Week 6 and all five of our teams were back in League action, starting with visits to Bathgate on Monday for Teams 2 and 4 to take on West Lothian opposition in Divisions 2 and 3 respectively.
 
Team 2 struggled to get a team together and were refused a postponement by WL. Team Captain James Wighton was joined by Gary McDougal but with Krzysztof Laszkiewicz unavailable due to “daddy duties”, Ian Hislop unavailable due to being on one of his constant holidays and Hannah McDonell unavailable because she’s now a “lazy student”, it was a scramble to find a replacement from Team 3. Kristian Skotzen answered the call for help as the trio made the westward trip. WL 2 were unbeaten going into week 6 with a couple of games in hand and they looked strong on paper. After Gary lost Match 1 there were good wins for James, Kristian and Gary before WL’s Number 1 picked up his second win of the night – 3-2 to Penicuik. Match 6 was the closest of the night, the only game to go to five ends. James pulled through from 2-1 down for an excellent win in the decider. Team 2’s performances in the doubles fixtures clearly need some work – 4 previous matches and 4 defeats – make that five out of five losses as James and Gary lost out. 4-3 and the pressure was on. Matches 8 and 9 were played simultaneously and the win was secured as Kristian and Gary recorded their second wins of the night. A loss for James in match 10, but the Penicuik trio left Bathgate over the moon with a 6-4 victory, all three players winning two singles. The win keeps the Team undefeated and top of the Division 2 table.  
 
In the other half of the hall, Team 4 of Rachel Petrie, Chamika Diyunugalge and Patrick Shanks took on WL 5 in Division 3. In the first three matches, Patrick came closest to a win going down in five to Tommy Toner. At 3-0 down Team 4 needed a bit of a miracle – that didn’t happen and after the next round of singles matches the game was over as a contest, Patrick again unlucky losing in five to his opponent – 6-0 to the hosts. Two wins in the final three singles matches showed some battling qualities from the visitors but ultimately they suffered an 8-2 defeat. Some important games coming up for Team 4 against teams in the bottom half of the table – they’ll need to pick up points in those matches to try and lift themselves away from the drop zone.
 
It was another busy Thursday night at Ladywood with Teams 1, 3 and 5 all in action. Team 1 of Greig McDonell, Colin Green and Peter Aird faced the youngsters of West Lothian 2 in the Premier Division. The WL team probably have an average age of under 17 whilst the Penicuik trio’s average age is about 60! Would experience count? Colin’s guile of managing to get over the line when not playing at his best came to the fore – some cracking wins for him, notably a comeback win against the flamboyant Jackson McFarlane - from 2-1 down he won that 11-7 in the fifth. Peter’s “dodgy rubber” caused the youngsters some difficulties – he came back from 2-0 down against Jackson to win and had a cracking deuce in the fifth win against the ever improving Rory Thomson. In the end the doubles proved crucial as Peter and Colin combined for a five end win – this match could easily have been lost but in the end the hosts recorded a 6-4 victory.
 
Four of our five teams this week faced West Lothian opposition and in Division 4, Team 5 rounded off the Penicuik v West Lothian week as they faced West Lothian 7. Somewhat unbelievably, the hosts could only field two players as Captain, Roscoe Cairney was joined by Ian Millar, making his first appearance of the season.  Roscoe started the night brilliantly coming back from losing the first two ends of Match 1, 5-11, 5-11 to stun his opponent with 11-8 wins in the next three ends. When he won his second match of the night as well, he was thinking that Team 5 would have been right in the match had he been able to field a full side. As it was though, that was as good as it got for the Penicuik duo as they lost the other matches on the night and fell to an 8-2 defeat.
 
The only team not to play WL opposition was Team 3 who hosted Murrayfield 7. Charlie Brindley, Bob Porteous and Craig Linton took to the table for the hosts and when Charlie lost match 1 and at the same time Bob was struggling in match 2, this looked like being a tough night for the hosts. Bob somehow managed to find some form towards the end of his match as he squeezed over the line 12-10 in the fifth. Wins then followed for Craig, Charlie and Bob again as the hosts opened up a 4-1 lead. Craig lost match 6 before he combined with Bob in the all-important doubles – At 2-1 down they were in trouble but a 12-10 fourth end win was followed by an 11-9 fifth end victory to secure at least a point for the Penicuik trio. Three wins followed for the hosts as they recorded an excellent 8- 2 victory. The score probably flatters the hosts a little – three of the matches went to five ends and all of them were won at the death by Penicuik – on another night this match could easily have gone the other way. A cracking win, however, keeps Team 3 on Team 2’s tails at the top of the division 2 table.

