All five of our five teams were in action in Week 10 of the Edinburgh League with Team 4 playing two matches. They started with a visit on Tuesday evening to Haddington and it was great to see Craig Linton back in action after injury as he joined Bob Porteous and Rachel Petrie. When Bob and Rachel won the opening two matches there was hope that this would be the night for Team 4’s first victory. Craig then came back in Match 3 from 2-0 down to force a decider only to lose out 11-9 in the fifth. Bob then re-established the two-game lead but that was wiped out as Rachel and Craig lost their second matches. 3-3 and the Teams knew how important the doubles would be. Bob and Rachel led 2-1 but lost the last two ends to give the East Lothian outfit the advantage again. Craig then got on the scoreboard to level the score at 4-4 and when Bob won his third match of the night the side’s first point of the season was secured. Rachel tried valiantly to turn that point into two but fell in four ends – a fair result in the end.
 
Then on Thursday night the same team were due to play against University – unfortunately, Craig’s knee injury flared up and add to that a dodgy shoulder after playing on Tuesday and the team were down to 2 players, Bob and Rachel. This was always going to be tough - 3-0 down and when both players lost their opening singles the match was all but over as a contest. Both players battled on though and Rachel had a fantastic 5th end win in her second match and Bob kept the match alive with his first win of the night. The hopes of a comeback were short lived however as the students won the doubles. The last two matches were shared resulting in the visitors winning 7-3.
 
The week had started with Team 2’s trip to North Merchiston on Monday night. The Penicuik side have struggled recently, and things weren’t to get any better away to one of Division 1’s top sides. A 10-0 hammering saw only three games go beyond 3 ends and two of those involved Abby Wighton who claimed player of the match for her good play. That was the only bright spark on an otherwise miserable night for Krzysztof, Gary and Abby. Team Captain Krzysztof summed up the match perfectly in his message to El Presidente – “we were rubbish, and I was the worst”!
 
In the Premier Division, Team 1 were determined not to draw another match – 4 of their last 5 games have been draws. In a week of player shortages, Greig and Colin had to call up James Wighton from Team 3 – and it was a good job they did after their opponents Edinburgh Sports Club turned up with just two players. 3-0 up before a ball was struck and when Colin won Match 1 on the night it was suddenly 4-0. James lost out in his first match and that was followed by a loss for Greig. When Scott MacKenzie took a 2-0 lead in the next match, the Penicuik trio were starting to panic. After Colin got his concentration back (more on that later) he worked out his opponent’s long pimples and secured at least a point for the home side. James lost his second match – 5-3. Greig then took a leaf out of Colin’s book – 2-0 down he came back to win the match 3-2 and give the hosts an unassailable lead. 7-3 was the final score, a result which (briefly at least) put the side into 5th place in the Premier Division.
 
At the same time, Team 3 faced Haddington 3 in Division 2. Hannah McDonell and Julian Taylor were joined by Ian Hislop looking to put some pressure on at the top of the table. Two of the first three matches went the way of the hosts before the next set of three matches all went the way of the East Lothian side, Julian having lost 12-10 in the fifth after being 2-0 up. 3-3 and the doubles would, like always, be crucial. With James not playing Hannah had to find herself a new partner – Julian stepped up and the Penicuik duo comfortably won in 3 straight ends. The best match of the night pitted Hannah against David Hayman. Having lost the first end, Hannah forced deuce in the second from game points down – the longer this end went on the more important it became – 7 deuces before Hannah eventually won it 18-16. That seemed to give her the confidence she needed as she picked up the third and fourth ends 11-7, 11-6. A point was secured, and Penicuik had two chances to secure the victory in Matches 9 and 10. Ian couldn’t do it against Mark McMullan who was undefeated on the night. All eyes on Julian as he took on the thus far winless Gordon Aien. Ah styles are funny things – Julian never looked comfortable as he fell in four ends – a disappointing end to the evening for the hosts after getting themselves into a winning position but 2 wins for Hannah, 1 each for Julian and Ian and a good doubles victory secured a point.
  
