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Week 6 Report

29/10/2017

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Week 6 of the League Season and Team 1 didn’t lose – oh hold on they had a postponement!
 
In Division 1, Team 2 of Clive Liddiard, James Wighton and Charlie Brindley faced an away match against Edinburgh University 2. The visitors victory chances were given a huge boost by the fact that the students could only field a two-man team – What could students be doing on a Friday night that could be better than playing TT?? In fairness, it must be difficult to field a full side – only 30 players registered below University 2! When Charlie lost the first match followed by a loss for James, the 3-0 starting advantage seemed like it might not be enough. A loss for Clive and a win for Charlie kept the Penicuik trio in front before Clive’s win secured at least a point. When James fell to his second defeat of the night and with only the doubles left to play the match score was 5-4. A close 4 set win for Clive and Charlie secured a narrow 6-4 victory.  
 
In a week where full sides were at a premium, Team 3 were without regular Chris Markey. Gary McDougal joined Krzysztof Laszkiewicz as they hosted Murrayfield in Division 1. This would have been a tough match to win with 3 players and it was no surprise therefore when the home side fell to a disappointing 9-1 defeat, Gary picking up the only win on the night.
 
In Division 3, Team 4 of Brian Bailey, John Bald and Louis McLeod also faced an understrength University side (although the Uni boys did try to field 3 players – see later!) Another 3-0 advantage and surely an easy night for the Penicuik trio? Remarkably, this match also came down to the final game of the night as Brian secured victory to give the home side an edgy 6-4 win. He beat both University opponents, John had 1 win and 1 loss whilst Louis lost both of his matches.
 
In their Division 3 campaign, Team 5 faced an away match against Corstorphine 4. Sean Lennon, Craig Johnson and Millie Bennett were in positive mood – the last time this trio played together resulted in a 10-0 win. Against an experienced Corstorphine side, however, things weren’t quite so straightforward. At 4-2 down the visitors knew that a win was vital in the doubles. Millie combined with Sean but just came up short in a tight and decisive match. Millie proved again that she is not out of her depth in Division 3 as she won 2 singles on the night. Sean added 1 singles win and Craig had one of those nights (in his words) as the home side ran out 7-3 winners.
 
In Division 4, Team 6 of Julian Taylor, Rachel Petrie & Sonny Taylor faced the long trek to Fife on Wednesday night. Try telling Rachel that! 6.30pm and she was warming up at Penicuik. In the middle of her warm up with Kristian from Team 7 it suddenly seemed to dawn on her that her teammates were running awfully late – and where were the opposition team?? Oops! Credit to Rachel, however, not letting the team down a frantic phone call followed by a rather speedy trip from Ladywood to Fife got her to the match – she probably wishes she hadn’t bothered as 2 wins for Julian and 1 for Sonny were the only victories for the visitors as they fell to a 7-3 defeat. Great team spirit however and some close matches against some awkward opponents. Haddington next week Rachel AT HADDINGTON.
 
With Phil still sidelined Team 7’s Division 4 match against University 6 saw George Wilson, Kristian Skotzen and Hannah McDonell searching for the teams’ second win of the season. After Kristian lost the first match of the night, George levelled the scores at 1-1 before the home side somehow then lost 8 matches in a row as they fell to a 9-1 defeat. Match of the night involved George, who after winning the first end, lost the second 9-11 before a mammoth third end was lost 17-19 (handicap Cup was last week wasn’t it!!). As if that wasn’t bad enough he lost the next 13-15! 84 points in three ends of table tennis – that must be some sort of record for the season so far!!

And so to our Player of the Week Award for Week 6. As we have pointed out, this award is not just about who wins the most matches and this week Rachel staked her claim by showing her dedication to the game we all love – after a long day working in Glasgow, a quick return home to sort out domestic duties, a 25 minute journey to Penicuik and a sudden revelation that you’re in the wrong place, rather than throwing in the towel she made the 50 minute journey to Fife to help out her team – great determination and commitment – but actually all caused by that fatal error of not checking the fixtures – we see a new award coming – this week’s winner of the “Biggest Mistake of the Week” prize goes to Rachel - well done!
 
