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Week 10 Report

27/11/2016

Week 10 of the Edinburgh & Lothians League saw five of the Club's seven teams in action.

In Division 1, Penicuik 2 faced an away match against Edinburgh International 3. When the visitors lost 4 of the first 5 matches of the night it looked like being a bad night for Iain Johnstone, Clive Liddiard and Brian Bailey. A win for Iain was then followed by an important doubles victory as he combined with Clive to reduce the deficit to 4-3. Brian lost match 8 before Clive won his final match of the night leaving Iain to try and win match 10 and secure a point for the visitors. The final match went the distance but Iain held his nerve to win the deciding end 11-8 and with that salvaged a 5-5 draw.

In Division 2 Team 3 followed up a 10-0 win in week 9 with another convincing win in Week 10 against West Lothian 5. The result was all the more impressive as the team were without regular Gary McDougal. Krzysztof Laszkiewicz deputised and he, James Wighton and Abby Wighton were all undefeated in singles play, the only blip on the night being a loss in the doubles as the Penicuik trio recorded an excellent 9-1 victory.

Penicuik 4 have had a terrible run over the last few weeks and confidence was low as they faced an away match against Edinburgh Sports Club in Division 2. At 4-2 down the visitors knew a doubles victory was essential and Krzysztof and Chris Markey secured that win in five tight ends. They both then won their final singles matches as Team 4 stopped the rot after 3 straight defeats securing a 5-5 draw. Chris was undefeated on the night for the visitors.

In Division 3 Team 5's horrendous run of results unfortunately continued in their home fixture against Haddington 2. After being 2-0 down, the home side looked to have turned the match around after 4 consecutive wins gave them a 4-2 lead but then John Bald, Phil Daly and Louis Myatt lost the last 4 matches of the night as they fell to a disappointing 6-4 defeat. John won 2 whilst Phil and Louis both won 1.

Finally in a week of very close matches for the Club, Penicuik 7 were also on the wrong end of a 6-4 scoreline in their home match against Edinburgh University 5. Marcin Mroz, Louis McLeod and Rachel Petrie will rue a couple of matches where they had winning chances as Team 7's poor run in Division 4 continued. Marcin led the way for the home trio with 3 wins on the night but only Louis was able to contribute another win as Team 7 lost their sixth consecutive match.

Player of the Week award for Week 10? Five players undefeated in singles play this week - Iain, James, Abby, Chris and Marcin. Only two of them were undefeated when the doubles are added into the equation, Iain was one of those but for the importance of stopping a losing run the award this week goes to Team 4's Chris Markey. Well done Chris.

And finally our controversy of the week section - One of the writer's pet hates is seeing players (or spectators) getting so vocally involved in matches that virtually every point won deserves a scream of delight or the dreaded "Cho" - it's not even a word is it? Even sadder to see this being fairly prevalent at the Scottish Primary Schools Championships today in Bathgate - certainly amongst the top boys. In one match there was an almost "mob like" mentality amongst the players and their teammates who seemed to want to out do each other in the "encouragement stakes"! Really? Is this type of behaviour necessary? Cho. Cho. Cho. Wait a minute that was a lucky net; an edge; a mistake from the opponent - it matters not it seems! Surely at this level the coaches should be trying to cut that out of the game - or the referee? They don't and all that does is provide the kids watching with the green light to act like that themselves when they're playing. Of course maybe it's just part of the game now and I'm an old fuddy-duddy?? No need for anyone to respond - that was a rhetorical question!!!
Roll on Week 11....

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Week 9 Report

20/11/2016

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Week 9 of the Edinburgh & Lothians League saw six of the Club's seven teams in action.