Team 5 were also in action on Thursday night as they travelled to Bathgate to take on West Lothian who sat equal top in the Division 4 table. This was a new look side as Chamika Diyunugalge, Sian McDonald and Roscoe Cairney hoped to push the league leaders. Sian was really unlucky in her opening encounter falling 11-4 in the fifth after leading 2-1. Match 3 also proved pivotal – It was Roscoe’s turn to force five ends, but he too lost out and suddenly Team 5 were 3-0 down. The next two matches also went the way of the hosts before Chamika won Match 6 to give some hope and when Chamika and Roscoe won the doubles the visitors trailed 5-2 with three singles to go. Unfortunately, only Sian could win her final match as Team 5 fell to a 7-3 defeat.
 
And so to our player of the week award for Week 10. Phil didn’t play this week – so his quest for the award can roll-over to next week. Bob had a terrific week with 5 wins out of 6 and Colin picked up another maximum – only against two players though so that doesn’t count. And for Bob, despite his 5 out of 6, it wasn’t enough to pick up wins for the team – so they’re both out of the running. Team 2 got whitewashed so it’s not going to be them! A mention is due to our three newest league players from Team 5 – they put up a good fight this week too. Team 3 secured a draw and Hannah picked up two cracking wins and a doubles victory to get that point. Hannah v David was definitely the most entertaining match of the week (so entertaining that a certain umpire was watching that rather than the game he was umpiring) - and for her overall performance this week’s award goes to Hannah - well done to her!
 
And now for our controversy of the week section. In Team 4’s match on Thursday night Bob was in the middle of a tight contest when Greig umpiring a match for his own team noticed Bob’s opponent taking a timeout. Bob looked a bit perplexed as he hung around aimlessly as Rachel looked on. It appears Team 4 definitely need a Rule book for Xmas – there are no timeouts allowed in the ELTTL – don’t just blame Rachel for this though – she was sitting beside James at the time who seemed to have his mind elsewhere – Greig was trying to get the message across to Rachel and James but by the time James realised a timeout had been taken it was over and the Uni player was ready to go again. The story gets better – this was the Uni player’s second timeout in the match having also taken one in the previous end. He then tried to take a third but at least on that occasion the message had got across and Rachel was able to point out that timeouts weren’t allowed! In fairness to Bob, he’s new to the league and the previous weekend had played in the Edinburgh banded event where timeouts had been taken. Ultimately, although Bob lost an end from a winning position after the second timeout, he went on to win the match and so the rule infringement didn’t make a difference. Shows the importance however of the Clubs making sure that their players know the rules.
 
And finally, we turn our attention to Team 1s match on Thursday night where we had a stand-up teammate argument between Colin and Greig to enjoy. Colin and Greig? Surely not? They’re best pals. Table tennis can do funny things to people! Now in fairness Colin will say that he had to put up with one of the worst umpiring performances he’s ever seen from Greig during his match v Scott McKenzie. And he might be right. Greig was perhaps a little distracted from what he should have been doing – he seemed to watch more points being played in the other end of the hall where Hannah was playing than on the table directly in front of him. He may well have got the score wrong on several occasions and needed assistance from Martin McKay sitting watching beside him as to who had won various points – shocking umpiring. When Colin lost the first end (not that Greig really noticed), he was seething. Greig went to give him some advice – oh dear! Colin pointed out that advice would be pointless given Greig hadn’t seen half the match and that he needed to get a grip (or words to that effect) and do his job properly as an umpire. There was maybe a little bit of anger and some poor choice of vocabulary thrown in for good measure! Now anyone who knows Greig will know how he hates confrontation, so he just went back to his umpire’s seat and stayed quiet…… Eh well maybe not! Whether his umpiring had been poor or not he pointed out to Colin that as the umpire he should be shown respect and demanded an apology from the player for his irrational rant! Oh dear! This wasn’t going to end well. An aggressive, volatile Aussie and Greig! Who would back down. Greig said he wasn’t going to umpire until Colin apologised. Colin said good and shouted on James to take over! Fortunately, James was too busy watching three timeouts being taken in Team 4’s match to realise what was going on. Greig threatened a yellow and then a red card. Colin had brought them along to show Martin what might happen if his language didn’t improve! Martin and Scott were watching on trying to hide their laughter at what was happening – Scott revelling at the possibility of a disqualification for his opponent! That would have been a first in the Edinburgh league surely! In the end, and as expected, the conciliatory approach was taken by Greig (he realised that a loss for Colin would see the team in real trouble!) and he returned to normal umpiring duties. His umpiring in the second end was exemplary – unlike Colin’s play – we think Greig’s calm, yet perhaps a tad condescending attitude had got to Colin a little – 8-0 down and Greig thought a granny was on the cards. Change of ends at 2-0 down, Greig went across again to offer advice – this time a much calmer exchange and lo and behold Greig’s words of wisdom were enough for Colin to come back and win in five! And by the end of the match the pair of them were back to being best buddies again and the incident would never be spoken about again – well until we write about it! Others may hold grudges – but this pair can’t afford to – not only are they best friends, but they’re also each other’s only friends!!
 