Only one player was undefeated this week, well done Mr Bailey for seeing Team 4 over the line against a two-man University side. Hang on – only two wins and a loss in the doubles – there must be someone else in the running?? Eh…… Actually no!! Well done Brian after all!
 
And finally, our controversy of the week section. Where do we start this week – we need to save some of these up for future quiet weeks. We’ll just do a couple…
 
On Wednesday at Ladywood, University turned up with 5 players for two matches in Divisions 3 and 4. Does anyone at the Club actually know the ELTTL Rules?? Fortunately, El Presidente was there to deliver his daughter to the Division 4 match just as one of the Division 4 players was getting ready to play his own match and play up for the Division 3 team. It’s OK though two senior players in Brian and John (160 years between them) wouldn’t let that happen……. Or maybe they would! On it being pointed out to our Club Secretary that one player is not allowed to play for more than one team on the same night, a further discussion took place and lo and behold modern technology allowed the rule to be found online to satisfy the University that this really was a rule!!!
 
That leads us on to item number 2 – the above rule was fairly easy to find. What about the rules about ineligible players turning out in a match? Should be easy – a fairly fundamental rule really isn’t it? The rule is there (sort of) but what’s the penalty if it happens? Who knows – the League rules seem to be silent on it! Edinburgh International fielded an ineligible player against our Team 5 a couple of weeks ago (it only came to light this week). The player in question was on the “no play up list”. Of course, the man in charge of this rule appears to be none other than Edinburgh International’s Ken Benjamin – he made it clear enough to all other clubs what the ruling was but not clear enough to his own members it appears. The only assistance in terms of the rules seems to be the following: In the event of a match being postponed …... if a player who was ineligible at that time subsequently plays in the rearranged fixture then the whole match will be forfeited by the team who plays that ineligible player (or words to that effect). By extension therefore, where there is silence on the penalty for just playing an ineligible player, it would seem to make sense that the match is forfeited? The offer from Mr Benjamin and from the team in question? The one game which the ineligible player won is overturned. A 7-3 victory for Edinburgh International becomes a 6-4 victory.
 
Is that fair? Possibly? He only won 1 match so the outcome would have been the same – well hold on a minute, that’s ignoring the fact of the impact that win had on the score at the time, what effect the win had on the opposing player's confidence, the differing shift in pressure etc. etc. etc. Can anyone say with any degree of certainty that it would have changed the outcome? Of course not. Just like it can’t be said that it didn’t affect the outcome! Who knows what would have happened? Isn’t it too harsh to overturn the whole match result just because of a mistake? Maybe, maybe not? What is for sure is that it is absolutely ridiculous that the rules are silent on this!
 
Premier League decider. Murrayfield turn up with an ineligible ringer who wins his 3 in a 9-1 victory against North Merchiston 1 - are we seriously going to say that the League would be happy just to overturn those 3 wins and record the match as a 6-4 result?? We think not – the fact that the player on this occasion only won 1 match is irrelevant – he was ineligible to play and there needs to be a clear rule about that. Otherwise, (and everyone who has ever read these reports knows what’s coming) what’s the point in having rules at all – let’s just make them up as we go along.
 
Over to you League Committee……….

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Week 5 - Handicap Cup Round 1 Report

22/10/2017

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With a break from league action attention turned last week to the Handicap Cup Competition and to the 4 teams entered by the Club who all took to the table on Wednesday night looking to advance past Round 1! The first issue for the Club was team selection and after various controversies and fallouts over the last couple of seasons a proper random draw was made, Champions league style, as 12 players were seeded into 3 pots of 4 players.
 
Out of the hat first came Brian Bailey (-1), Charlie Brindley (-7) and Rachel Petrie (+7). They had the task of taking on West Lothian 1 at Ladywood. The West Lothian side comprised Barrie Hills (-4) (good to see him looking so fit), Graham Honeyman (+2) and youngster David McCrae (+7). There’s always one ringer in Handicap Cup games and surprisingly in this one it wasn’t either of the +7 players - although young David certainly has some great attacking shots which is always a huge advantage in Handicap matches. The difference on the night was +2 Graham - a player who has improved significantly over the last year or so and he showed that progression by comfortably dispatching all 3 Penicuik players. +2 - Give us a break cried the Penicuik trio!! Rachel played well to win the battle of the +7 players and was unlucky to lose out in 5 to Barrie. Brian provided the only other Penicuik win with a 4-end victory over Barrie as the West Lothian side progressed with a comfortable 5-2 scoreline. 
 