And so, to our Player of the Week Award. Colin and Bob were the only undefeated players this week. Colin, however, didn’t manage to pick up the Player of the Night award from his WL opponents – that went to Greig for being the “nicest” player of the match! Bob played some lovely stuff in his side’s victory, but his three didn’t prove to be particularly crucial to the overall result. So, this week the award goes to a player who won 2 out of three – no not you again Roscoe, even though Greig in his coaching role pointed out how terrific it was to see Roscoe playing some excellent attacking TT. With the pressure on and playing up at the last minute, two crucial wins for Kristian saw Team 2 over the line against West Lothian helping Team 2 maintain their undefeated start to the season – Well done to him.  
 
Anything controversial this week? Let’s have a go at ourselves – Team 5 have SEVEN players registered to play in the League this season and yet we ended up fielding a team of two against West Lothian. That’s poor by anybody’s standards. The ELTTL has a rule in place that after the fifth occurrence of playing a two person team (per Club not team) the Club will be fined £10 per match! We get the reason why playing without a full team is frowned upon but when Clubs genuinely can’t help it they can’t help it. Obviously in Team 5’s case they are our bottom team so cannot call anyone up from a lower team. No one wants to play under-strength so to punish a Club for being unable to field a full team does seem a little harsh. That said the argument no doubt is that six times playing under-strength before being fined is probably quite generous. With five teams competing this year, we have nearly 100 fixtures to fulfill – is 5% fair? For a club like Murrayfield with 13 teams registered, they have around 250 fixtures to play – so only 2% of their fixtures can be played under-strength. In fairness looking at last year, this is probably not a significant issue – only two clubs incurred fines for playing less than three players six times or more – Heriot Watt - an astonishing 13 times and Haddington 8 times. In total across the league there were 35 occasions when 2 player teams were used. So, in summary, this must be a quiet week for controversies if we’re spending this much time on such a non-issue! Let’s just leave it at how shocking it was that we could only field 2 out of seven players!
 
We had thought that this week may have thrown up some controversy with the visit of the young WL team to Penicuik – cranky old Penicuik players against exuberant youngsters. But we can’t fault the visiting WL trio – yes there was an occasional swear word muttered after a poor shot, but Noah, Jackson and Rory were great to play against and to watch. We can even understand a slight “bat throw incident” after Peter won a deuce in the fifth match with a horrendous net roller that just crept over on to the youngster’s side of the table! Jackson played some of the best shots we think we’ve seen played at Ladywood including an outrageous 100 mph forehand played on the run and around the net to win a fantastic point against Colin – he also played a switch hands backhand (or does that make it a forehand) whilst retrieving smashes against the back wall at Ladywood! He may only have won one match, but he was entertaining all evening and made Greig’s night with the best comment of the season so far. After hitting some unbelievable winners, he also played some stinkers causing him to shout, “How can I play such amazing table tennis one minute and then play complete and utter @@@@@ the next!” Most of us would take his @@@@@ if we could play the good stuff like he can! The scary thing is this young trio are still improving and Team 1 are not looking forward to playing them in the second half of the season!
 
And finally, we turn to Team 4’s match away at WL. One of the fairly recent rules to be introduced is that only a team member or person designated on the scorecard as NPC can give advice during a match. That seemed to be ignored by the West Lothian side last Monday. According to our team there was someone who was repeatedly giving advice during changeovers and during the games themselves to one of the WL players.  Patrick at the change of ends at 2-2 in one of his matches, raised the issue with the WL umpire – his response was “it’s no big deal is it”. Not really what Patrick wanted to hear. Before the last match of the night Rachel told the individual that he shouldn’t be giving advice to the WL team – perhaps someone ought to have said something a bit sooner!
 
Week 7 for the Club gets underway on Wednesday this week with Team 1 visiting Edinburgh International and Team 5 making the long trip to Gullane before Teams 2 and 4 play at home on Thursday.

​Week 5 was Handicap Cup Week, and we had, as always, entered 4 teams into this season’s competition. The Handicap Cup Week coincided with the October holiday week and that seems to have had a massive impact on availability of our players. Of the four matches scheduled we had three at home on Thursday and one away on Wednesday to Murrayfield. That away tie was conceded on the basis that we couldn’t field 12 players – 24 registered to play in the League and we struggled to get 9 available for the Handicap Cup. Shocking!
 