Ah how we love TT and all the drama that comes with it.

Four of our five teams were in action in Week 9 of the Edinburgh League and last Monday saw Teams 1 and 3 both travel to North Merchiston to take on the Edinburgh club’s teams 1 and 4.
 
In the Premier Division, Team 1 were looking to continue their good run of form. Greig McDonell, Colin Green and David Melrose took to the table for the Midlothian side. When both Greig and David lost their first matches, the Penicuik trio looked in trouble. Wins then followed, however, for Colin and Greig in matches 3 to 5 before Geoff Hunter defeated David in Match 6 to bring the scores level at 3-3 going into the crucial doubles. Greig and Colin have a great record in doubles, however, on this occasion they weren’t strong enough as Willie Mabon and Geoff won in four ends. Colin then levelled the scores at 4-4 with a 3-0 victory over Neil Innes before Greig battled to a 3-1 win over Geoff to put the visitors 5-4 up. David took on North Merchiston’s best player, Willie, in the final match of the night and having lost both of his previous games no one held out much hope for a Penicuik win. The match, however, went down to the wire as David gave the hosts an almighty fright, agonisingly losing out 12-10 in the deciding end resulting in another draw for the visitors – their 4th in their last 5 matches.
 
Meanwhile in the other half of the Hall, Team 3 took on Merchiston 4 in Division 2. Hannah McDonell, James Wighton and Julian Taylor were looking to bounce back from their first defeat of the season the previous week against Murrayfield. After three singles the Edinburgh based team led 2-1. The battle of the youngsters saw Hannah defeat Julia Domagala before Julian had a good win against Graham Booth. Match 6 was to prove crucial as James defeated Slawomir Bess 17-15 in the 5th. That gave the Midlothian side a 4-2 lead going into the doubles and for the 4th consecutive night Hannah and James secured the doubles victory which earned them at least a point. Julian then won match 8 to ensure victory for the visitors before the Edinburgh side won the last two matches. A good 6-4 victory got the Midlothian side back to winning ways.
 
On Thursday night Teams 2 and 5 both competed against Edinburgh opposition at Ladywood. Team 2 took on Edinburgh Sports Club in Division 1 whilst Team 5 played host to Murrayfield 11 in Division 4. Team 2 have been extremely unlucky this season with several close matches which could have easily gone the other way. On this occasion, Krzysztof Laszkiewicz was involved in two long and tight five-enders losing both of them in the deciding end. He picked up one win on the night and Gary McDougal did the same. Those were the only two singles wins, however, as the hosts fell to a 7-3 defeat having had the doubles conceded to them following an injury to one of the Edinburgh Sports Club players. Four of Team 2’s defeats thus far have been by 6-4 scorelines. That must give them hope that there are chances to improve and pick up points in the second half of the season.
 