Team 2 were the only side to play away from Ladywood - League teammates John Bald (+2) and Louis McLeod (+5) were joined by Gary McDougal (-5) as they travelled to take on Corstorphine. An excellent spread of handicaps for the Penicuik trio but on the night it was only Louis who managed to contribute, winning all three of his singles played in the resultant 5-3 defeat.  There may have been some close matches but John and Gary are seemingly too old to have a phone that can take a picture of a scorecard whilst Louis is at the other end of the age spectrum - thanks for the in-depth and 4 day late report guys!!
 
When the draw was made there were some who thought it must have been rigged as Greig McDonell (-13) was joined by Abby Wighton (-3) and Sean Lennon (+3). The fact that Sean was responsible for picking his own name out of the hat was pure coincidence - he definitely did not see any writing on the piece of paper with his name on it! Would the dream team disappoint against Edinburgh International?
 
Greig started off by overturning a 19 point deficit to defeat young Struan McDonald before Sean (10-0 in a race to 18) played some unbelievably good TT to defeat Jim Grahame in 4 ends. Struan’s dad Stuart was the ringer in this match. A +1 Handicap for a player who was defensively solid, had good serves and could attack well when needed. Abby wanted to give up table tennis after losing in 3 straight sets including (sorry about this Abby) a 14-2 loss in the third set! Sean restored a two game advantage by defeating Struan before Greig then lost in 5 ends to Stuart. The match of the night (in terms of quality) then took place between Abby and Jim (4-0 to 15). Buoyed by encouragement from El Presidente (obviously), Abby put her first match behind her as she showed why she merits a place in the Premier Division this year - fast and sharp all out attack on both wings disposed of Jim in 3 including a 15-1 demolition job in the third set. Stuart completed his undefeated night by winning against Sean to reduce the deficit to 4-3. Abby v Struan - Abby giving her opponent a 9 point start to 14. On the sidelines Greig was having a nervous breakdown at the prospect of playing a 9th match decider against Jim - this is the kind of match for Abby where all out attack can be dangerous. Not a bit of it - in fairness to Struan he probably played his best match of the night with some terrific rallies but Abby hardly missed as she secured the match with a straight sets victory - a 5-3 win for the home side - and in fairness Jim looked almost as relieved as Greig that the match didn’t need to go the distance!
 
The final match of the week saw Team 4 of James Wighton (-4), Krzysztof Laszkiewicz (-4) and George Wilson (+6) take on Murrayfield 4 who fielded an experienced team in Lynn Somerville (-4), Ian Moran (-11) and Lindsay Muir (-7) -  Minus 7 - Really? Krys got the home side off to the best possible start with a win against Ian before Lindsay’s spin game was too much for George and Lynn’s funny bat put paid to James. Fresh from his audition for the remake of Pirates of the Caribbean (have you seen his headgear?), 
it was good to see George play some great stuff to level the scores with a good win against Ian. Lynn then bamboozled Krys as the Edinburgh side went 3-2 ahead. Speaking of pirates, Lindsay then took further advantage of his “generous handicap” with an easy win against James. On the brink of defeat George kept the match alive against Lynn before James forced a decider by defeating Ian. Krys v Lindsay was to decide the match - a 3 point start for Krys was never realistically going to be enough as he fell to a 6-14, 10-14, 9-14 defeat. An unlucky loss for Team 4.