In the Premier Division, Greig McDonell and Colin Green were without regular third player Stuart Gow as they faced two matches in two days. (yeah thanks for that Stuart!!) Against Defending Premier League Champions, Murrayfield 1 Greig and Colin continued their excellent doubles form by defeating the Murrayfield pairing of Gordon Muir and Charlie Ellis but that was the only win on the night as they fell to a heavy 9-1 defeat. The next night saw them travel to Edinburgh International 1 and they called on the services of Iain Johnstone from Division 1. Iain played extremely well as all three players won 2 of their 3 singles matches whilst Greig and Colin added another doubles victory in an excellent 7-3 win.

In Division 1, Team 2 faced a difficult home match against a strong Murrayfield 3 side. Iain Johnstone and Clive Liddiard both won their first 2 singles matches and combined for a doubles victory to give the home side a 5-2 lead going into the last round of singles fixtures. At 2-0 up in his final match of the night, Clive looked as if he would secure the win for the Penicuik trio but Derek Croll had other ideas as he came back to win the final 3 ends. Brian Bailey then lost match 9 leaving Iain to try and secure victory in the last match of the night against Colin Clark. Like Clive, he won the first 2 ends but back from the dead came Colin to win the final 3 ends 13-11, 11-9 , 11-9. In the end of the day a 5-5 draw was probably a good point for the home side, however, they left Ladywood disappointed having come so close to securing an excellent victory.

Penicuik 3 of James Wighton, Gary McDougal and Abby Wighton had no difficulty as they travelled to Bathgate to face West Lothian6 in Division 2. All 3 players were never troubled and only lost two ends in the whole match as they recorded a 10-0 whitewash win. The victory maintains the team’s good run of form and they sit a comfortable second in the Division 2 points behind League Leaders Haddington.

Team 4 have come unstuck in recent weeks in the absence through injury of Tony Brentnall. Chris Markey and Krzysztof Laszkiewicz called up Louis McLeod from Division 4 as they took on North Merchiston 3 in Division 2. The doubles is always an important fixture and so it proved again in this match as with the scores evenly poised at 3-3 the Penicuik pairing of Krzysztof and Chris let slip a 2-0 advantage to lose out in a tight deciding end. Krzysztof then had a chance to salvage a draw in the last match of the night but from 2-1 up lost 11-8 in the final end as the visitors recorded a 6-4 win. Chris won 3 wile Krzysztof won 1.
In Division 3 Team 5 remain winless after a narrow 6-4 defeat at the hands of Edinburgh International 4. John Bald was joined by youngsters Louis McLeod and Louis Myatt and they will rue the chances they had to secure at least a point as John won 2 while the youngsters won 1 each on a disappointing night.

Finally in Division 4, Team 7 faced an away match against Murrayfield 8 and were only able to field two players in Marcin Mroz and Louis McLeod. Seven players registered for Team 7 but we still had to play understrength - wow! Louis won 2 and Marcin 1 in the resultant 7-3 defeat.
Player of the Week award for Week 9 is a difficult one. All 3 of Team 3 were in good form and undefeated; Iain had yet another good week and contributed hugely to Team 1’s victory in the Premier Division whilst Clive also played some terrific stuff to come so close to securing a victory for Team 2. Chris is also in the running for his undefeated singles play in Team 4’s defeat. But the award this week goes to a youngster who although on the end of some defeats in Week 9 showed how much he loves TT with his unbelievable commitment to the Club - Louis McLeod played against Murrayfield away from home for his own team on Wednesday, played for Team 4 on Thursday against North Merchiston, for Team 5 away to Edinburgh International on Friday, was at coaching on Saturday morning at Ladywood and combined with Louis Myatt on Sunday at Haddington in the newly created Junior League, helping Penicuik A finish the day of 3 fixtures equal top of the Division - that’s the type of commitment we should all strive for - Well done Louis!