Team 5’s match against Murrayfield was a cracker. Patrick Shanks, Phil Daly and Chamika Diyunugalge all contributed with singles wins. Murrayfield have a habit of producing up and coming youngsters and in young Max Well they seem to have found another. He only lost one end in his three singles matches. When match 5 went the way of Murrayfield it looked like defeat was on the cards for the hosts. Chamika, however, produced an excellent 3-0 victory against his opposite number in Match 6 to keep the Ladywood trio in with a chance. All the singles were played out and when Patrick won match 8, 11-7 in the 5th and Phil won his final match of the evening, Team 5 trailed 5-4 with only the doubles left. Phil and Patrick were involved in a topsy turvy contest in their effort to secure a comeback point. They won the first end 11-8 only to lose the next 11-5. The home duo bounced back though with their own 11-5 win in the third before bizarrely the fourth end went the way of the visitors 11-5 – what was going on? The final end of the night was also to be decided by an 11-5 margin – it went in the favour of the hosts as Team 5 secured an excellent 5-5 draw.
 
And so to our player of the week award for Week 9. Before we get to that we had a late plea to change the award given in Week 8 to Bob. Nine reasons were given as to why that award should retrospectively be given to Phil Daly. Well, we say nine reasons - that’s how the plea started but after three spurious reasons being put forward the other 6 reasons were left to the selection committee’s imagination. It is good though when others put teammates forward for the award and point out how vital their contribution has been to their team – more of that should happen – oh hold on a minute – the plea came from who?? None other than Phil himself! Sorry Phil – week 8 decision can't be changed. God loves a trier, as they say, and he was at it again in Week 9 pointing out how he crucially played his part in Team 5's draw. One singles win in a 5-5 draw? Whilst he did play in the doubles victory to secure the point for Team 5, Patrick also played in that doubles and won 2 – and Chamika picked up a crucial win (his second victory in only his second ever league match). Hmmm, not this week either Phil. Only one player was undefeated in Week 9 – we can’t keep finding reasons not to give him the award can we? Nine weeks in and his play has continued to be of a very high standard – had David won the last match of the night for Team 1 he would have won this week’s award - but he didn’t! So well done to our top man, Colin Green. Sitting in the top 6 of the Premier Division individual averages is no mean feat. He’s pushing Greig hard for the title of Penicuik’s number 1.
 
And now we turn to our controversy of the week section. Nothing much of interest this week – Rachel of course didn’t play! Team 5’s match did however raise a couple of talking points. The Murrayfield Captain was on great umpiring form – much to the surprise of Team 5 he gave a warning to Patrick for interrupting the flow of the game. Patrick was wrapped up warm when he started one of his matches (more on that later) but at some point during the game he took a few seconds to take one of his top layers off. A warning was given for not doing so at a “6 point interval” and for not maintaining continuous play. None of our guys knew about that rule. The players asked if we could point them in the right direction as to where to find that rule – hmmm. It’s a regulation rather than a law but where is it? Half an hour of exploration of Google and we still couldn’t find it – just take our word for it! Does it apply in ELTTL games? Good question. We don’t have timeouts. Does this apply. We think it does. Where do we find that? Jings, Team 5 are annoying (only joking guys). To balance out the umpiring the same umpire also picked up on his own teammate’s serving issues. Having given a warning, he proceeded to award a point against the player when the illegal serve was repeated. Harsh thought our players but hey maybe that’s how we should all learn. That’s an easy rule to find. Law 2.6 of the Laws of Table Tennis. Oh, wait a minute we’ve found the continuous play regulation. All you have to do is Google ITTF, then realise that what you’re looking for is the ITTF Handbook which runs to some 257 pages and then tucked away on page 51 is Regulation 3.4.4 on Intervals. Of course, the fact that these regulations are said to apply to International Competitions can be ignored – ELTTL have adopted these regs, haven’t they?
 
