Week 5 of the 2021/22 season was Handicap Cup week. 3 teams entered by the Club in this year’s competition but two of them had byes into the next round. Add to that, however, that somewhat strangely we’re still in the 2019/20 Handicap Cup, we therefore had two fixtures to complete last week.
 
To this season first – drawn by some sort of random generator phone app, Sonny Taylor, Gary McDougal and Rachel Petrie were pitted together for a trip to Edinburgh University last Friday evening. Rachel had little confidence that the students from the Uni or indeed her own teammates would have any clue about how the scoring worked and so sent a photo of the card with handicaps shown to Club President Greig just before the match started. He in turn outlined the starting scores and what score was needed in each match. Turns out Rachel’s concerns were well merited!  
 
First game saw Gary (-4) against a scratch player. Straightforward 3-0 win for the student followed. Match 2 saw Rachel (+7) take on Carl (-7). A 3-0 win for Rachel. The first error of the night came in match 3, Sonny (-1) v Kevin (-18). 17-0 to 28. For some reason the match was played to 29 and that cost Sonny – had the correct scoring been used he would have won the first end, but he was pulled back to 28-28 and subsequently lost 30-28! He won ends 2 and 4 to force a decider (but of course the match should have been over by then). The fifth end went Kevin’s way and Uni led 2-1. Gary then played with a 3 point start to 14. Again, for some reason the scoring was wrong, and the match was played to 13 – no close games though, so made no real difference as Gary pulled through to level the match at 2-2. Sonny then lost in a race to 12 points before Rachel levelled again – 25-0 to 29 was always going to be a tough one to overcome for Kevin - You’ve got to love those +7 handicaps!
 
The funniest moment of the night then came after Rachel had completed her 3rd win of the evening – 4-3 to Penicuik – a WhatsApp call made to Greig with Rachel trying to round up the opponents and her own teammates to listen to the words of wisdom from El Presidente. Are we meant to have played this in order??? Eh…… the order on the scorecard – yes! Ah, OK! And should the scoring have been to 29 between Sonny and Kevin – eh no! Oh well it’s played now – could it be replayed! Eh…. -  they’ve agreed it now anyway. Then from the background came the voice of Sonny – “we’ve made a total ********* ********* of this Greig!”. Not quite sure what order the matches had been played in but ultimately the last two matches saw Gary lose out to Kevin in four ends and it was left to Sonny to play the decider. It went the distance, Sonny getting a six point start to 17. He lost the first end 17-15, won the second 17-14 and then lost the third 17-15! Things looked bleak but then after 3 close ends he seemed to find a rich vein of form winning the last two 17-5, 17-7 and with it a 5-4 victory for the visitors. What an eventful night! Good job the win was secured, or the Sonny v Kevin match would have been a real controversial talking point!
 
And so to our 2019/20 quarter final v Corstorphine. The team which progressed to that stage had comprised Julian Taylor, Greig McDonell and George Wilson. Whilst Julian and Greig were still available, George isn’t playing this year. Hmmm, that’s a bit of a problem given that we are not allowed to play anyone who played Handicap Cup for another team that season and can’t play anyone who wasn’t eligible to play in 2020. Oh dear – looking at our list of players it looked like we might have to play with two players – then just when things were looking bleak, our knight in shining armour came riding into the Club last Saturday in his white van, having found his bat tossed away at the back of a dark cupboard – George was back!  
 