And finally our controversy of the week section - it’s been a while since we had a look at some of the good old fashioned rules of the League but we don’t have to cast our mind back too long to one of the biggest controversies the League has had to deal with as last year Edinburgh University had been merrily playing virtually a whole season of Table Tennis without having paid any fees - SGMs were threatened, play-offs were in jeopardy, there was much discussion going on between clubs effected by the fact that the League were simply refusing to enforce very clear rules. In the end of the day the Minutes from the League AGM indicate that an unreserved apology was given by Edinburgh Uni and systems were being put in place for forthcoming seasons (we assume to avoid this happening again). Rule changes were made - proposed by Penicuik - so that fees had to be paid by the middle of November - lets make that specific - 15th November was what was recorded and indeed the minutes from the ELTTL Committee meeting of 18th October state:

“Everyone seemed pleased that there were so few late fee payments this year, especially when EU still have until 15th November to pay!”

So surely there won’t be any problem this year - guess what - 15th November has come and gone - did Edinburgh Uni pay their fees by Friday?? No seems to be the answer - nor no doubt their £134 fines from last season. But hey we’re sure it will be sorted - It’s only a rule that the League seem to be able to apply or not as they see fit. And there seems to be no “punishment” if that rule is breached anyway?? What will the League do about it?? Answers on a postcard please…..

Roll on Week 10.

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Week 8 Report

12/11/2016

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Week 8 of the Edinburgh & Lothians League was a disappointing one for the Club with only two of our seven teams in action tasting victory.

In the Premier Division, Team 1 were without regular third player Stuart Gow as they faced Murrayfield 2. The match was a fair contest, however, as Murrayfield also struggling for a third player suggested a 2v2 contest. Keith Dingwall and Yuhaung Wang were Colin and Greig's opponents. The match turned on Greig's two five end matches - 2-0 down in both, levelled both at 2-2 only to lose out in the decider in both - with Colin having already lost to Yuhaung the match was effectively lost with those two defeats - Colin defeated Keith in four and the "banker doubles" was won in 3 straight ends - an opportunity missed as Team 1 fell to a 5-4 defeat.

In Division 1, Team 2 were also understrength as they travelled to face Corstorphine 1. Iain Johnstone continued his excellent form as he won all three of his singles but unfortunately neither Clive Liddiard nor Abby Wighton, deputising for Brian Bailey could win a singles match. Iain combined with Clive for a win in the doubles as Team 2 fell to a 6-4 defeat.

Team 3 were one of only 3 Penicuik teams able to field a full side in Week 8 but keeping the pattern of understrength teams going, the Police side turned up with just two players. James will be disappointed to have lost one of his two singles but Abby and Gary were both undefeated and Gary and James combined for a doubles win as Team 3 recorded their biggest win of the season with a 9-1 victory. The win keeps Team 3 on the tail of League Leaders Haddington in 2nd place in the Division.

With only one regular player available, Team 4 were always going to struggle in their away fixture against Corstorphine 3 in Division 2. Marcin Mroz and John Bald, not unsurprisingly, found it tough going as Chris Markey recorded the only wins for the visitors as they fell to an 8-2 defeat. Having looked like contenders for at least a play off spot a few weeks ago, 3 defeats in their last 4 matches has seen the team’s promotion hopes take a real battering - they now sit mid-table and a massive 7 points behind the league leaders.

In Division 3 Team 5’s difficult start to the season continued as they were also a player down in the absence of Phil Daly. Their tussle with North Merchiston 4 was always going to be difficult and John Bald was the only winner on the night in the resultant 8-2 home defeat. Team 5 are winless so far this season and confidence seems to be low at present - we're sure with the experience of John and Phil and the talent of young Louis the turnaround will start soon - the good news is they're not bottom of the division and have a game in hand over the team just above them.

In Division 4, Team 6 have been one of the Club’s most consistent sides, despite their amazing statistical record of not having played the same trio in their first six matches! They were looking to maintain top spot in the Division as they faced Haddington 3. Starting the night just two points ahead of their opponents, Craig Johnson, Stuart Bennett and Sean Lennon knew that a win would see them open up a good gap on their opponents. When Craig lost the first match of the night, things didn't look good, however, the Penicuik trio won 4 of the next 5 singles giving them a 4-2 advantage going into the crucial doubles. Craig and Stuart combined in what was an epic 5 end tussle which swung one way and then the other. In the deciding fifth end they held their nerve to squeeze home 12-10 and with it give Team 6 an unassailbale 5-2 advantage going into the last round of singles matches. 2 of those 3 matches were won as the visitors recorded a good 7-3 win, all 3 players winning two of their 3 singles matches.