At home on Thursday, James Wighton (+1), Jay Jayalath (+3) and John Bald (+6) faced another Murrayfield side, Robert Carlyle (+7), Joey Kilbride (+3) and Porter De Farias (+5). James v Robert was first up with James giving his opponent a six point start to 11. The first two ends were shared and then ends 3 and 4 could have gone either way but it was James who came through in those ends 13-11, 11-9 to give the hosts the perfect start. John then played Joey and started with a 3-0 advantage which he was never to lose. Jay then gave the hosts a perfect start with a 3-1 victory over Porter. The hosts were coasting, or so it seemed. Losses for John v Robert and James v Porter, however, brought the match back into the balance. Jay v Joey was a straightforward 0-0 game and Jay restored the advantage for the home side with a comfortable 3 set win, but Murrayfield kept in the match as Porter defeated John. So, 4-3 as the last two matches were played simultaneously with time running out. Team Captain James said it was never in doubt as both he and Jay won in straight sets to give Penicuik a 6-3 win.
 
In the other half of the hall, Roscoe Cairney (+6), Rachel Petrie (+5) and Chamika Diyunugalge (+5) took on Corstorphine, Fergus Harrison (+5), Tommy Sutherland (+1) and Bill Batten (+7). Chami got the hosts off to a great start with a comfortable three set win against Fergus, but the match was levelled as the experienced Tommy came back from a 4 point deficit to beat Rachel in 4 ends. Roscoe then restored the lead with a 4 end victory against Bill before a crucial match between Rachel and Fergus. At 1-1 in the match end 3 went the distance – Rachel held her nerve for a 15-13 win. She looked down and out in the fourth at 6-3 down but remarkably from there she never lost another point as she recorded an 11-6 victory. That gave the hosts a 3-1 advantage and when Chami defeated Bill the match was there for the taking. Roscoe faced Tommy with a 5 point start in Match 6. The advice given to Roscoe was to go for his shots and he did that in spades! And they came off – a terrific 3-0 victory gave the home side the match by a 5-1 scoreline.
 
The final team to play on Thursday night was due to face another Murrayfield side, but just as we had struggled the previous night, Murrayfield couldn’t get two teams to us and so a 5-0 walkover win. A good week in the end with 3 of our four teams progressing to the next round.
 
And so, to our Player of the Week Award. It was a quiet week with only six players in action – of those six, Jay, Roscoe and Chami were undefeated. Whilst Roscoe’s win against Tommy was probably the best win of the night, he and Chami only played two games each – the man who predominantly got the other side through had 3 wins out of 3 and steadied the nerves with some good comeback victories – well done to Jay.
 
The Handicap Cup is normally good for throwing up some controversial moments but on the table it was a quiet night at Ladywood with everyone getting along and no issues at all. Off the table of course we had the ridiculous situation of having to concede a match to Murrayfield because only about a third of our registered players were available for the Handicap Cup. That match was effectively conceded at the weekend when it became apparent that there was no way we could secure 12 players for the week. Murrayfield have 59 players registered and they entered six teams into the Competition. They needed less than a third of their players to be available to fulfill their fixtures and couldn’t manage that either! It was Wednesday before our opponents confirmed they could only get one team to visit Ladywood on Thursday, not normally an issue but had we known earlier the three that effectively got a bye could have formed the team to visit Murrayfield on Wednesday evening. Oh well c’est la vie – one bye given to Murrayfield, and they returned the favour to us. Trying to reorganise would have been a nightmare.
 
Apart from that it was a quiet week – unless we make comment about some shenanigans that took place at the Scottish National League last weekend. All hell broke out there on Saturday at Bathgate when Divisions 1 to 3 were in action. There was no such drama on the Sunday when Divisions 4 to 6 took place, other than the normal youthful exuberance of certain youngsters! Cho Cho Cho Cho was again in action – so much so that the umpire on the adjacent table to where the “exuberance” was on show felt he should have interrupted the match to tell the youngster that he was putting the players off in the match he was umpiring. As we have said many a time, there is nothing wrong with showing delight / excitement / glee at good shots – when your opponent pushes one in the net though a shout of Cho is well and truly uncalled for.
 