And finally, our own shortcomings to the fore again – as mentioned above Patrick was warned about breaking play to remove a layer of clothing. The reason he had more than one layer on was due to Baltic conditions at Ladywood on Thursday night. Abby who played for Team 2 on Thursday tells us that she played with a pair of sports joggers, shorts on top and on top of that a pair of fleece jogging bottoms. On her top half, thermal vest, T-shirt, fleece jumper and tracksuit top. And she was still frozen. One of her opponents apparently was injured due to the cold conditions. That brings back memories for Colin and Greig of playing for MacTaggart Scott on an old concrete floored dining area where the heating never worked and if it did condensation not only ran down the walls but gathered on the non-slippy (yeah right) floor. The problem at Ladywood? The heating system is knackered apparently and will cost thousands to repair. The problem for us is that so far the weather has been remarkably mild. Wait until the cold weather and snow hits Penicuik - we’re in touch with our sponsors in the hope that they can provide gilets and body warmers rather than T-shirts. Surely, we’re due a discount on our hire costs! Any visitors to Ladywood – please bring a duvet and a flask with you.
 
Double digits already - Week 10 here we come.  

Week 8 saw all five of our teams in action.
 
Monday evening saw Team 3 visit the Gyle to take on Murrayfield 9’s youngsters. Both sides went into the match with undefeated records in this table topping Division 2 clash. Murrayfield’s team was filled with youngsters (average age about 13/14) whilst the visiting Midlothian side, in the absence of our own young gun, Hannah McDonell, had an average age of about 65 – Julian Taylor and James Wighton’s average age was obviously significantly increased by Ian Hislop aged 92! Plenty controversy in this one from the start (more on that later) but on the table the match started with a cracking five end tussle between William Wang and Julian. A win in the fifth for the youngster gave the hosts the early advantage. Young Nichole Lee has improved beyond recognition since she visited Penicuik last year for an Edinburgh coaching day. She won’t often have to play someone like Ian though – what on earth is that on his bat?? A 4 end win for Ian levelled the scores. Match 3 saw the third youngster, Rory Thomson, take on James. No excuses here but James has been suffering with tennis elbow and it looked particularly painful last week. He lost out in four ends and when Nichole showed her skills against the normal play of Julian the youngsters held a 3-1 lead. Match 5 was to prove crucial – another five ender – James had match points but fell 16-14 in the decider and the pressure was really on the visitors. Ian took his second four end win of the night to reduce the deficit before the doubles. The third five ender of the night also went the hosts way and they had secured at least a point. That point became 2 when Nichole resoundingly defeated James. 6-2 and only pride to play for. The final two matches also went the distance – credit to the youngsters they won those as well. Five matches on the night went to five ends and the visitors lost all of them – 8-2 was therefore rather flattering to the Murrayfield side.
 
Wednesday night saw Team 1 visit Murrayfield 4. Colin Green and Greig McDonell were joined by David Melrose making his debut this season after returning from injury. Greig chose to play Junji Hua first, confident he could get the team off to a good start having defeated Junji in the national league. Hmm – different outcome this time – a four end loss gave the hosts a good start. David showed some rustiness in his defeat to Haydn Jackson and at 2-0 down the visitors looked in trouble. They turned that round though with two wins from Colin and one from Greig before David played Leandro Golinski in a crucial match 6. David lost the first two ends 11-4, 11-2 and no one in the church hall saw this match lasting much longer. David, however, had other ideas and a 14-12 fifth end win saw the visitors lead 4-2 going into the doubles. Greig and Colin secured the fifth win and when they both won their final singles the match was over as a contest. Junji defeated David in the last match of the night, but the visitors left happy with a 7-3 win.  
 