Finally in Division 4, Team 7 were looking to bounce back after 3 consecutive defeats as they faced a home match with North Merchiston 6. The home side of Marcin Mroz, Kathryn McKenzie and Louis McLeod will feel they were unlucky to not at least come away with a point as they fell to a 6-4 defeat. Marcin had a chance in the last match of the night to secure the draw but just fell short, losing out to the Edinburgh team’s number 1 in 5 close ends. Both he and Louis recorded two singles wins each.

With only two of our seven teams winning this week there aren’t many candidates for our Player of the Week award, especially when of those two winning teams, Penicuik 3 played against only two players and none of Penicuik 6 won their 3 singles. The only player this week (playing against a full side) who was undefeated was on the losing side for Penicuik 2 - for his continued excellent form (this week against a team who must be in the running for promotion) this week’s worthy winner is Iain Johnstone. A great start to the season with 17 singles wins out of 18 matches played - keep it going Iain.

Stat of the week - back to Team 6 - after fielding a different team for each of their 6 matches played Week 8 saw that run end as the trio that played in Week 4 was repeated - what next - surely not the same trio for their next match???

And so to our controversy of the week section - what's happening to the availability of players this season?? Are teams more reluctant to seek postponements? Are more teams making it clear that they won't grant postponements? Is the schedule so difficult that teams are taking the view "just get ties played"? Whatever it is, we are already in a bit of trouble in terms of players playing up - only 7 weeks of league action and we have already used players to play up 18 times - that seems a lot!! This week was particularly bad - Team 1 played with 2, Team 2 had Abby playing up, Team 4 had two players playing up, and Team 5 played with 2. Of our opponents, Murrayfield played with 2 as did the police team. With the league facing lots of issues, it seems, in relation to reorganisation of the league here's a radical proposal - teams of 2 - 2 singles matches each and a doubles - surely all clubs could field two person teams near enough all the time - it would also sort out the other issue of finishing times and get us back to the good old days of playing matches on one table - that would certainly freshen things up for the ELTTL!!! Given that we seem, however, to be struggling with the proposal to move to six divisions (see the latest League Committee meeting minutes) this complete overhaul would probably take years to progress, even if it did have support!

Week 9 nearly upon us - surely it can't be as bad as Week 8 for the Club?

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Week 7 Report

5/11/2016

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Week 7 saw a break from League action as the Club entered 4 teams in the Handicap Cup Competition.

Penicuik 1 were drawn away to Fife in Round 1. Team 1 was made up of Craig Johnson from Division 4, John Bald from Division 3 and Chris Markey from Division 2. Craig was Penicuik’s player of the night and with a +7 Handicap, the Team will be regretting not ensuring that he was placed in a position to get all his three potential matches played - on the night he won 2 out of 2. The crucial match of the night was Chris v Ian Parker, Ian having a 5 point start in a race to 16. At 2 ends to 1 up it was looking good for Chris but he couldn’t repeat the feat in ends 4 and 5 as he lost those two by 16-12 scorelines. Whilst John won match 7 to keep the tie alive at 4-3, Fife’s number 1, Lance Stockdale won match 8 in 3 straight ends against Chris as the visitors fell to a 5-3 defeat.

Penicuik 2 saw Krzysztof Laszkiewicz from Division 2 combine with Louis Myatt (Division 3) and Louis McLeod (Division 4) as they faced a home tie against Edinburgh International. Louis Myatt was involved in a mammoth encounter in Match 2 against Charlie Brindley who plays two divisions higher than him. Louis had a 14 point start in a match to 20. At 2 ends all the deciding end could have gone either way but Louis managed to hold his nerve as he squeezed home 20-17. With that win confidence grew for the home side and the only blip on the night was a loss in Match 5 as the home side ran out 5-1 winners. Louis McLeod was the difference on the night with 2 extremely straightforward 3 end victories.

