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ELTTL - Week 7 Report

27/10/2019

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Week 7 of the Edinburgh & Lothians League started for the Club with Team 4’s visit to North Merchiston 4 in Division 2. Undefeated going into the match, Julian Taylor, Tony Brentnall and Sonny Taylor were confident as they faced a side who had failed to win any of their first three outings this season. After Sonny lost the opening match in 5 close ends, it looked plain sailing for the visitors as they picked up 3 comfortable wins on the bounce for a 3-1 lead but when matches 5 & 6 and the doubles went the way of the hosts, Team 4 were in trouble. The next two matches were shared guaranteeing at least a point for NM. Julian was left to try and salvage a draw but fell short in 5 ends. A 6-4 defeat and Team 4 were left reeling. Sonny picked up 2 whilst both Tony and Julian picked up 1 win. Now far be it for us to rub salt in the wounds of our own team 4 but on NM’s Facebook page a comment was made about the fact that this had been NM 4’s first win in over a year! Surely not?? Lo and behold, a quick check of the 2018-19 season shows that in Div 2 last year NM 4 played 22 matches, drew 1 and lost 21! 3 matches this season without a win means this was their first win in 25 attempts - Ouch!! 
 
Captain Julian wasn’t too impressed when that statistic was forwarded to him but perhaps that made Team 4 more determined when they had a quick chance to bounce back with their second match of the week as they travelled to take on Haddington 2 – a much tougher looking match on paper, especially given the East Lothian side’s performance against league Leaders Fife earlier in the week when they had pushed them to the wire, falling only to a 6-4 defeat. Table Tennis is a funny old game! 7 of the 10 matches on the night went the distance but a brilliant performance from all of Team 4 saw them win 6 of those tight encounters and with two of the other 3 matches also going the way of the visitors, Team 4 recorded an excellent 8-2 win. An undefeated night for Julian was added to by two wins each for Sonny and Tony and a win in the doubles. Captain Julian commented that this was the best the team had EVER played since they were thrown together last season – high praise indeed. 
 
Team 1 were hoping to build on a good couple of weeks in the Premier Division as they hosted Fife. This was a bit of a bizarre fixture – more on that in our Controversy of the Week section. In the end, Colin was the only regular player for Team 1 and he was joined by Charlie Brindley and Gary McDougal from Team 2. Fife had one player playing up and Team 1 felt that for them to have a chance they all needed to win their match against that player. Match 4 saw the battle of the number 1’s and Colin came out on top of Krzysztof Opila 11-8 in the 5th. A 3 for him was on the cards and all that was needed was for Charlie to then beat Steve Saunders, playing up from Division 3, and a draw was probably going to be guaranteed. Oh dear! After coming back from 2-0 down, Charlie lost out 11-9 in the fifth and it was advantage Fife. Hold on a minute though, up stepped Gary in Match 6 to defeat Grant Williams and suddenly a draw was back on the cards. The other matches all went with form giving Penicuik a 5-4 lead playing match 10 – Charlie v Grant. You know what’s coming…. Charlie unable to beat the Division 3 player suddenly tore up the form guide to defeat the Premier player in 3 straight ends and secure a 6-4 win for the hosts. Another terrific night for Colin with 3 wins, 2 excellent victories for Gary and that vital last match win for Charlie leaves David and Carsten worrying about their places in the team!
 
In Division 2, Team 3 welcomed back their number 1, Iain Johnstone, as he joined forces with Abby Wighton and Krzysztof Laszkiewicz against Corstorphine 2.  Gary Woodhouse was clearly the player of the match for the visitors as he went to 5 ends against both Iain and Krzysztof and took Abby out in 4. Iain was heard to complain about the fact that Gary had been practicing with us every Saturday morning over the last year which had clearly got him used to the Penicuik players styles! Yeah – that might stack up if Iain had ever managed to get out of his bed in time for a Saturday morning training session! As it was, Gary’s win v Abby was the only positive for Corstorphine as Team 3 maintained their 100% record with a good 9-1 victory. 
 