90 minutes of practice behind him he was first up at Napier as he took on Jeff Clark, 8-0 to 18 and things looked great as he took the first end 18-14. When his advantages disappeared in ends two and three, however, his teammates gave him little chance of recovering from a 2-1 deficit. End 4 was crucial as he hung on somehow to win 18-16 and a terrific 18-14 win in the decider gave the visitors the perfect start. Match 2 saw Greig give a 15-0 lead to David Sykes in a race to 23. When Greig lost the first 23-21 he looked in trouble, but he took a crucial 2nd end by the same scoreline before winning the next two, 23-19, 23-18. Julian then faced Shaun Sutherland giving away a six-shot lead in a race to 13. Julian looked in complete control after a 13-8 win in the first end but when he lost the next 13-5 Greig and George were left wondering how Shaun’s +4 handicap could possibly be accurate! Credit to Julian, however, some great consistency saw him win the next two 13-9, 14-12 and Penicuik led 3-0. The next two matches were played simultaneously, Greig, already struggling for fitness, hoping he didn’t have to play again! Unfortunately for him although Julian defeated Jeff, David won 3-0 v George. 4-1 to the visitors. Greig v Shaun started at 0-16 to 23 and when Greig won the first two ends 23-20, 23-21 the match looked over. A 23-21 loss in end 3, however, gave hope to the hosts. Whilst we have been known to criticise handicaps in the past it appears these ones were spot on as Greig won the 4th end 23-21 and with it secured a place in the semi-final. Worthy of note, as some may have forgotten, the defending Handicap Cup Champions are……. Yip – Penicuik who won the 2018/19 event.
 
Away from the Handicap Cup, Team 4 hosted ESC in a Division 3 encounter which saw the first outing of the season for Paul Tracey as he joined up with son, Jay and Rachel. 3 matches played for Team 4 and a pattern has emerged – 1-9, 2-8 and 3-7. This was going to be no worse than a 4-6 defeat. Oh well a 10-0 loss puts an end to any weird pattern taking up any more time in these reports. Sometimes a 10-0 defeat doesn’t tell the true story of a match – this one does!! Only two ends won all night by the hosts in an old-fashioned hammering!
 
And so, to our player of the week award. Surely this is Rachel’s week – 3 wins out of 3 in a 5-4 victory – you can’t ask for much more than that? Well, we can – for her failure as Team Captain to successfully bring some order to the match, she’s out of the running! Sorry Rachel, we appreciate it would have been as difficult as herding cats!  There were also undefeated nights for Julian and Greig but there could really only be one winner this week – for coming to the rescue of the team and for winning a vital match on the night well done to George – now we just need to convince him to join the Club again!
 
And finally, our controversy of the week section. This could have been a mammoth moan about people not being able to count properly and apply handicaps but fortunately, we squeezed over the line and in the end it didn’t matter. We could also air some of our own problems caused by “foul serving” but perhaps still a little raw at the moment so lets leave that for a couple of weeks. Let’s have a light-hearted moan instead and finish on a cheery note. Twice now our team captains the day after league matches have gone to upload the scores onto the Edinburgh Online site – twice they have found the scores have already been input! How on earth has that happened? Of course, the system shows who last created or modified a card and on both occasions this has been done by our opponents! Clearly excited to have won the match and given the modern practise of taking a photo of the card at the end of the night, they have a record of the score. But is this appropriate? It saves us time in doing so. But in the end of the day the rule is that it is the responsibility of the home team to do so – or have we missed a rule change? We would never think about uploading a score on behalf of another club – especially without telling them – a bit crazy really. Not that we are suggesting that people would put in the wrong score, but do we still then have to check that what is uploaded matches the scorecard that we have – we suppose we do. What’s the point of complicating matters – maybe the League could just send out a reminder to all as to the fact that the home team is responsible for uploading the card. On a positive note, however, maybe the teams in question have heard of our inability (at times) to upload timeously and they are trying to save the Club incurring fines for inputting late scores – if that was the case – thanks from us!!
 
Week 6 here we come….

Week 4 of the 2021/22 season has come and gone already - all four of our teams were in action.
 