And so to our player of the Week Award - only one player was undefeated this week - well done to Louis McLeod’s valiant efforts to get his Handicap Team over the line - in a normal League week he’d certainly have won the award. But this is Handicap Cup week - sorry Louis! George was also in the running - no fear shown as he went for some cracking forehands and had his match against Lindsay come later in the night he may have caused an upset. Special mention also to Sean who without doubt played the shot of the week - an unbelievable running forehand (Rafa Nadal style) from about 15ft back and 15ft wide of the table which flew on to Jim’s forehand corner! But without doubt the best quality play of the week came from this week’s deserved winner - crisp, accurate forehand and backhand topspins, accurate drives off both wings, terrific movement and speed, never a defensive shot played and she saved El Presidente from having to play a decider! Well done to Abby.
And finally our Controversy of the Week Section. The Cup always throws up some dodgy handicaps - sometimes they work for you and sometimes not. Putting that aside, there needs to be some thought given to how these matches are arranged. With availability of premises being a real issue, the ruling that the home side has to offer two dates in one specified week to their opponents is completely crazy. We thought this had been addressed a couple of seasons ago when the League (although it was probably just Ken Benjamin) introduced a ruling that the away team would just look at the fixture grid and whoever they were playing, the match would be played on the home night of that team. That made sense. It provided some degree of certainty. Teams could plan accordingly so long as the draw is made well in advance of Round 1 being due. This year the draw came 8 days in advance - why can’t it be done at the beginning of the season? Anyway that’s another point! It seems that this change of ruling regarding the fixture date was never actually a change of rule - how bizarre! This year we were again reminded of the “offer two dates ruling”. We simply cannot do that - in the same boat this time round was Corstorphine. They offered us 18th October - take it or leave it. As we did to West Lothian, Edin Int and Murrayfield. Fortunately, it never became an issue but surely this ruling needs looked at.....
 
The rules of the game continue to cause issue. In our match against West Lothian last week two rather strong characters had a rather vociferous exchange of words about a rule. Vociferous enough to cause the other two matches to pause and look over to see if there may need to be some external intervention! All was sorted amicably in the end - the point raised by our “2016/17 Nicest Team Captain of the Year Winner”, Brian Bailey, was that before a point was actually over his opponent, Mr Honeyman, shouted something out. Mr B was not happy (his title is in danger this year - James is the Bookies favourite to take the trophy back). Should a let have been called because the conditions of play were disturbed in a way which could affect the outcome of the rally? Who actually knows what the rule is? In the end the point went to Brian’s opponent. The point? One we have raised many times before - how many of us actually know what the rules of the game say about situations such as this? Do Club’s have at least one qualified umpire in their ranks? Is such needed? Should it be a requirement that we all have to do some form of umpire course? There's an interesting question.
 
And finally, having had a go at various other clubs and the ELTTL in the first four weeks of the season, we are nothing if not fair - we end this week by having a go at ourselves! A 6.30pm start and we moan at other clubs if they turn up a bit late - the last couple of weeks have seen us rely on visiting teams to get the hall set up - thanks to our friends from West Lothian this week who were there before the vast majority of the home team players! It’s just not good enough said a senior Penicuik member - so what if you’ve all got jobs, travel issues, families to organise - get yourself to the Club early and give some help!!!
 
We love the Handicap Cup - roll on Round 2.
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Week 4 Report

15/10/2017

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Week 4 of the League Season saw six of the Club’s seven teams in action.
 
It's been a very consistent start for our new look Team 1 of Greig McDonell, David Melrose and Abby Wighton. Unfortunately, they have been consistently losing and they fell to another close 9-1 loss at the hands of Edinburgh University in their new lovely mirrored gymnasium – a close 9-1 loss we hear you cry?? Well, close on the basis that only two of the ten matches on the night were won in straight sets. That said, El Presidente came away from the match feeling that the Uni’s best player, Jan Meyer, may have had a couple of extra gears which he didn’t need to use on the night. And in terms of ratings central the University have 2 players with ratings in excess of 1500!! Here’s a good tip for the season ahead – If the University can put out their top 3 on a regular basis they will be in the mix for the title come the end of the season! Greig was the only winner for the visitors.  
 
In Division 1, Team 2 of Clive Liddiard, James Wighton and Charlie Brindley faced a home match against Murrayfield 5. 4-2 up going into the doubles was a positive position for the home side but the visitors kept the match alive by winning the vital doubles fixture and it could not have been closer – 12-10 in the fifth end decider. Clive then secured a point by winning match 8 but back came the Edinburgh based side as the ever improving Jamie Sloan defeated Charlie in match 9 before the final match saw James incur the wrath of the Centre Manager, his match only starting at 9.50pm! Under time pressure he lost the final match and a 5-5 draw resulted – a fair result? Maybe if the doubles fixture hadn’t been so controversially decided that would definitely have been the case (more on that later). 2 wins each for Clive and Charlie and 1 for James. Of what there was no doubt was the fact that Murrayfield relied heavily on young Jamie who showed what great potential he has – undefeated on the night.  
 