Team 5 also faced Corstorphine opposition in their Division 3 encounter. Team Captain Kristian, after a poor last outing, dropped himself in place of Rachel Petrie who came in to join George Wilson and Craig Linton. At 3-3 going into the doubles it looked like at least a draw was a certainty and a win a possibility as Craig and George came back from 2-1 down to give the home side a 4-3 lead. Suddenly, however, it was 5-4 to Corstorphine, 2-2 in ends in the final match of the night and George was 8-4 down in the decider!! George is a fighter though (in more ways than one!) and with the pressure on he played in a composed manner to come back for an 11-9 victory, thus securing a point for the Team. 2 wins each for Craig and George and a doubles win and Rachel, given Team Captain Kristian’s ruthless streak, can probably get herself ready for sitting on the bench this coming week! 
 
3 players were undefeated this week - Colin, Krzysztof and Iain. Colin has been playing some great stuff in the Premier and his 3 was vitally important for an overall 6-4 victory. He must be ahead of Iain and Krzysztof in this week’s voting. But hold on a minute… Our selection Committee this week have been reminded that it’s not just about having undefeated nights. The award this week ended up being a two horse race between Gary and Charlie who played up for Team 1. Charlie could easily have won it for his 10thmatch win to secure the 6-4 victory but for his two wins, without which Colin’s undefeated night would have been worthless, this week’s winner is Gary. Well done to him. 
 
And finally, to our Controversy of the Week section. 
 
Postponements have already been under the microscope this season and the issue reared its head again last week. Fife had sought a postponement against Team 1 claiming that despite having 5 registered players in their side, they could not field a team. The initial email from Fife indicated that 5 players were unable to play – three were away and two had a Dundee League match on the date of our fixture. Team 1 came to a majority view to refuse the postponement and it appears that much of the reasoning behind that was that two players choosing to play in a different League and prioritising that match over the ELTTL fixture was not a good enough reason to agree to a postponement. Things then became ridiculous as Fife involved the League and in particular the Match Secretary. Suddenly Penicuik were being invited to agree to a postponement and the League would extend the normal 4-week rule. Further discussion took place and the request continued to be refused, a query being raised as to whether in fact anyone had tried to postpone the Dundee fixture which resulted in their inability to field a side? Even more ridiculous it was then claimed by Fife that as Penicuik were not offering an alternative date, we should forfeit the points in terms of Rule 6b! What on earth were they talking about? The Rule states: 
 
“A team may not postpone a fixture except with the prior written confirmed consent of the other team…… Agreedpostponements must be notified to the Match Secretary to be reflected in theELTTL System. The home team will be responsible for offering alternative date(s)to the away team, irrespective of who requests the postponement. In the event ofthe away team requesting a postponement, the home team must offer at leastone date as an alternative to the original date. In the event of the home teamrequesting a postponement, the home team should offer as many dates as isnecessary to the away team. Failure to do so will result in the home team forfeiting the fixture”
 
Talk about interesting interpretation of the rules! It was suggested that the last sentence about forfeiting was not clear because it didn’t qualify if it was in relation to the previous sentence or the whole rule!! What a load of nonsense!! It is abundantly clear what the rule SAYS and what it MEANS - the postponement must be consented to before the “offering an alternative date” comes into play.
 
Anyway, in an effort not to cause the whole issue to sour our relationship with Fife too much, we relented on the Friday of the previous week to agree that if they still wanted a postponement, we would accommodate same and play in December as suggested by the Match Secretary. But no, by that point a team had been organised and the match was on. They say you reap what you sow and so we can imagine the reaction of Fife when they turned up to play us (suddenly with two regular first team players) to find that we only had one!! We obviously felt sorry for putting Fife in that position so called up Gary and Charlie to play to give Fife a chance – Yeah right! A weekend call-off from Carsten and an injury to David on the Monday ruled them both out – maybe we should have asked for a postponement!! As it was the 6-4 victory was all the sweeter as a result. According to Fife we were seizing an opportunity for some easy points which reflected badly on us! Only one club comes out of this looking bad – and it’s not Penicuik. No players able to play = two premier players turning up for the match! As to the reason for the League trying to get involved……. we’ll say no more. 
 