But that paled into insignificance in relation to Saturday’s drama which involved the Tournament Referee having to be called to umpire a match which had a “nasty” element to it. We think the matter is still under investigation as the result of the match is yet to be recorded into the League Table / Results – on that basis we will not make any further comment and will no doubt be able to come back to this in a “quiet week” later in the season.
 
Week 6 is upon us and virtually 25% of the season completed already! It’s flying by!

Week 4 saw all five of our teams in action for the first time this season and the match of the week had to be the derby encounter between Teams 2 and 3 in Division 2.
 
Both teams had won all their games going into the match and something had to give. For Team 2, James Wighton, Krzysztof Laszkiewicz and Gary McDougal took to the table. They faced Team 3 of Kristian Skotzen, Bob Porteous and Charlie Brindley. In fairness, following re-organisation of the teams from last season, it was difficult to pick a favourite for the win. First up was Krzysztof v Charlie, teammates from last year. A rapid 3-0 win for Krzysztof was a little unexpected and advantage Team 2. Gary probably started as favourite against Kristian in Match 2, but this was tight – a fifth end deuce decider went to Kristian 12-10! The screams from Gary could apparently be heard in Penicuik Town Centre! Next up was James v Bob. Bob had been undefeated through two matches this season, but he came unstuck as James secured a comfortable 3-0 win. The match was levelled again when Charlie defeated Gary in three ends. 2-2 and it looked like this match would go the distance. Advantage to Team 2 again after Krzysztof produced some terrific play to record a comfortable 3-0 win v Bob and for the first time on the night a two game gap appeared after James recorded a 3-2 win v Kristian. As we often say, the doubles, in a close match, is always crucial – James and Krzysztof combined v Charlie and Bob – at 1-1 the third end went to multiple deuces and the players could sense how important a win was going to be – 7 deuces, numerous game points for Team 2 but it was Charlie and Bob who triumphed 18-16. They then took the fourth end to reduce the deficit to 4-3. James v Charlie and Gary v Bob were then played simultaneously – two 3-0 wins for Team 3 and the match was turned on its head – from 4-2 down Team 3 now led 5-4. Krzysztof faced Kristian in match 10 – Krzysztof had by far been the best player on the night and he salvaged a draw for Team 2 with another 3-0 win. So, in the end, a fair result? Both teams remain undefeated. Team 2 probably thought they had the match tied up at 4-2, Team 3 will probably be a little disappointed not to have hung on for the win having come back to lead 5-4.
 
Meanwhile in the other half of the hall Team 4 were in action against a strong looking ESC side in Division 3. Rachel Petrie, Patrick Shanks and Ben Miller were up against it from the outset – a team that competed in Div 4 last season against the Edinburgh outfit that had come down from Div 2 and the difference showed in the first few matches as ESC raced into a 4-0 lead. Things got better after that for the hosts – of the remaining six matches 3 went to five ends and two were decided in four. Unfortunately, only one of the close ones went the way of the hosts as Patrick picked up a win in the resulting 9-1 defeat.
 
Colin Green, Greig McDonell and Peter Aird combined for the first time this season as Team 1 visited Edinburgh University on Friday night. The first four matches of the night were close and could have gone either way. Peter came back from 9-5 down to win the first end of his match and sneaked over the line 13-11 in the fourth for a 3-1 win. Greig, Colin and Peter were then involved in three five end matches, the visitors winning all three of them and when Colin and Greig won their second matches the game was over, 6-0 to Penicuik. Greig lost his final match of the night but a terrific 9-1 victory was exactly what Team 1 needed.

Finally on Friday night, Team 5 made the long trip to one of the newest clubs in the league, Dunbar. Jay Jayalath, John Bald and Mat Dyluk made the trip conscious of having played Dunbar in Div 5 last season and come away with an 18-2 aggregate loss over the two matches played! Dunbar had won the Division 5 title last year at a canter and finished a massive 27 points ahead of the Penicuik side. It was probably no surprise then when the visitors found it hard going. Jay was our player of the night with two wins in an 8-2 defeat.
 
And so, to our Player of the Week Award. Firstly, our Week 2 award was held back as we couldn’t split Krzysztof and Bob so decided that the winner of their derby match this week would determine that outcome. A comfortable 3-0 win for Krzysztof should mean that he wins the week 2 accolade. But hold on – apparently prior to losing on Thursday night (yeah right) a complaint was lodged by Bob who pointed out that in the past a doubles victory combined with undefeated nights has led to the award being given – as we reported Bob won his doubles match whilst Krzysztof lost – to show we’re always willing to listen, well done to Bob, our Week 2 winner by default!
 