With David Melrose still out after the calf muscle injury he picked up in Week 3, Iain Johnstone teamed up with Carsten Giebeler and Colin Green to face Edinburgh Sports Club 1 at Ladywood. 3 matches played and 3 defeats for the first team is not the start they had hoped for. They desperately needed to get their Premier League campaign up and running and coming off undefeated weekends in the Scottish National League, Colin and Carsten looked to be in good form. Iain started the night off against Faye Leggatt and lost an amazing first end 18-16 before losing the second 11-9. He came back though winning the next two 11-9. The decider, you guessed it, went the distance, with Faye scraping home 11-9. Colin and Carsten then got the home side on the board with good 3-0 wins over Scott McKenzie & Martin McKay respectively. Match 4 saw Colin take on Faye for the second time in a week, having defeated her in 5 at the National League last weekend. A similar story unfolded here, and another five-end win was then followed by a terrific 4 end victory for Iain v Martin and another win for Carsten – 5-1 up and Team 1’s first point of the season was secured. It got better for the home side as Carsten and Colin combined for a good doubles performance and that was followed by all three players picking up 4 end victories in their last matches of the night. Final score 9-1 (perhaps a little flattering) - a great win for the hosts. The question is will David get back in the team even when he regains fitness!
 
Team 2 made a trip to Napier University to take on Corstorphine in Division 1, retaining the same team who had drawn their opening match of the season with Murrayfield. Julian Taylor got the visitors off to the best possible start with a 4-end victory over the experienced Dave Hall. Player of the night from the previous match, Gary McDougal, then took on Jonas Falter. Gary found it tough going losing in a very one sided 3 straight sets. Match 3 was a classic – Sonny Taylor v Geoff Clark – Sonny fought back from losing the first and third sets to take it into a decider but couldn’t quite get over the line losing 11-9 in the fifth. Julian then levelled the scores again with a four-set victory over Jonas before Sonny was involved in yet another 5-end marathon. This time he let a 2-1 lead slip to lose in five and when Gary lost match 6, the visitors were in trouble at 4-2 down. The crucial doubles also went the distance, Julian and Gary unfortunately losing out 11-8 in the decider.  Could Team 2 come back for a draw? The answer was no as Sonny lost in 4 and an out of sorts Gary lost in 3. The only positive on the night was Julian’s form – his first season in Division 1 and an excellent night for him personally ended with his third win in Team 2’s 7-3 loss. The difference on the night was the close matches – three five setters and all three went the way of the hosts.
 
In Division 3, Team 4 also faced Corstorphine opposition, a little wounded from their 8-2 home loss to Murrayfield 8 the previous week. The same trio had the chance to put that match behind them as Jay Tracey, Rachel Petrie and Jim Jack made the trip to Napier. Rachel was first up and on another night she could quite easily have won this match, or at least picked up a couple of ends. Chris McCathie (he’s been round for an eternity hasn’t he?) showed his experience by playing the “big points” better in a 14-12, 11-9, 11-7 victory. When Jay and Jim then lost their matches in four ends, the visitors were in big trouble. Rachel then played her best TT of the night but was just lacking that ability to “put the match to bed” as she lost a -2-0 lead, losing the final three ends 12-10, 11-8, 11-8. Jim eventually got the team on the board with a win in match 5 but when Jay lost match 6 they trailed 5-1. The doubles should have been won but again the visitors lost out from a winning position – 2-0 up, Jim and Jay then lost the final three ends 11-9. 6-1 quickly became 7-1 and the match was well and truly over. As we pointed out in last week’s report, however, it was getting better for Team 4 – a 9-1 defeat in Week 1 and an 8-2 loss in their second match. To keep the pattern going Jay and Jim needed to win their final matches of the night and with WhatsApp updates being provided lo and behold they both did! A 7-3 loss and another move in the right direction. 10th November v Fife, if the pattern continues, will see a 6-4 victory! Hopefully, however, the pattern is broken in the team’s next match v ESC!  
 