Nearly a third of the way through the season already – Roll on week 8! 



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ELTTL - Week 6 Report

21/10/2019

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Week 6 of the Edinburgh & Lothians League was Handicap Cup Week. The Club entered 4 teams this year as they looked to try and replicate the success of last season where 3 of our four teams reached the quarter finals and of course one of our teams went all the way to pick up the trophy. 
 
Two of our five man winning squad from last season, David Melrose (-10) and Craig Linton (+3) were together again and they were joined by Krzysztof Laszkiewicz (-5) as they travelled on Monday night to take on Edinburgh Sports Club comprised of Alan Nisbet (-11), Faye Leggett (-14) and Euan Rae (+3). When Euan and Faye won comfortably against Krys and David respectively, the signs weren’t good for the visitors. Craig, however, with a 14-point start recovered well from a 22-20 loss in the first end to win against Alan in 4 and when Krys battled to a fifth set win v Faye the match was tied at 2-2. In a straight fight to 11, Craig then came out on top v Euan and with a one point start David won in 3 tight ends v Alan. On the brink of victory, Faye kept the hosts in the match – she was too strong for Craig, before the win was sealed by an excellent three end victory for Krys v Alan – 5-3 and a great start to the week for Penicuik.
 
Wednesday evening at Ladywood saw our other three teams in action. There was great Club spirit on show with all teams and supporters encouraging each other. We had 18 players in attendance, 3 other Club members, our Head Coach, a wife, a girlfriend and a couple of kids who all added to the electric atmosphere throughout the night! Our President was heard to comment that if we had been playing as an away side we would have probably found the atmosphere to be quite intimidating!
 
Colin Green, Abby Wighton and Rachel Petrie ventured a little into the unknown as they hosted Heriot Watt University. All 3 Uni players played of -3. Warming up, all three looked like they would flourish with such a handicap. As it turned out, however, Abby playing of the same handicap as her opponents was too strong in the two matches she played and Rachel playing of +6 thoroughly enjoyed her night winning her two matches. Colin had a mountain to climb in his two matches – his first match against the very talented Kaining Cao was the match of the night, filled with quality attacking play from both players. Colin lost that in 4 but that was the only loss as the home side recorded a comfortable 5-1 win.
 
After 4 months out through injury, Hannah McDonell (+4) joined Sonny Taylor (-1) and James Wighton (-2) as they hosted last year’s Runners-Up, Corstorphine. This match was tight from beginning to end. A loss in Match 1 for James was followed by a win by Hannah before a crucial match 3 went the distance. Sonny was trying to recover from a 0-7 deficit in a race to 12 and when he lost the first end 12-4 those watching were wondering how the handicaps could be so wrong! He lost the second as well but this time only by a scoreline of 11-13. The third end was crazy – Sonny caught his opponent at 10-10 before the players traded points back and forth until Sonny eventually won 20-18! In the fourth he also caught his opponent but once more having caught him, points were traded until Sonny won 14-12. The decider was surely going to be more comfortable after Sonny went into a 10-8 lead. But back came his Corstorphine Opponent to unbelievably hold a match point at 11-10 before Sonny pulled out a critical 13-11 win!  When Hannah then lost in 5 ends the scores were tied again and the visitors then took the lead as James lost in 3 straight ends. At 3-2 down, Sonny won in four before Hannah took to the table for her final match of the night giving her opponent a two-point start in a straight race to 11. Tied at 1-1 in ends, Hannah suddenly lost the third end 11-1 and the writing looked on the wall for her. Up stepped Abby to give some coaching advice – whatever she said worked a treat as Hannah came back to win the next two ends, putting the home side on the brink of a good victory. Sonny couldn’t quite finish the job, agonisingly losing in five long ends. As throwing out time rapidly approached, the Corstorphine player needed a toilet time out! Really? Were they playing for time? James remained calm and with 10 pm having well and truly come and gone he fortunately finished the match off in three to give Penicuik a 5-4 win.
 