Meanwhile Team 3 were without regular Gary McDougal (another player who holidays abroad during the TT Season – doesn’t the Club make its players sign contracts forbidding such time away!!) Young Millie Bennett stepped up from Division 3 to join Krzysztof Laszkiewicz and Chris Markey as they travelled to take on Corstorphine 2 in Division 1. Millie acquitted herself well and picked up a couple of ends against experienced opponents. Krzysztof won 2 and Chris 1 in the resultant 7-3 defeat. A full team would probably have secured at least a point according to Team Captain, Mr Scrabble Man.
 
In Division 3 Team 5 got back to winning ways against Edinburgh University. For the 4th consecutive match a different combination stepped up to the table – this week saw Sean Lennon, Craig Johnson and Stuart Bennett in action. The first 3 matches set the tone for the night as they all went the way of the Penicuik trio including an excellent win for Stuart against University’s number 1. From 3-0 up the home side never lost the lead and ran out comfortable 7-3 winners. 2 wins each for all 3 players added to an excellent doubles win for Sean and Craig.
 
Team 6 of Julian Taylor, Rachel Petrie & Sonny Taylor entertained North Merchiston 7 at Ladywood in Week 4. At 5-0 up the match was over wasn’t it? Hang on a minute – match six saw a 5th end loss for Rachel. Next the doubles was lost in 5 ends. 100% man Julian then lost in 5 ends in match 8 before Rachel lost match 9 in 4 ends. Jings 5-4 and pressure on young Sonny in the final match of the night. Panic? Of course not – 11-2, 11-3, 11-1 and a 6-4 victory which had never been in doubt!! Sonny was undefeated, dad Julian won 2 and Rachel 1.
 
With Phil “long sleeved” Daly recovering from an operation (we all wish him a speedy recovery), Team 7’s Division 4 match against Corstorphine 5 saw George Wilson and Kristian Skotzen have to play without a third player. George thrives on adversity it appears (or maybe his new clean shaven look has improved his TT). He was undefeated on the night in singles play and certainly played a Captain's role in an unfortunate 7-3 defeat.

And so to our Player of the Week Award for Week 4. It definitely is simple this week – a straight fight between two Division 4 players - George Wilson from Team 7 and Sonny Taylor from Team 6 who were the only players in the club to be undefeated in singles play. Both played and lost in the doubles fixture so no splitting them there! Sonny is new to the league this year and his win in the final match of the night for Team 6 was under the greatest of pressure and secured the overall victory for his team. That surely swings it for Sonny. But hold on a minute – having joined the Club for the second half of last season George has now played 13 matches for Penicuik and checking the record books this is the first occasion he’s ever won his 3 singles – surely that’s an achievement which merits the award this week……….. When has sentiment ever come into this?? – sorry George, well done for a good night but this week’s deserved winner is Sonny!
 
And finally, our controversy of the week section. A quick one about Ratings Central - how on earth does it work? El Presidente defeated a 1400 rated player this week - the result of that match was that the University player lost 206 points!!! Greig gained 11! Wait a minute - in fairness maybe the system is indeed very intuitive and realises that if such a highly rated player can be turned over by an overweight and unfit opponent his rating was clearly too high to begin with!! Let's move on......
 