In Division 2, following Team 3’s first League match of the season against Herriot Watt, they were again on their travels to take on students, as they rounded the week off on Friday evening with a visit to Edinburgh University 3. James Wighton, Hannah McDonell & Abby Wighton arrived in good spirits and left in good spirits – it was just the table tennis bit in the middle that got in the way of a really good night out. Things looked a little suspect at the beginning of the night. Having had a big night out the previous evening (Bongo Bingo whatever on earth that is!) Abby’s  reply to the tactical pre match advice was “I think I maybe shouldn’t have had those pint glasses of cocktails last night, or maybe that kebab on the way back to the hostel! OMG says Greig (or words to that effect) – are you ok to play – we’ll see - I’m sometimes seeing two balls coming towards me – that must give me a better chance of hitting one of them! To her credit she somehow managed to win 2 on the night (maybe seeing double was a good thing after all). The crucial match on the night turned out to be Match 6, Hannah v Edward Leong. Hannah battled back from 1-0 and 2-1 down to force a decider. In that decider she got off to a shocking start - 5-1 down at the change of ends then became 7-2. Somehow she then managed to hit some cracking forehand winners and the match watch was tied at 9-9 in the fifth. Momentum with her, two errors and her hard work fell just short – ouch! With a doubles loss the team were up against it and with time rapidly running out, Matthew Ashton won the last match of the night in 4 ends to pick up a 6-4 victory for the University. The good news for this team is the cracking team spirit – Hannah summed matters up on the journey home – “we might not be the best team, but I think we have the most fun” – and in the end that’s what it’s all about isn’t it?
 
And so, to our player of the week award. For the first time this season we have a real competition for the award. Colin and Carsten were both undefeated in Team 1 and combined for a win in the doubles. Julian had an excellent night in Division 1, undefeated in his singles matches although his team lost 7-3 and he lost in the doubles. The easy option is to give this week’s award to Carsten who was voted player of the night for 12 ends won and only 2 lost (including the doubles). But we like thinking out of the box a little. Iain Johnstone is the “4th member” of our Premier League squad; he played Division 2 in the 2019/20 season. He has only played one season in the Premier Division and that was back in 2014/15; he’s hardly picked up a bat since 2019; he’s still using the same blade and rubbers he had in the 2012 season!!; and yet he should have come away with a full house on Thursday night. As it was, his two victories managed to reduce the pressure on his teammates making their undefeated nights easier. Imagine how good he would be if we could get him to the club to practice!! Well done Iain.
 
And finally, our controversy of the week section. At the beginning of each season the League provide a list of players who cannot play up based on rating central points. Now a debate could be had about how accurate the ratings are, but putting that to one side, this season the League made specific exceptions for 3 players based on what they termed “youth development”. What was said was that the rules should not apply to inhibit youthful player development – specific examples were Murrayfield’s Charlie McGowan, Corstorphine’s Aidan Clark and North Merchiston’s Amelia Norbury. All three players are playing in higher teams than their rating suggests they should, and because of the moves, others are playing at a lower level than their rating suggests – for example Eddie Scott in the case of Amelia Norbury.
 
We have no problem with these exceptions – look at young Charlie McGowan – what fantastic strides he has made and scarily he’s already more than holding his own in the top team in the League, Murrayfield 1. Our problem is that in our club a similar argument can be made about our Club President. This year Greig is playing in Div 2 – the reason of course is the exact same reason as given by the League – “youthful player development” – in his case the development of his 14-year-old daughter, Hannah. At age 14, she can’t get to matches in the Edinburgh League from the lovely Scottish Borders on her own! It is unfair, in our view, that Eddie Scott, for example, can play at a lower level than his rating would suggest, to help develop Amelia, but not be punished by still being allowed to play up for NM’s Premier team where he should be registered, while Greig is not. There is no difference in our view. The choice made by Eddie and by Greig would seem to be based on the same consideration, namely, to help develop a young player. So why are we treated differently? Even more bizarre – the 100-point rule doesn’t even apply now in Greig’s case. Greig’s rating (1189) is below two of our Premier team but above the other two members of that team - Iain Johnstone (1153) and David Melrose (1111) – only 46 points above Iain and 78 points above David! Now the League will point out, no doubt, that there was more than a 100-point difference (this being the basis for applying the rule) at the start of the season and that was why Greig was banned from playing up for Team 1 – even at that point in time the biggest difference was just over 100 points. We had the bizarre situation last week of Team 1 playing with two players and Greig unable to step in because of the ruling. A 6-4 defeat followed!  And guess what? In NM’s first Premier league match of the season Eddie played up in place of Amelia, and won 2 vital matches in a 5-5 draw! 