The final team in action saw Greig McDonell (-13), Julian Taylor (-1) and George Wilson (+1) take on the North Merchiston side of Eddie Scott (-11), Geoff Hunter (-10) and Nick Thomas (-4). Nick posted a good report on the North Merchiston Facebook page of his take on the match – well worth a read. The short version is that after Greig and George gave the hosts a 2-0 lead, NM fought back with 3 consecutive five end wins – Eddie winning twice v Julian and Greig and Nick somehow recovering from the dead to defeat George. Julian then had two comfortable wins v Nick and Geoff before Eddie rounded off an unbeaten night with a straightforward win v George. 10pm and Greig had to play Geoff in the decider – this pair are not exactly known for their fast attacking play and short rallies – just what the hosts needed! Contrary to NM’s suspicions the Ladywood Manager was not tied up in his office to allow this match to play out – he was accidentally locked in a storage cupboard and it took a while for us to find the keys that must have dropped out of his pocket! When Greig won the first two ends and the clock showed 10.15 pm it looked like the win was going to be achieved – but hold on a minute – starting at 0-3, Greig lost 8 of the first 11 points in end 3 to trail 11-3. He decided to concede game 3 and walked round to Geoff’s side saying you can have this end! Oh no says Geoff – you can’t do that – you need to play the points out to a finish. Tick tock tick tock. Greig returned to his end of the table returned the next two serves above Geoff’s head and served off at game point! 3 points in about 20 seconds was exactly what was needed. Some energy saved, Greig won the next end 14-9 for a 5-4 overall victory thus completing a fantastic night for the Club.  
 
Only 2 players were undefeated this week. Rachel and Abby both played 2 and won 2. But this week (sorry Abby and Rachel) we’re not giving a Player of the Week award - every single player who played in the handicap Cup is due a massive pat on the back – each of our 12 players who played all contributed at least one win as we matched our achievement from last season of getting all four entered teams into Round 2 – well done to everyone! 
 
And finally, to our Controversy of the Week section. 
 
There are always some “Bandits” around when it comes to Handicap Cup and there’s probably little (if anything) that can be done when there are new players in the League and players who are improving rapidly. Unlike the old system where the Handicaps virtually stayed as they were from Round 1, there seems to now be a practice of updating the handicaps before each round based on Ratings Central (not that the Rules say this can happen – but hey who cares about the Rules!) We were getting ready to moan about one very talented Heriot Watt player who thus far hasn’t lost an end in the League and at the recent National League Event showed his true class by defeating players rated significantly higher than him. But why bother – they lost the match and he lost to Rachel who was playing off +6! The only thing worthy of note last week related to the time it takes to play Handicap Matches. We still think back to having to concede a quarter final to big bad Murrayfield a few seasons ago - 4-4 when the clock beat us. With a 6.45 start, three matches on so no space to play on two tables, and games running to five ends, we were lucky that on this occasion the Centre Manager was feeling generous and didn’t throw us out – two of our 3 matches ran on well past our closing time, even though one of those matches switched to two tables as soon as it was feasible! Oh, if only we had our own premises! We can but dream..... 

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ELTTL - Week 5 Report

14/10/2019

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Week 5 of the Edinburgh & Lothians League was another quiet one for the Club with a couple of postponed matches resulting in 3 of our 5 teams taking to the table.
 
After their first win of the season in Week 4, Team 1 of Carsten Giebeler, Colin Green & David Melrose travelled to take on Edinburgh University on Friday night in the Premier Division.  Colin got the night off to a good start with a four-end win v Mae Ng. David then agonisingly lost out 11-9 in the fifth to Sietse Van Meer and when that was followed by a 5-set loss for Carsten against Yubo Rasmussen it looked like being a long night for the visitors. Another 4-end win for Colin brought parity to the scores and that was followed by a gutsy 5 set win for Carsten as Penicuik got their noses in front. Back came the Uni side courtesy of a win for Yubo against David. 3-3 and the doubles suddenly had an even more crucial feel to it. Colin & David played together a number of times last year, but this was the first time this season and the change worked as they came back from a 2-1 deficit to win 11-3 in the fifth. When Carsten then won in straight sets in Match 8 a point was secured. Yubo tried to keep the match alive in Game 9 but fell short as Colin had his most comfortable match of the night with a 3 set win as the visitors recorded a good 6-4 victory.
 