As for Week 4, Krzysztof, Colin and Peter were all undefeated. Peter won 9 ends and lost 4, Colin won 9 and lost 2 whereas Krzysztof won 9 without losing an end. Having had his week 2 award stolen, there can be no doubt this week – 3 wins in a 5-5 draw and he truly deserves to be our Week 4 winner. Bob needed to have the last word though and points out that like week 2, Krzysztof lost the doubles again – this time with a different partner!
 
As for our controversy of the Week section, normally a derby match throws up a lot of controversial moments, but Penicuik is such a lovely club with such calm and thoughtful players that everyone was friendly at the start of the night, throughout the match, and at the end of the night! No fallouts at all and even James was on his best behaviour! How ridiculously boring!
 
Team 4 were slightly peeved that they came up against a top class player in Div 3. Keith Walker from ESC is a former premier league player (as recently as five years ago). He still showed he has good TT skills in not dropping an end and his standard was way above the rest of the players on show. He only dropped 36 points in 9 ends of table tennis, so an average of 4 points a game. He should never be playing in Div 3 came the comments from Team 4 – maybe not but that’s where his rating puts him. There are four players at ESC with higher ratings than him and given ESC only have two teams the place he fits into is Team 2. Nothing that can be done about that. Him playing certainly gives ESC a good chance in each match as we can’t see him losing many (if any) games in Division 3. With a squad of 8 players, however, if he doesn’t play every week we could have teams moaning about how unfair it is if he plays against them but not against other rivals! We remember a few seasons ago when our Club President dropped down to Division 2, Edinburgh International kicked up a real fuss about him playing against them. Their point was that that it was unfair that he was playing in the fixture against them because that could have a negative impact on their “fight for 2nd place” with Murrayfield in a season where he hadn’t played every match in Division 2 and in particular he hadn’t played in either match against Murrayfield 7. That gave them an unfair advantage. The difference, we suppose, was that our Club President was playing out of strength order as opposed to Keith who isn’t! The concept is the same though and in Edinburgh International’s eyes our situation even merited them trying to introduce some convoluted rule at the AGM to cover such a scenario – we don’t think it got voted in! Anyway, to avoid such issues arising again, and given that our Club President was still in pain by Saturday night having apparently moved a couple of times during his match on Friday, he’s trying to take a leaf out of the ESC playbook and has been desperately trying to get a player to join the Club with a higher rating than him so he can drop down and register for our second team!
 
Also, from Team 4’s match, there were a couple of occasions when Rachel’s opponent threw his bat after struggling to get on top. The bat was thrown during the ends, and deliberately thrown, we can only assume, in anger.  That should, we think, result in a yellow card. Or should it? The Code of Conduct on the back of our ELTTL Scorecards indicates that one of the forbidden behaviours is “venting anger or frustration, including on items of equipment such as their bat, the ball, the table or surrounds”. Does that mean that it is automatically a yellow card? Answers on a postcard. Rachel apparently said under her breath that she thought the behaviour should have resulted in a warning or a yellow card – maybe she should have said it out loud! The ESC Umpire stayed quiet. Last season we believe the committee were only made aware of a couple of cards being shown throughout the season – maybe we just don’t hear about them? Given the number of “characters” in the league, we’re surprised they’re not used on a nightly basis – and that’s just for our own Club members!
 
And finally, this was the first home match for one of our new players, Ben. He experienced for the first time the incessant thud, thud, thud, bang, bang, bang of the boxing in the other half of the hall. Apparently it was a bit distracting – surely not Ben. You should have tried playing in the Hall with the 140 decibel Zumba class or the barking, yelping Dog Obedience classes!! The boxing is soothing in comparison!!
 
Week 5 here we come. 

The summer has flown by and in a flash we’re back in action in the 2024/25 Edinburgh League. Firstly, a big thanks to our sponsors, Cullen Kilshaw and AMT Auto, who continue their support of the Club. On the table, we have a number of new look teams this season and have five teams competing in the League.  
 
Team 1 remain unchanged from last year with Colin Green, Greig McDonell and Peter Aird combining. Their Week 1 fixture against Murrayfield 2 was dealt a blow with the absence of Greig from the team (apparently his energetic summer sport of bowls took priority over the TT – now there’s our first controversy of the new season and we’re only on our second paragraph)! At the end of the day, it’s unlikely his attendance would have made any difference as the Edinburgh outfit ran out 7-3 winners, Peter and Colin winning 1 each and combining for the doubles victory.
 