Wednesday night also saw Team 5 in action as they made the trip to Gullane in Division 4. Patrick Shanks, Phil Daly and Aidan Craig are probably Team 5s strongest combination and they were in no mood to mess about against their East Lothian opponents. Some 10-0 matches can be much closer than the scoreline suggests – this wasn’t one of those matches. Aidan won all three of his singles in straight sets and in only two of those sets did he lose more than 5 points. Phil did the same, but his games were slightly closer. The only player to lose an end was Patrick. The doubles was also won in three. This was a one sided affair – 31 ends played and 30 won by the visitors. Team 5 weren’t finished their work though as the following night they hosted Edinburgh International. Patrick retained his place and was joined by Roscoe Cairney and Ian Millar. 24 hours is a long time in TT! The first five matches all went the way of the visitors before Patrick won match 6. But that was as good as it got for the hosts. Patrick was unlucky when he lost the penultimate match of the night 11-9 in the fifth but apart from that the visitors were in complete control. A 10-0 win one night followed by a 9-1 defeat the next. Still a winning week – 11-9 overall!
 
Team 2 were also at home on Thursday night against Edinburgh International opposition in Division 1. Krzysztof Łaszkiewicz, Gary McDougal and Abby Wighton got off to a great start when Abby defeated Alastair Hill 11-9 in the fifth and when Krzysztof won match 3, 11-8 in the fifth the hosts led 2-1. The next three singles however all went the way of the visitors meaning the hosts went into the doubles 4-2 down. Another fifth end nail biter saw Gary and Krzysztof sneak over the line 11-9 in the decider, but Gary lost match 8 and a point was secured for the visitors. Krzysztof kept the match alive with another deuce in the fifth win, but Abby was unlucky as she lost out in four ends. Team 2’s struggles continued with another unlucky 6-4 loss.

Finally on Friday night Team 4 travelled to Edinburgh University - Rachel Petrie and Bob Porteous had to play one short due to unavailability of their own teammates due to injury and due to Team 5 players being unavailable and the ridiculous playing up regulations we discussed last week! This was a basement battle and Bob and Rachel were confident that even with two they could compete with the students. 3-0 down and a good start was vital. Rachel nearly provided that as match 1 went the distance – Zijing Wu got over the line in the deciding end to give the students a 4-0 lead. Bob got the visitors up and running but when Rachel lost her second match it was 5-1 and defeat looked certain. There then followed, however, a terrific comeback – Bob won 3-2 before the doubles saw the Penicuik pair win in five and when that was followed up by a fifth end win for Rachel in her final match of the night, a remarkable recovery looked on the cards. 5-4 down and Bob took a 2-1 lead in the final match of the night – but just when it looked like the tide had turned the University player came back to win in five. A 6-4 defeat was hard to take for the Penicuik pair – a great effort though.

And so, to our player of the week award for Week 7. The undefeated players this week were Phil, Aidan and Colin. We’ve already commented on Phil and Aidan – they comfortably strode through Wednesday night at Gullane – but when they were needed the following night against tougher opposition they were nowhere to be seen! So, they’re out the running. That leaves Colin – another good performance from him – undefeated in singles and pulled through again in the doubles by Greig. His 3 singles wins were vital to Team 1s victory. But when Greig sent him a video of his game against the Murrayfield number 1 he was less than complimentary about his own performance – we can’t print here how he described some of his play – he’s a harsh critic – suffice to say though if he was that unhappy with how he played he can’t be our Player of the Week! So where do we turn for this week’s award? Team 4 have struggled in Division 3 throughout the season – but we need to recognise the efforts of one of our new players this season – he may only have won 2 and the doubles this week but in a season where the team have only won 16 matches in total – he’s won 11 of them – well done to Bob.
 