If we listen to Hannah this might not be a problem for long anyway - he might soon be below all 4 members of the Premier team - just give it a few weeks and if dad ever gets in the team he’ll end up losing and his rating will tumble down in any event! She still remembers the Division 3 match in the 2020 season at Edinburgh University where he struggled over the line twice in deciding ends. Now there’s confidence for you! 

Handicap Cup in Week 5 - that will be really straightforward......

​Week 3 of the 2021/22 season saw three of our four teams in action, with Team 1 fitting in two matches in the week.
 
First up for them was a trip to reigning Premier League Champions Murrayfield 1. Having won the top division for 6 of the last 9 years, Team 1 were always going to be up against it. When Colin Green then pulled out to protect his average (no wait – he had something on) the job got even harder. Iain Johnstone came into the side, having last picked up his bat in about 2018, to join Carsten Giebeler and David Melrose. Overwhelming favourites at the start of the match, the bookies closed the book on a Murrayfield win after the first match of the night when David had to pull out with a calf injury. 1-0 down and a player down, credit to Carsten who had to dig deep to come back from 2-0 down against young Charlie McGowan to win in five. Whilst Iain struggled against Krzysztof Borkowicz and Gordon Muir (two of the top two players in the League just now) he also had a great match against Charlie – he just fell short after a good comeback to force a deciding fifth end. Carsten can take a lot of positives, however, having pushed both Gordon and Krzysztof the whole way, losing out 11-6 in the fifth against both. A 9-1 loss was perhaps a little bit unfair on the balance of play.
 
At the end of Week 3, Team 1 then caught up on their outstanding fixture from Week 1 with Edinburgh University. Having agreed the re-scheduled date, imagine the horror for Team Captain Colin on learning of David’s injury and then realising that Iain wasn’t available. Oh well the Club have a Premier League standard player (allegedly!) sitting in reserve waiting for just this type of scenario – none other than our Club President, Greig – oh hang on, the League have decided he is banned from playing up because he’s trying to help youth development by playing in Division 2 (more on that in a future Controversy of the Week no doubt!). With no one else available on a Friday evening it was a two-man team who took on the students. Starting 3-0 down this was always going to be tough and after both Colin and Carsten lost their opening matches the best they could have hoped for was a draw. A comeback then started as Colin held on (just) to defeat Kevin Qu 11-9 in the fifth. That was followed up by a 3-0 win for Carsten against Lydia Fu and when Colin and Carsten then defeated Lydia and Lei Zhu in the doubles, a miracle recovery was on the cards! Colin then won another five-end mammoth struggle with a 12-10 fifth end win v Lydia and the result came down to the final match of the night between Carsten and Kevin Qu. An 11-1 win for Kevin in the first end didn’t give much hope to the visitors but remarkably back came Carsten with an 11-9 victory in the second. An 11-6 third end win put the students on the verge of victory and despite Carsten’s best efforts he lost the last 12-10 – a 6-4 defeat on the night but from 5-0 down that was a good result.
 
Team 3 had their first taste of action this season as James Wighton, Hannah McDonell & Abby Wighton (together with NPC Greig McDonell) travelled to take on Herriot Watt in Division 2. The fourth member of this squad makes this team quite unique – two father daughter pairings representing the same Club may have happened before but in the same team???? That must be a first for the ELTTL we think. After Abby lost the first match of the night to Dan Potter there were comfortable wins for both Hannah and James to give the visitors the advantage. The next two matches saw Dan defeat James 3-0 before Abby won her match 3-0. Match 6 was ultimately to prove pivotal. Hannah took on Megan Sullivan and having lost the first two ends from winning positions (11-13 and 10-12) Hannah looked in trouble – to her credit she then played a little more freely as she won the next three ends to complete a terrific comeback. James & Hannah were defeated in the doubles cutting HW’s deficit to 4-3 overall. The visitors knew that wins in matches 8 and 9 would seal the victory and James and Abby duly delivered with straight sets victories. The last match of the night saw Dan take on Hannah, in what was probably the best quality match of the night with some terrific play from both players – the Uni’s number 1 held his nerve for a four-end victory as Penicuik recorded a 6-4 win, all three players picking up 2.
 