Picture the scene – the doubles fixture in Team 2’s match against Murrayfield; a vital match; Deuce in the fifth; Murrayfield serve and Charlie just catches the ball, he and Clive having seen the ball land on the wrong half of the table. Umpire gives Penicuik the point. Murrayfield player then asks umpire if he saw the serve as a fault and comments that he thought it was up to the umpire to call a fault not the players. Non-playing Murrayfield player also gets involved. Umpire decides he didn’t see it – he’s sitting down and in fairness we all know that from such a position there’s no way he would have seen it with any degree of certainty. He then decides to take the point away from Penicuik that he’s already given and play a let. Hang on a minute it’s deuce in the fifth!! What does the rule book say? Who knows? If the umpire didn’t see it as a fault and Charlie just catches the ball he should lose the point shouldn’t he? A let seems a bit of a cop out! Who is this umpire – it’s our very own (winner for the last 5 consecutive years of Penicuik’s Mr Nice Award) James Wighton! If only our controversial umpire from last week had been officiating! Penicuik went on to lose the replayed point and the match. The interesting point about what happened is not really James’ umpiring, it’s the interesting question posed by the Murrayfield side. They never claimed that the serve was in - their question to the umpire almost acknowledged that it was out – but was the umpire able to see it? Clearly no. The fact that both players on the receiving team were adamant that the ball was out seems to have become irrelevant. And on one view of it, it is irrelevant because Murrayfield are right – it’s up to the umpire to make the call isn’t it? Gamesmanship? Who knows? Maybe Murrayfield genuinely thought the serve was in? Only one thing’s for sure - James will be standing if he’s ever allowed to umpire another doubles match by his teammates!
 
Ah, Haddington, all is forgiven….. 

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Week 3 Report

8/10/2017

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Three weeks into the new season and refreshingly not one postponement yet (or is that controversial) – all 7 of the Club’s Teams were again in action with mixed success.
 
Our only undefeated Team after two weeks was Team 6 of Julian Taylor, Rachel Petrie & Sonny Taylor. They faced a top of the table clash with Haddington 3 in Division 4. Neither Julian nor Sonny were available so up stepped Phil & Kristian from Team 7. Team 7’s Captain, George Wilson, was quick to congratulate his teammates as neither of them assisted their club rivals in the division in an entertaining but unsuccessful night for the Midlothian side. A 10-0 defeat certainly brought Team 6 down to earth with a bump.
 
In Division 1, Teams 2 and 3 both faced difficult matches away to Haddington 1 and at home to Murrayfield 3 respectively. Clive Liddiard, James Wighton and Gary McDougal (standing in for the injured Charlie Brindley) were tied at 3-3 going into the important doubles fixture against Haddington. James and Charlie unfortunately lost out to their East Lothian opponents before the match of the night decided the fate of the visitors – Clive against Lorenas swung one way then the other. Having shared the first two ends, Lorenas took the third 12-10 before Clive took the fourth by the same scoreline. The decider was won 11-8 by Lorenas and with it the visitors hopes of a victory were gone. Both James and Gary won 2 in a disappointing 6-4 defeat.
 
Meanwhile at Ladywood, Krzysztof Laszkiewicz, Gary McDougal and Chris Markey took on a strong Murrayfield 3 side who look favourites to bounce back into the Premier Division. Watching from the side-lines, our Press Officer thought the match was an extremely entertaining and close affair – entertaining was right but at the end of the night there was disbelief at the 9-1 loss. The gracious Murrayfield winners were quick to confirm that the final score did not do justice to the play of the teams – only two of the ten matches played were won in 3 straight ends. Chris recorded a good victory against Colin Clark for the home side’s only match win.
 
In Division 3, Team 4 made it two wins on the bounce as John Bald, Brian Bailey and Louis McLeod recorded an excellent 7-3 victory against yet another Murrayfield side - Murrayfield 8. It was a bit of a Murrayfield outing on Wednesday night at the Club with 3 of their teams all in action. John was undefeated in singles play whilst both Louis and Brian (who was suffering from back pain we are told) picked up 2 wins each.
 
Staying in Division 3, Team 5’s 10-0 Week 1 win seems a distant memory as they succumbed to their second loss of the season away to Edinburgh International 4. Last season, this team won the award for how many consecutive weeks they could play a different trio and they continued that trend on Friday night as for the third week out of three a different combination pulled on the Penicuik tops. Sean Lennon, Craig Johnson and George Wilson (playing up from Team 7) found it tough going as they all recorded 1 win in their 7-3 defeat.
 
