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ELTTL - Week 3 Report

30/9/2019

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Team 1's undefeated 2018/19 season seems a distant memory already as their second match of the new season saw them take on Defending Premier Champions, Murrayfield 1.  Carsten Giebeler, Colin Green & David Melrose knew they were in for a tough night but when Colin won the opening encounter v Zeesth Naseem deuce in the fifth and that was followed by Carsten taking out Yuhan in 4 sets there was a glimmer of hope that a massive upset was on the cards. Gordon got Murrayfield on the board with a comfortable win v David but it then got interesting again as Carsten took a 2-1 lead against Zeesth. The unthinkable was briefly a possibility. Alas for the home side Zeesth recovered to win that contest to tie the scores at 2-2 and from there Murrayfield won the next 5 matches to secure the victory. Colin got a consolation win v Yuhan in match 10 to make the final score 3-7.   
 
Team 2 are one of the favourites for relegation from Division 1 this year – well according to the League’s esteemed match Secretary Mr Benjamin they are! As if rallied by the vote of no confidence in them they travelled to take on North Merchiston 3 in Week 3 and came away with a terrific 6-4 win. Both sides had players playing up from Div 2 and the battle of James Wighton and Slawomir Bess was to prove decisive in the end - 11-8 in the fifth for James was to prove vital. An undefeated night for Ian Hislop and two wins out of three for Gary secured the victory. In fairness to North Merchiston, this match turned on a couple of points here and there – 4 matches went to deciding fifth ends and all of them were won by the visitors.
 
Team 3 were looking to build on a good start to their Division 2 campaign as they took on Granton at Ladywood. With Krzysztof once again breaking club rules by going on holiday during the league season, James and Abby Wighton joined forces with Iain Johnstone as Team 3 recorded their second win of the season. Iain would expect to lose very few at this level and he showed his class with another good night. Abby added two wins and should have probably made it 3 losing her other match from a winning position 12-14 in the fifth. James meanwhile added one win while Abby and Iain combined for the doubles as they secured a 7-3 victory. 
 
Our second Division 2 side travelled to Bathgate to play their 3rd match of the season v West Lothian 4. This four-man team played their 3rd different combination in 3 matches as Julian dropped to the bench. The “squad rotation” system seems to be working as Tony Brentnall, Sonny Taylor and Chris Markey maintained Team 4’s 100% record with a convincing 8-2 victory against their West Lothian opponents. Chris was the player of the night for the visitors this week, dropping only 1 end out of the 13 he played in singles and doubles. Sonny and Tony both picked up 2 wins, both losing out to different opponent’s in extremely tight 5th end deciders. A 3rd consecutive win keeps them 2nd on game difference behind a very strong looking Fife side. 
 
Team 5 fielded the same side as Week 1 as George Wilson, Kristian Skotzen and Rachel Petrie hosted West Lothian 6. Planning and preparation is everything for this team – on the eve of the match Rachel and Kristian had been studying YouTube videos of how to defeat a long pimples player in preparation for the arrival of Ros Beck. El Presidente had been involved in giving some confusing tips and then late on Tuesday evening, Hannah, who should definitely have been asleep, joined the WhatsApp conversation and provided her notes for how to play against long pimples thanks to Graham Booth who she pointed out had almost beaten old dad last year! Imagine the laughter in the McDonell household as the message came through on match night that Ros wasn’t playing! Ros, if you’re reading this you need to play against us in the second half or what a waste of time this exercise has been! Kristian had a great night winning all three of his singles and combining with George for a win in the doubles. The first 7 matches all went the way of the home side before Tommy Toner (there’s no YouTube video out there to explain how to play against Tommy) picked up a win v Rachel and Neil Webb took out George. An 8-2 win for Team 5 and the holidaying Craig Linton is now wondering whether he’ll be able to get into the side! 
 