In Division 2, Team 3 had to cope with the late call off through illness of their number 1, Iain Johnstone, as they hosted North Merchiston 4. Julian Taylor stepped in and acquitted himself well alongside regulars Krzysztof Laszkiewicz and James Wighton.  The first two matches both went the distance with Krzysztof winning his but Julian losing 9-11 in the decider. A tight looking match suddenly turned, however, as the next six games all went the way of the home side who raced into a 7-1 lead. The last two matches were shared resulting in a terrific 8-2 win for Team 3. Krzysztof was undefeated in singles whilst Julian and James both picked up two. James & Krzysztof combined for the doubles victory. Three wins out of three for Team 3 who move above their Club rivals, Team 4 into second place in the Division 2 table. Leaders, Fife, however, look like the team to beat at this early stage of the season.
 
Team 5 are fast becoming the Team that covets the most controversy. After the controversial use of an illegal bat last week in their match v Edinburgh International they hadn’t even taken to the table before controversy hit this week (more on that later)! Back from holiday, Craig Linton replaced Rachel Petrie as he joined forces with George Wilson and Kristian Skotzen. Only two players turned up for Edinburgh Sports Club 3, so the hosts started with a 3-0 advantage and this was going to be a walk in the park, wasn’t it? New rubbers and fresh from a great practice at the end of last week, George was in scintillating form for the first end of his match v Euan Rae – pity it was a best of 5 as he went down to a 3-2 defeat. Craig’s first taste of Division 3 saw him fall 2-1 behind but he stuck in terrifically well to record a 3-2 comeback win. 4-1 to the hosts – over to Kristian to secure at least a point. 2-0 down against Elena Genova he battled back to 2-2 only to lose 11-9 in the fifth. Craig then recorded another 5-end victory to give the hosts a 5-2 lead. Credit to ESC, they fought back to win the doubles and then Euan made Kristian’s night worse by winning in straight sets. Suddenly it was 5-4 and the pressure was on George as he took on Elena. It was never in doubt according to George – yeah right! A 4-end win saw Team 5 stumble over the line for a 6-4 victory.
 
Our Player of the Week award this week sees only 3 players in the running after undefeated nights - Colin, Krzysztof and Craig. Although this was Craig’s first taste of Division 3 and he is due a huge amount of credit for getting the team the win, he only played two singles matches and he lost the doubles – you’re out the running Craig. Both Krzysztof and Colin played in the doubles fixture and both won. Whilst it was an excellent night for Krzysztof, his team would have still won even if he had dropped a game or even two. Having come close last week, he’s done it this week – given the importance of his 3 ½ wins in a 6-4 victory, this week’s winner is Colin – well done. 
 
And finally, to our Controversy of the Week section. 
 
For the first time this season (it’s taken 5 weeks!) postponements come under the microscope. ESC had sought a postponement of their fixture v Team 5 because they were struggling to field a full team. Team 5 are in a precarious position – although 5 players registered for them, Hannah is still out injured and at the time the request came in it looked like George may not have been playing much this season at all. Craig was carrying an injury as well and rearranging a fixture, even with free weeks built into the schedule, is a nightmare. This is especially so when we can only access our premises for a league match one night a week. The Club view on postponements is well known to anyone who reads these weekly reports – we think they should be done away with altogether. That being said, there is no rule at the Club as to how individual teams or team captains deal with such requests. Indeed, this week saw Julian grant a request from Haddington to postpone their fixture v Team 4 whilst Charlie requested and was granted a postponement for their Division 1 fixture v North Merchiston. Team 5, however, with player availability issues and difficulty in identifying a new date, felt that to agree to a postponement would put them at a potential disadvantage for any rearranged fixture. The result of course, a narrow 6-4 loss for ESC, won’t help them come to terms with the reasons behind the refusal. They will feel hard done by and will no doubt not be keen to do any favours for Penicuik if one is needed later in the season – and that’s the problem. As we have said many times, it just causes ill feeling between Clubs (if anyone is reading this from ESC though – remember it was only Team 5 who did this not any of our other teams who might need a postponement or two throughout the season)!
 