Team 1 were one of only two teams to go into Week 3 of the season without a win under their belt. A home match in the Premier Division against Murrayfield 2 provided a good opportunity to get on the board especially when Murrayfield turned up without their number 1, Keith Dingwall, still smarting seemingly from a defeat by Greig McDonell in the Edinburgh Banded Event! Match 2 on the night summed up Team 1’s season so far. David Melrose against young Jake Somerville – a match which went into a fifth end with David having the momentum but as victory was on the horizon David managed two foul serves to hand the initiative to Jake who grabbed it with both hands. Only Greig managed to trouble the scorers in the resultant 8-2 defeat although Abby WIghton continued to impress and in the first two ends against Jake was 10-6 and 10-8 up respectively. (We’ll ignore the fact that she lost both!)
 
The other Team without a win going into Week 3 was Team 7. Their Division 4 match against Haddington 5 saw a league debut for another McDonell as 10 year old Hannah had her first outing in the company of Phil “long sleeved” Daly and Kristian Skotzen.  The Club’s newest league player was over the moon with one victory and a couple of close losses. An even more impressive win than it appeared at the time as her opponent went on to beat 3rd Division Louis at this weekend’s Junior League – Sorry Louis – you knew that was coming!! Hannah’s win added to Kristian’s 2 wins and Phil’s undefeated night gave Team 7 their first points of the season with a 7-3 victory.
 
A quick report on the Junior League today – well done to Louis & Sonny, undefeated after 3 matches in Division 1 and also to Joe and Rhys who won both their matches in Division 3.
 
And so to our Player of the Week Award for Week 3. It’s simple this week isn’t it – a straight fight between Phil Daly from Team 7 and John Bald from Team 4 who were the only players in the club to be undefeated in singles play. With John not playing in the doubles (why did an injured Brian play with Louis??) Phil surely has the edge having also secured a doubles victory.  But hang on a minute Phil didn’t even win the player of the night award for Team 7! If he can’t even win that he can’t win our player of the Week award!! And as Team Captain George pointed out the Player of the Week Award isn’t just based on winning – it’s about the manner in which you play, the conquering of nerves, the holding it together under pressure, blah blah blah. So, this week’s well deserved winner is none other than our youngest League player who on her League debut won a match and whose smile lit up the hall – who says our Press Officer is biased!!!! – Well done to Hannah.
 
And finally, our controversy of the week section. Another two to deal with – we should really save them up for quiet weeks when nothing controversial happens!!
 
Postponements rear their head for the first time this season. We really like our friends from Haddington TTC - a club to which a couple of our members have close connections. So, it was a bit of a shock to hear that the top of the table clash between Penicuik 6 and Haddington 3 in Division 4 involved a request for, and a rejection of, a postponement. Now in fairness, our Press Officer is probably making this more controversial than it actually was as Team Captain Julian did have the option of asking for Committee help to see if Haddington could be persuaded to grant a postponement – yeah because they would have had a huge amount of influence - but he decided to try and fulfil the fixture. The result was that two players from Team 7 stepped up; a 10-0 defeat! Would the result have been different against a full-strength Team 6 – maybe not but that’s not really the point.
 
As if to rub salt in the wounds, our second controversy is from the same match and relates to umpiring – another regular topic. There aren’t many qualified umpires in the League but one of them is a very senior member at Haddington and for some reason he found himself officiating a match involving Team 6’s Rachel. Given that Team 6 were not troubling the scorers and given that we are talking about a Division 4 match, it was perhaps a tad “officious” to say the least to simply, out of the blue, deduct a point from Rachel for a foul serve because she did not throw the ball up correctly. Ok we know the rule – it’s either a foul serve or it’s not; and whilst we accept that in terms of the rules there is no provision for a warning being given surely in these circumstances a quiet word with the player and a let being called would have been more appropriate. The man at the centre of the controversy said today that he objected to the term "officious" - he felt "pernickety" was more appropriate. The Umpire's always right!
 
Jings who would have thought that Haddington would be our first villains of the new season – Murrayfield we love you after all!!

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Week 2 Report

1/10/2017

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After a relatively successful Week 1 of the 2017/18 League Season, Week 2 saw only 3 wins out of 7 for the Club.
 
Our only undefeated Team after two weeks of the season is Team 6 (Julian Taylor, Rachel Petrie & Sonny Taylor) who followed up their excellent Week 1 win with a 6-4 victory against Edinburgh International in Division 4. After winning the Week 1 Player of the Week Award, Julian was again in fine form winning all three of his singles matches and combining with Sonny for the doubles win. Sonny won 2 singles whilst Rachel was unlucky not to get on the scoreboard.  A great start to the season for Team 6.
 