And so, to our Player of the Week award for Week 3. Ian Hislop, Iain Johnstone, Kristian Skotzen and Chris Markey all had unbeaten nights. Young Iain (as we like to call him) is going to have to do something really special to win a POTW Award this season given he’s playing slightly out of position in terms of rating – that something special didn’t happen this week. Kristian and Chris both had good nights against decent opposition and combined for doubles wins. Ian H on the other hand lost the doubles that he played in but his three wins were more important for the team who would not have secured a victory but for his unbeaten night in singles play. It’s a tough one this week and our Committee have been put under some pressure from various emails suggesting that a certain Division 3 player surely merits the award – only his second match in Division 3 and he picks up a maximum. For one week only we’re going to let the Rating Central System decide – who picked up the most points for their wins? Chris, unfortunately, you’re out – a +19 difference for you. So, it’s between Ian H and Kristian – would you believe it – both players picked up 39 points! We always knew that system was rubbish! Winning 3 when your team really needed it was the difference this week – Good effort Kristian but our deserved Week 3 winner is Ian H. 
 
And finally, to our Controversy of the Week section. Umpiring decisions are a regular feature in this Report and whilst on this occasion the issue in question did not impact on the overall result, it highlights the difficulty in us “players” umpiring matches. In game 3 of Rachel’s match v West Lothian’s Tommy, eagle eyed umpire Kristian saw Tommy dash to the table to retrieve a short ball. He put his hand down on the table and used that to push himself back away from the table. Rachel fluffed her next shot, but Kristian awarded the point to Rachel because of what he had seen. Tommy disputed matters on the basis that he felt he had just brushed the table but accepted the decision without too much fuss and in the end ran away with the match 3-0. 
 
Now Kristian obviously knew there was some rule about putting your hand on the table. The table wasn’t moved by Tommy’s actions – I think most of us know that rule and that would have resulted in a point being awarded against him. So, what are the Rules about touching the table with your hand?? 
 
“A player shall score a point if his opponent's free hand touches the playing surface”. 
 
Maybe that’s the rule the Umpire was thinking about – the problem here was that it was Tommy’s “racquet hand” according to Kristian, that touched the table. What about the following:
 
“A player shall score a point if his opponent touches the table with either hand before striking the ball”. 
 
What does that actually mean? Does it mean you can touch the table with your racquet hand as you strike the ball or after you strike it? And you can see the sense in that if you think about getting the bat under a short low ball – chances are your hand may be in contact with the table. Kristian was honest enough to admit that he thought the rule was very simple – either hand touches the table and the point goes against you. Was he right? The point, of course, is that none of the 6 players involved actually knew what the rule said and none of them had the rules before them. Even if they had referred to the Rules would they have been able to determine the matter?? Maybe it is straightforward but we're all now confused! 
Answers on a postcard please…..
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The 2019/20 ELTTL Season Gets Underway - Weeks 1 & 2

23/9/2019

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So, another season of the Edinburgh & Lothians Table Tennis League has begun. The off season saw the loss of a number of players from the Club for various reasons; starting University, new jobs, new homes in far flung places (well Renfrewshire is far flung isn’t it), ongoing injury problems (we hope Brian and Phil will be able to return sooner rather than later) and in one case a year long retreat locked away from society (is John in HMP Edinburgh?). The result of it all is that almost three teams worth of players are not available this season which has resulted, for the first time in a number of seasons, in a reduction in our League presence – 5 teams as opposed to 7 last year.
 
After winning promotion back to the Premier Division last year, the new season kicked off for Team 1 with a home fixture against a strong looking West Lothian 1, boosted by the inclusion of Brian Wright. Team 1 themselves had a new face in their ranks as Carsten Giebeler joined forces with Colin Green & David Melrose. When WL turned up with only two players, the door was left open for Penicuik to get the season off to a great start. Unfortunately, only Colin managed to pick up a win as Brian proved his worth to WL with a perfect night. A 6-4 defeat for Team 1 and it doesn’t get much easier as they face defending champions Murrayfield 1 this coming week!
 