In the same match another Rule issue arose. There was a general feeling amongst the Penicuik players that there was a Rule against a player stomping their foot when serving. They were fairly convinced of the position until they sought by text message some guidance on the point. They were told that there’s no rule which prevents stamping or stomping of feet – not convinced they had to point out that it wasn’t during the rally this was taking place but as the player was striking the ball in service – they felt it was done to try and mask the contact point and confuse the opponent. That is indeed the whole point isn’t it?? We don’t think they were happy with the response – unless of course we’re wrong! And there’s the point for the second week in a row – Each Club should surely have someone that actually knows what the rules are! A qualified Umpire at every league match?? That will never happen! A copy of the Rule Book at every League Match – that shouldn’t be too difficult – but then there’s the question of how to interpret them…….
 
Ah well Handicap Cup is now upon us – nothing controversial ever happens there! Good luck to our 4 teams in action this week.


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ELTTL - Week 4 Report

7/10/2019

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Week 4 of the Edinburgh & Lothians League saw 3 of our 5 teams in action.
 
After two difficult matches against West Lothian 1 and Murrayfield 1, our first team of Carsten Giebeler, Colin Green & David Melrose travelled to take on Edinburgh International 2 looking for their first win of the season. The home side comprised Babu Valaguruvan, Andrew Mannion and Amjad Mohammed. On paper the visitors looked favourites and the match started well as Colin defeated Andrew. But after Babu defeated David and Amjad fought back to 2-2 against Carsten it looked like the match could go either way. From that point on, however, Penicuik pulled away – a fifth end win for Carsten was followed by 7 straight wins, only two ends being dropped before a last match marathon which David won in five giving the visitors a 9-1 victory. 
 
Team 2 struggled to field a team as they hosted Murrayfield 5 in Division 1. Regulars Ian Hislop and Gary McDougal were both on holiday (shocking!) so up stepped James Wighton and Krzysztof Laszkiewicz to join Charlie Brindley. They faced Murrayfield’s Stella Hughes, John Yau and Simon Hughes - oh hold on – those three regulars were at Penicuik, but Murrayfield pulled out young Charlie McGowan to play up from Team 6 in place of Simon. How foolish of them putting such a youngster up against the wily Penicuik trio! Fast forward a couple of hours and everyone could see why Charlie had played – he dropped only two ends on his way to a full house – thankfully he didn’t play in the doubles! Going into match 9, Charlie (Snr) had beaten Stella and John and had combined for a win in the doubles with Krzysztof who had picked up a win v John as well. 4-4 and a draw or a win was still very much on Team 2’s minds. The pressure told however as first Krzysztof lost out in five to Stella before James lost out in 4 to John. A 6-4 defeat for Team 2 and Murrayfield’s tactics had worked a treat – more on that later! 
 
After a good win v West Lothian in Week 3, Team 5 knew they were in for a tougher match as they travelled to take on Edinburgh International in Division 3. Craig Linton had returned from holiday but couldn’t make it back into the team – Captain Kristian is a hard man – you chose to go on holiday during the season he told Craig – you’ll have to wait until we lose before you get a match. Ah well he’ll be in next week after George Wilson, Kristian Skotzen and Rachel Petrie lost out 7-3 to their Edinburgh based opponents. George played some terrific stuff, particularly against Ken Benjamin as he won 2 of his 3 matches. He’ll be kicking himself for not picking up a maximum after he lost Match 1 on the night 11-9 in the fifth to Anand Sundaram. Kristian picked up one win but got himself into winning positions in his other two matches. He defeated Anand but lost in 5 to both Ken and Stuart MacDonald. Oh, what night have been. Rachel had a tough night but remains hopeful that whoever our Match Secretary is may uphold her appeal against a player who played with an “illegal bat”. More on that to follow below….  
 
