, the Committee ordered a replay of the match between Corstorphine and Haddington. And it’s tight at the foot of the Division 3 table. Corstorphine had a chance to put the matter to bed as they faced Edinburgh University last Friday but a loss for them there means that the replay will determine who is relegated. Corstorphine on 11 points and Haddington on 10 – a draw would be good enough for Corstorphine, but the pressure will obviously be on.
 
And finally, we need to have a go at ourselves to bring the season to an end! We reported a couple of weeks ago on the “nasty conduct” of our nicest Team Captain, James, in refusing a postponement to Haddington – they only had one regular player available! Of course, James wasn’t nasty – this week’s fixture just proves to Haddington what good sports we are – in the knowledge of our opponents only having one regular, we wanted to level the playing field so from our five person team we decided to only field 1 regular player ourselves (and in fairness Ian isn’t that regular!) – No David, No James (on holiday during the season – shocking), No Steve, No Hannah (she just couldn’t be bothered and instead chose a school concert!). We went one better than our opponents and called on players from Div 2 and Div 4 to play up - and the rest is history – now that’s good sportsmanship for you!
 
And so, another season comes to an end – what great fun we’ve had (some of the time)! But this won’t be our last report - in addition to the replay match mentioned above there are a couple of other questions still to be answered in the “post-season”. There is a real nail-biting finish in Division 2 – at the foot of the table, Haddington 3 still have 2 matches to play. One win or two draws would be enough for them to leapfrog ESC into safety. At the top of the Division there’s an even tighter finish in store. Murrayfield 8 have looked in control for a while now, but suddenly there’s a risk that they might not finish in the top 2. Herriot-Watt are playing tonight (2nd April) against North Merchiston and a win there would mean they would go into the final match of the season on Thursday against Murrayfield in the knowledge that a win would see them jump ahead of Murrayfield into first place. Add into that mix that Edinburgh University are also still in the hunt for promotion and the waters become murky. They play Haddington on Thursday in the knowledge that if they win they would temporarily (until the Murrayfield result is known) jump from third to first in the Division, knocking West Lothian out of the promotion race. By our reckoning, however, so long as they win their match, the University will guarantee second place for them, irrespective of the other result (assuming HW win their penultimate match) – what a finish! We’ll report on the outcome of those matches next week together with our Player and Team of the Year Awards!