With a free Week in Week 2, it was further Murrayfield opposition for Team 1 in Week 3 as they took on Murrayfield 3. The controversy keeps on coming as on this occasion it was Peter who had “better things to do”! A phone call from Colin to remind Peter of the fixture was met by the response “I can’t hear you – I’m in the Middle East”. Of Fife asked Colin? Apparently not! 2 wins each for Greig & Colin wasn’t enough as they fell to a 6-4 defeat. A bad start to Team 1’s Premier division campaign. Maybe if they can get a full side out they might stand a chance of a win. Thanks to James, however, for answering the call twice to step in as a third player.
 
Team 2 were relegated from Div 1 last season and had a new look about them as they started out with two matches against Edinburgh University and a trip to Haddington in their first three weeks. James Wighton, Hannah McDonell and Ian Hislop are back this year (although Hannah and Ian will be playing only part time). The squad was bulked up by the addition of Krzysztof Laszkiewicz and Gary McDougal. A tight 6-4 win against University 3 for Ian, Krzysztof and Gary was followed by another tight 6-4 win against Haddington for James, Ian and Krzysztof. Bringing Week 3 to a close, Hannah entered the fray as she combined with James & Ian in a visit to Edinburgh Uni 4. A good three weeks for Team 2 as they recorded a 7-3 win.
 
Also, in Div 2 this year, are Team 3 – three players who won promotion from Div 3, Craig Linton, Kristian Skotzen and Richard Millar have joined up with two from last season’s Team 3, Bob Porteous and Charlie Brindley. They started out in terrific form as Craig, Charlie and Bob secured a 10-0 win v Corstorphine. Bob, Craig and Kristian then faced a trip to North Merchiston 4 and came away with a 7-3 victory. An undefeated start for Team 3 – something’s got to give in Week 4 as Teams 2 and 3 meet!
 
Following us dropping a team from last year, what was our old Team 5 became Team 4 and stepped up a Division into Div 3. Rachel Petrie, Patrick Shanks and Chamika Diyunugalge are joined this season by Ben Miller, a new player to the Club. First up for Team 4 was a visit to Corstorphine. The first two matches were lost in five tight ends by Chamika and then Patrick and that set the tone for the night. An 8- 2 loss suffered by the visitors. North Merchiston were the visitors to Ladywood in Week 2. Two wins for Patrick and one each for Rachel and Chamika as the hosts fell just short with a 6-4 loss. On to Week 3 and it was a visit to the Gyle for Rachel and Ben. With neither Patrick nor Chamika available, John Bald played up from Div 4. Defeats in 5 for Rachel and John proved decisive and despite a terrific night for Ben winning his 3, the best the visitors could achieve was a 5-5 draw.
 
Team 5 (Team 6 last year) also welcomed a new player to the fold in Jay Jayalath as they also stepped up a division as a result of us dropping a team from the League. It was with trepidation that the team took to the table in Week 1 worried that having finished second bottom of Div 5 this would be a step too far. Roscoe, Sian and Jay faced Corstorphine at home for their first taste of Division 4 action – Jay showed promise with two wins and Sian added 1 in a 7-3 loss. Sian and Jay were joined by John Bald in their Week 2 visit to Edinburgh University and a cracking night was had by all as the visitors recorded a 7-3 victory. In Week 3, Roscoe was back in action with Sian and Jay as they hosted Murrayfield. The tone for the night was set in matches 1 and 2 as Jay came back from the dead for an 11-9 fifth end win and Sian once again proved that she likes getting her money’s worth – a four end victory but the fourth end was won 23-21! Three of the four five end matches went the way of the hosts as they recorded an excellent 9-1 victory. Who said Div 4 would be too difficult – it took them all season last year to record 4 points – they’ve done it this year in 3 weeks!!  
 
And so, to our Player of the Week Awards! Shockingly, our Reporter has been AWOL in Weeks 1 and 2 so we have a bumper 3 awards to deal with. Only our Team 3 players were undefeated in Week 1. Difficult to split them but having missed most of last season, it was good to see Charlie back and his 3 wins were secured in rapid fashion. Well done to Charlie, our first weekly winner.
 