Team 2 has a slightly new look this season as last year’s regulars Charlie Brindley and Gary McDougal are joined by Ian Hislop. With Charlie unavailable, Abby Wighton played up in a tough away match at Murrayfield 4. Two very unorthodox players in Gary and Ian against the youthful all-out attack style of Murrayfield’s Jamie Sloan, Luke Hennessey and Leandro Golinski. The 10-0 result doesn’t do justice to how tight some of the matches were and in particular how close Gary came to picking up a couple of wins – 21-19 in the fifth v Jamie and 13-11 in the fifth v Leandro. Matches won’t get much harder this season for Team 2 – Murrayfield 4 will, in our view, end the season at the top end of the table.
 
Team 3 started their Division 2 campaign against Murrayfield 7 at Ladywood. James and Abby Wighton from last year are this season joined by Krzysztof Laszkiewicz and Iain Johnstone in a 4-person team. On paper this looks like one of our strongest outfits and they got off to a great start with an 8-2 win. There were 3 wins each for Iain and Krzysztof whilst James was unlucky to lose 2 matches in very tight fifth ends. 
 
The only team to play two matches in the opening two weeks of the season were Team 4 who also find themselves in Division 2 this year. Julian and Sonny Taylor joined Tony Brentnall in their week 1 fixture v Haddington 3, a team who had beaten them 6-4 twice last season in Division 3. This match was again a close one, poised at 3-3 before the doubles. When our father and son duo narrowly edged that in five ends, the momentum was with Penicuik and further wins from Sonny and Tony sealed a good 6-4 win. In week 2, Chris Markey replaced Tony as Team 4 hosted Murrayfield 8. Young Ben Jamieson for the Murrayfield outfit showed his progression with a terrific unbeaten night in singles play. This match was also to turn on the doubles fixture – at 2 ends to 1 down, back came Julian and Sonny to win in a fifth end decider leaving the home side only needing one win out of the last three matches. Chris fell to Ben, before Julian suffered a slightly surprising straight sets defeat to Mike Letchford. Pressure on Sonny in the last match which he came through in 4 ends to give Team 4 another 6-4 victory

Team 5 now find themselves our bottom team in the League and they have been most affected by various player departures and injuries. John Bald, Craig Johnson, Brian Bailey, Phil Daly and Louis McLeod would have all been in the running to play in Division 3 this year. But all of them are gone! With Hannah McDonell still out injured and Craig Linton unavailable, it was left to George Wilson, Kristian Skotzen and Rachel Petrie to take on Murrayfield 9. 4-0 down in the blink of an eye and Team 5 were in big trouble. The next three matches, however, all went the way of the home side as they reduced the deficit to 3-4. The chance of a win went when Rachel lost out in Match 8. Matches 9 and 10 could have gone either way – both of them ended up with 11-7 fifth end deciders – unfortunately for the hosts, only George managed to win his. Two wins for George, one for Kristian and a doubles win saw Team 5 just fall short with a 4-6 loss.
 
And so to our first Player of the Week award of the new season. Krzysztof and Iain were the only players to have unbeaten nights – well done to them. But this week’s award goes to a player who has moved up a Division and has shown terrific promise – he won 4 out of 6 singles and two crucial doubles matches as his side recorded two 6-4 victories. The importance of his wins to the team was clear – well done to Sonny for a terrific couple of weeks. 
 
And finally, the return of our Controversy of the Week section – Wait a minute it’s too early in the season for any of that nonsense. Nothing’s happened that has affected us. Even the League AGM passed without controversy. Not much in the way of new rules to worry about this season either, apart from being unable to concede a fixture to a fellow team from your own Club and a rule about being fined if you play too often with just two players. One minor tweak that does irk us a little is the change to the ineligible player rule – it now states that only the ineligible player’s games would be regarded as walkovers and the other games remain valid. That may punish the ineligible player but given that we must all know who is eligible and who isn’t, the Team in question seem to get a free pass – they might still win a fixture with their other two players – we preferred the old rule – if a team plays an ineligible player then the match is recorded as a walkover to the other side. Whilst the ineligible player can only win their own matches, those matches can obviously have an impact on how the match in its entirety progresses and on the ultimate result. 
 
It’s good to be back – best wishes to everyone for an enjoyable 2019/20 season.

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