Everyone had a greater than 10% chance of winning our Player of the Week award this week given only 3 teams were in action! Only two players were undefeated, Colin and Carsten – they also combined for the doubles win for Team 1. How do we split them? Colin only dropped one end in his 3 wins whilst Carsten dropped two. According to Carsten, however, the end they dropped in the doubles was Colin’s fault! Our toughest decision so far but because of the momentum shift which resulted from the hugely important Match 3 win and also due to the fact that against EI’s best player (Babu) he was in complete control losing only 20 points in his 3-0 win, this week’s winner is Carsten – well done to him. 
 
And finally, to our Controversy of the Week section. Two crackers this week!
 
Firstly, Team 2 v Murrayfield 5. There can be no denying that the star of the show was young Charlie McGowan – a terrific player who is destined for the Premier League (we’ll probably see him there next year). He’s registered this year in Team 6 in Division 1. Team 5 have 4 players registered, three of whom turned up at Ladywood but in stepped young Charlie to replace Simon. Ratings going into the match – Simon 801, John 949 and Stella 996. On paper Simon is the weakest member of the team so he drops out and in came Charlie with a rating of??? 1064! Wow – 263 points higher than Simon. More than a hundred higher than John. Stuart Wilson who is also registered for Team 5 is almost 200 points lower as well. Compare that to our Iain Johnstone – Ratings Central Score of 1066. His rating was just slightly over the magical 100 points greater than Ian Hislop and Charlie Brindley thus meaning he can’t play up for our Team 2. The difference of course is that the 100 point rule (if it exists) only seems to apply at the beginning of the season and at that point in time, Charlie only had a rating of 884. Now we accept that it would be ridiculous to try and enforce the "100 point" rule on a week by week basis – players ratings may go up and down like a yoyo but we all know that if any players are going to rapidly rise in the Rating Central system it’s probably going to be youngsters who are on a steep upward curve of improvement. Charlie falls into that category. And surely when a player is rising so rapidly there should be a mechanism to re-evaluate the position. Maybe there is such a mechanism? Maybe there is a general discretion to look at such situations? There is of course nothing in the Rules about the 100-point difference – but that is what is now used by the league in determining whether players should be allowed to play up. Maybe at the end of the first half or at some other point in the season playing strengths and positions of players in certain teams should be looked at again?? Is this all sour grapes on our part – of course not! Are we jealous of the Murrayfield Conveyer Belt that keeps producing these talented youngsters – Absolutely!
 
Our second controversial moment this week arose as Team 5 took on EI. Match Secretary Ken Ben seems to have acquired a bat from the Gyle’s Pop In & Play facility. We will not make any comment about how that came into his possession!! Anyway, before his first match, he asks George if it was OK for him to play with it in the match – George says no but tells Ken that Kristian is the Captain! Captain Kristian agrees to Ken playing with what everyone accepts is not a “legal bat” in terms of the Laws of Table Tennis – for one thing it’s blue on both sides! George tells us he enjoyed playing Ken as he felt the dodgy bat clearly hindered Ken and was to George’s benefit as he won in 5 ends. Kristian and Rachel both lost to Ken – due to his bat? Probably not. If Ken had played with a normal bat he may have won far more comfortably. That’s not the point though is it? What’s he doing playing with an illegal bat? It surely doesn’t matter if the other players agree to him playing with it – if it’s illegal it’s illegal! Our Rules man Ian Hislop has asked whether it should just be Ken’s matches that are awarded to team 5 or the whole match forfeited given that the Match Secretary should be setting a better example!! Oh well an Appeal to the Match Secretary we think – we wonder how that will turn out……. 



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