Week 2 saw undefeated nights for Bob, Krzysztof, and Jay. Jay lost four ends on the night so a great week for him but he’s out of the running. Bob won 9 ends and lost 3 as did Mr Scrabble Man! How do we split them? Bob won in the doubles whilst Krzysztof lost – he says though that was all down to the fault of his partner, Gary – harsh! Statistically, Krzysztof’s win was more important to the team – a 6-4 win for Team 2 opposed to a 7-3 win for Team 3. But hey we can’t split them, so in a change from tradition, we’re going to come back to the Week 2 award and give it to whichever one of them wins the derby encounter in Week 4!
 
Onto Week 3 and it gets even more difficult – undefeated nights for Hannah, Ben, Jay and Roscoe. In terms of ends dropped it was Hannah who topped the pile with the loss of only 1 end. In any other week she’d be a certainty for the award – she also managed to keep James calm in the team’s match against University (more on that later)! Ben’s 3 was clearly the most important to the overall results in Week 3 – a 5-5 draw for Team 4 and without that undefeated night and a win in the doubles, Team 4 would have suffered a loss. Jay’s three included a comeback from 5-1 down in the fifth end and set the tone for Team 5’s victory. But, the award this week has to go to Team 5 Captain, Roscoe – he started to play in the League in the 22/23 season and in his previous two seasons he’s been close on a number of occasions to having an unbeaten night. But on his 29th appearance for the club he did it – and in some style in a division he didn’t want to play in! Well done Roscoe.
 
Finally, our controversy of the week section. Let’s start with the most recent controversy and a shout out to our University opponents in Team 2’s match last Friday. We were delighted to hear from Hannah that the Uni boys had mentioned to her how disappointed they were not to have read any PTTC Reports yet this season – they were missing them. Jings our following has increased by 2 or 3 players it seems! Just for them they take centre stage this week with an issue that arose when James was warming up against his first opponent. James noticed some “funny rubber” on his opponent’s bat and asked what was being used. “I don’t need to tell you that”, came the response. James, somewhat surprised, then asked to see the bat – absolutely no problem with that. He then asked upon examining the bat whether what he was looking at was short or long pimples – the same response to the initial question came back at him. And despite James perhaps being a little irritated by the replies, his young opponent was of course entirely correct. Rule 2.4.8 of the ITTF Laws of Table Tennis states that at the beginning of a match…. a player shall show his opponent and the umpire the racket he is about to use and shall allow them to examine it. That’s all a player has to do. It’s then up to the other player to try and work out what he/she is looking at! If you still don’t know by the time the first end is over get one of your teammates to google it!
 
There was also an incident later in the night when James was warned about throwing the ball up properly at service – he lost focus and had a bit of an argument – not sure if he realised his opponent is the new League Match Secretary! Don’t have fall outs with him James! According to Hannah, however, there was no real animosity in anything that happened, and her view of the Uni opponents was that all three of them, Richard, Joel and Enrique, were “lovely guys” who she got on really well with. Maybe she was just hoping that her team members were more like the students, rather than Ian and James with a combined age of 127!
 
There was, however, some real tension apparently in Team 4’s visit to the Gyle last Friday. Ben had a terrific night winning his three in a 5-5 draw. After he had won his first match 3-0, the Murrayfield umpire proceeded to tell Ben how some of his serves were illegal and were giving him “free points” every game! Really? Why wait until after the match was over? What good does that do anyone? He then complained about the serves again, after he had lost his match to Ben! Again, if you are going to raise an issue don’t wait until there is nothing that can be done about it. The alleged service problem is one of our favourites – not throwing the ball up straight enough! The rule says the server shall project the ball “near vertically upwards”, without imparting spin, so that it rises at least 16cm after leaving the palm of the free hand…”
 
What does “near vertically upwards” actually mean? Amazon have digital Angle finders for purchase these days – maybe they should be added to an umpire’s toolkit! Like all matches, there are always two sides to every story but according to our team, the player who was complaining certainly did not have “legal serves” all the time. Apparently the ball wasn’t thrown up the desired 16cm. So, protractors and rulers need added to players’ Xmas lists!
 
It was a complete coincidence that John then packed away in his bag one of the Murrayfield players bats! Fortunately, Team 4 couldn’t escape from the Gyle late on a Friday night and had to come back for help to get out and the missing bat was discovered at that stage!!
 
Ah it’s good to be back – was it too early to mention Xmas? Surely not – only 78 days left!