In Division 1, Team 2 got their season on track with a 6-4 victory at home to West Lothian 3. Charlie Brindley was on top form winning all his singles matches whilst James Wighton and Clive Liddiard both won 1. The doubles proved crucial – James and Charlie combined well to secure victory for the home side.
 
In Division 3, Team 4 welcomed John Bald back from his travels and he combined well with Brian Bailey and Louis McLeod in a good 7-3 win in Bathgate against West Lothian 7. Brian was undefeated in singles play whilst both Louis and John picked up 2 singles wins.
 
Staying in Division 3, Team 5 came back down to earth after their thumping 10-0 win in Week 1 as they fell to a 7-3 defeat at the hands of West Lothian 6. Sean Lennon was the only winner on the night winning two singles. He combined with Millie Bennett in the game of the night as the Penicuik duo won the doubles after surrendering a 2-0 lead – the last three ends couldn’t have been closer – 11-13, 12-14 & 12-10!!
 
Team 1 came away from their match in Week 2 incredulous at having lost 9-1 to Edinburgh International 1. When Greig McDonell won the first match of the night things looked positive but three 5 end losses (2 from Greig and 1 from David Melrose) in matches where the Penicuik side had taken 2-0 leads turned their night sour. Abby Wighton again played some good stuff and both her teammates left the match wishing they had her backhand!!
 
After a good win in Week 1, Team 3 faced a stern test away to West Lothian 2. Krzysztof Laszkiewicz, Gary McDougal and Chris Markey fell to an 8-2 defeat with Krzysztof and Chris winning one singles each.
 
And finally in Week 2, Team 7 travelled to take on the newly named KLOS side. Phil Daly, Geroge Wilson and Kristian Skotzen played well in their 7-3 defeat. Phil won 2 whilst George won 1, both showing nerve to win a match deuce in the fifth (Maybe Team 1 should look for some lessons from them)!
 
And so to our Player of the Week Award for Week 2 – slightly fewer candidates this week!! Charlie, Brian and Julian were the only undefeated players in singles play. Brian lost his doubles match so he’s out of the running. Both Charlie and Julian had doubles victories and therefore won 4 matches in matching 6-4 results for their teams. Sorry Julian, you can’t win it two weeks in a row – With his teammates only winning 1 singles each, the importance of Charlie’s undefeated night wins him this week’s award – Well done Charlie.
 
Our controversy of the week from last week rumbles on - having sought clarification on the Appeals process all Clubs seem to have been sent a new ELTTL Complaints Procedure. This doesn’t really seem to apply to our situation – no rule has been infringed and no club or individual is the subject of our complaint. We have seen in the past that rules can be bent (broken) and the League has regularly bent with such infringements. What we are asking the League to do is exactly that – we all know what the league say should happen in respect of players’ ratings and their resultant team positions but hey if the league is prepared to overlook some rules which will only be enforced in certain situations why not others. Still no clearer if this Complaints process is the way in which our appeal is meant to be progressed…..
 
Secondly this week, our friends from Edinburgh University are understandably given leeway to start their League campaign in Week 3 of the season – they need to all get back from their 6 months holidays, get through a couple of Freshers Weeks, get bedded in to Uni life and then have trials to find out who’s available for the League. All understood and no difficulty with that – that’s been the position with the University for as long as we can remember. But hold on it appears that some Uni teams were intending on playing last week – indeed some did play – no notification of this just fortunate we suppose that one Club did contact them to be told they were expecting to play the match as scheduled. The direction from the League after finding this out was sent on Wednesday afternoon in the following terms:
 
“…. I would strongly urge all clubs who have scheduled matches against Edinburgh University tonight or on Friday to contact Edinburgh University immediately to determine explicitly whether or not the matches will proceed.”
 
Eh hang on a minute – some of us actually have lives which involve more notice being required than 5 hours to change plans – can they play before Week 3 or not?? Not aware of any resultant problems although one could easily see how this may have got the League’s new Complaints procedure off to a flying start.
 
Roll on Week 3.

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    Penicuik TTC

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