Penicuik 3 faced an away match against West Lothian. Brian Bailey and Clive Liddiard both from Division 1 combined with Sean Lennon from Division 4. This trio still recall with some bitterness the way they lost out last year to Murrayfield after the match had to be abandoned at 4-4. Sean had been the star of the team last season but after a decent start to this year his +7 Handicap had been cut to +5. He was still the team's best hope and on the night he recorded 2 wins whilst Clive added 1 as the Penicuik side crashed out 5-3.

Given their strong performances over the last 3 seasons (winners in 2014 and semi-finalists in both 2015 and 2016) it was no surprise that Greig McDonell (Premier Division) Iain Johnstone (Division 1) and Abby Wighton (Division 2) were selected to play again this season as Penicuik 4. They faced an away match against Corstorphine. Match 1 of the night saw Iain take on Jeff Clark giving away a 4 point lead to 15. Jeff went 2-0 up in a flash before Iain won ends 3 and 4 16-14, 16-14. The decider was a terrific match which saw Iain take a 14-12 lead and surely the match was going his way. At match points down Jeff returned Iain’s serve and got an outrageous and un-returnable net cord. Never mind still another match point - oh my a service return which caught the edge of the table - 14-14. Jeff went on to win it 16-14 and it looked like an uphill struggle for the visitors. The next 3 matches however went the way of the Penicuik trio before Abby lost out in five good ends to Jeff. Greig then overturned a 10 point deficit to win in three ends against JP Smith before Abby rounded off the night with a comfortable 3 end win against Tommy Sutherland to give Penicuik a 5-2 win.

So two out of four through to the second round and our player of the week award has to go to someone from those successful teams - only Greig, Louis Myatt and Louis McLeod were unbeaten in our winning teams but for having to win the most points of the three and because he's unlikely to be in the running in the League matches, El Presidente wins this week's award - who decides this anyway???

And finally our controversy of the week. The Handicap Cup always presents different challenges to Clubs, the biggest one for us being team selection - no point keeping the same league teams together - it's good fun and important to get some of the players from lower divisions involved with higher ranked players - we had our own internal bust up about team selection this time round - surely one man couldn't just pick the teams and decide who was playing against who?? The democratic way would have been for a couple of people to decide in the "Crown" what suited best - after all that's what's happened in previous seasons! One of our new club members, George, paid the Club a huge compliment the other week by saying that we live up to what our website claims - "A friendly, family orientated Club". As arguments ensued between Club members about who should play where and in what team, it was left to Brian to point out that all families have fights!! In the end of the day a good barney never does anyone any harm and it ended with everyone happy that a compromise had been reached (yeah right!) - Suffice to say of the four teams initially selected, the two which were "autocratically" chosen are through to Round 2 whilst the two that were tinkered with as a result of moans and groans from players bit the dust in Round 1 - surely just an unlucky coincidence!!

Whilst we're on about the Handicap Cup, it's good to see that the League have obviously taken on board our repeated complaints last year about the Past Winners page on the league Website - it has at long last been updated and in particular the list of winners now includes ........................ - hang on a minute - it includes that North Merchiston won the event in 2016 and it continues to have every winner from 1981 listed apart from the 2013/14 winners!!! - Who could that have possibly been?? Does no one know?? Is OUR name not engraved on the trophy?? (there's a clue there if anyone form the League reads this drivel). We're sure it's not deliberate - unless of course those kind League officials just want to make sure that we have something to write about in this section of our weekly reports! http://www.edinburghtabletennis.com/past-winners.html

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Week 10 Report

Week 9 Report

Week 8 Report

Week 7 Report

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