Finally in Week 3 Team 4 hosted Murrayfield 8 at Ladywood. Jay Tracey and Rachel Petrie were joined by Jim Jack, making his debut for the Club and he was unlucky in Match 1 of the night losing out 12-14, 4-11, 13-15 to Arjun Singh. Jay then lost 13-15 in the first end of his opening match which seemed to dent his confidence and the hosts were 2-0 down in the blink of an eye. Rachel then picked up a win against young Jamie Simpson in 4 ends before Arjun restored the two-match lead with a straight sets victory against Jay. Jim was then involved in a tight five-ender, winning 11-7 in the fifth to reduce the deficit once more. Match 6 saw a rather frustrated Rachel lose out to Peter Nettleton and when the doubles was then lost in straight sets, the home side trailed 5-2 and a point was the best they could hope for with the final three singles to play. It wasn’t to be for the hosts as all three players lost their final matches of the night as their Edinburgh opposition recorded an 8-2 win.  Jim, in his first match for the Club, was awarded home player of the match – well done to him. As Rachel pointed out afterwards, it’s getting better for Team 4 – a 9-1 loss in their first outing, 8-2 in their second – only another four weeks or so to wait until that pattern results in a victory - and watch out – by Xmas someone’s in for a 10-0 hammering!
 
And so, to our player of the week award. Like last week, none of our players were undefeated this week. There were a few 2’s – Colin in Team 1 in a 6-4 loss and important 2s for all of Team 3 in their 6-4 victory. In our first report of the season, we gave the award to a Murrayfield player, and we were tempted to give this week’s award to an opponent as well – but that would be too much! A special mention though to Dan Potter from Herriot Watt for his undefeated performance and also for his general good sportsmanship and attitude throughout the night.  But this week’s award goes to our youngest League player for her important two, and in particular the comeback from 2-0 down in ends, which effectively sealed the 6-4 victory for Team 3 and that coming in her debut at this level – well done to Hannah.
 
And finally, our controversy of the week section. Two reports done and we’re saving up controversies already! At the beginning of Team 1’s match, it appeared there was a last-minute phone call between the Uni Team and the League Match Secretary – Colin and Carsten were a bit in the dark about what was going on and indeed had the Uni Captain actually left the room to make the call they would still be in the dark! It turns out however that one of the University players was not originally registered for Edinburgh Uni when the original fixture ought to have been played – if that is the case, in terms of the rules, they are not entitled to play in the rescheduled fixture.
 
“Players, including re-registered players, may play in re-scheduled fixtures only if they were eligible to play in the originally scheduled fixture. No player shall be eligible to play in any re-arranged fixtures originally scheduled for a date prior to his/her initial registration. Any team playing an ineligible player will result in the team forfeiting the fixture”
 
Hmmm… If the player in question had just been late registered because that’s what happens with Edinburgh University (late start and all that) then there wouldn’t be an issue but apparently in this case, the player was actually registered for a different club as at the date of the original fixture. Despite that knowledge, the player played, and the rules were clearly not applied.  Colin managed to corner our Match Secretary at the National League at the weekend - his comment was that we should bring this issue to the attention of the next Committee meeting!
 
That shouldn’t be necessary of course, had the rules simply been applied at the time. Our famous saying for many a year makes a reappearance – what’s the point of having rules if they’re not going to be enforced! Over to the Committee we suppose..
 
Week 4 here we come!