Finally, what about our controversy of the week section. Team 4 arrived at University on Friday for their published start time of 7pm – they were there in plenty of time and looking forward to a good warm-up. If Rachel and Bob had studied our Week 2 Controversy a little more they might have not been surprised to find that just prior to 7pm there was still no sign of the opposing team. They turned up at 7pm and announced that the match was on in a hall which wasn’t booked until 7. After set up and knock up the match finally started nearer to 7.30 than 7pm. The students asked if play on one table would be ok. Rachel and Bob agreed but said that was only if there was no deadline to get out of the venue. Because Team 4 were one player down, there’d be plenty of time said the students. Rachel suggested moving to 2 tables if time became short, quoting that Team 4 had recently been warned about the length of matches and finishing times. During games and between ends, the opposing team were taking a long time for tactical discussions, and you know what’s coming – even with only seven matches to get through, fast forward to the last crucial match of the night – 5-4 to University and Bob was playing against probably the Uni’s best player. Bob led 2-1 in ends and when the opponent sent the match into a decider, the Uni team captain suddenly announced that they needed to be out of the hall in 2 mins (by 10pm). According to Rachel this totally threw Bob’s concentration, and he lost several easy points. He then served twice off the table and was obviously a little agitated. His opponent went on to comfortably win the match. Bob, new to the league, didn’t know about the rule that the home team would have to concede the match if they weren’t able to complete it (unless caused by the delayed arrival of the visiting team). Maybe if Rachel had told him that before the match started he would have taken his time! A toilet break perhaps! Putting aside those dodgy tactics this was another example of how it can be difficult to get through an Edinburgh League match on one table in anything like 3 to 3.5 hours – these guys only played 7 matches. Maybe the format is just too long.
 
Turning to Team 3’s match this week that wonderful topic of over-exuberance rears it’s head again. The Murrayfield team is a team of youngsters – the first bizarre thing for Team 2 was playing this match at the Gyle on just one table. Why?? On arrival, James, Julian and Ian asked if they were going to play on two tables – no came the answer. We’ve played at the Gyle on many occasions and have never just played on one table – it turns out from discussions after the match that neither had Murrayfield 9 until last Monday! Fast forward to the end of the match and we were getting texts on the PTTC 3 Group Chat that the players were all stuck and couldn’t get out of the Centre at 11.20pm!! Crazy! Worse than playing on one table, however, was the behaviour at certain points of certain of the Murrayfield team – now let’s start by saying that not only has young Nichole Lee improved immensely over the last year or so but she also has an excellent temperament and was extremely well mannered and gracious throughout. Pity the boys can’t take a leaf out of her book. The amount of Chos and Allez’s and other incomprehensible screams of delight (if that’s what they were) was utterly ridiculous. It's not just sour grapes because the “oldies” were beaten by the youngsters – but the disrespect shown was astonishing at times – a player pushes a ball in the net or misses a smash and an almighty roar of approval comes from some young whipper snapper at the other end of the table – how utterly appalling. Of course, where do they learn that from? Probably watching the professionals play – look at what Tomokazu Harimoto was like as a youngster (maybe he still is) – shouting and screaming after every point won. Or just look at our own National League where the whooping and hollering can reach ridiculous levels. Maybe we are just a bunch of old fuddy-duddies. Perhaps all of that behaviour is just part of the game now? It’s sad if it is and sad that youngsters (in the presence of their parents and strangers) just think such conduct is “normal”.  The Clubs surely have some obligation to reign in this type of behaviour – it doesn’t appear they do though. Whether it’s acceptable or not, the one thing it does do is cause ill-feeling and tension between players, completely unnecessarily.
 
Oh well – the fuddy-duddies have had their rant for this week!  On to Week 9 we go.

Week 7 was due to get underway with Team 2’s visit to Corstorphine on Tuesday evening. After a very indifferent start to the season in which fielding a full team has proven difficult, things got worse for the Penicuik side as they had to concede this fixture – Corstorphine have difficulties apparently in agreeing to postponements given their lack of availability for rearranged fixtures – not a great start to the week!
 
Thursday night at Ladywood saw Teams 1, 3 and 4 all in action. Colin Green, Greig McDonell and Brian Hunter were looking to build on their 5-5 draw with West Lothian from Week 6 as they faced Edinburgh International 1. Ed Int have been busy in the “transfer market” and in addition to regulars Marek Domagala and Babu Valaguruvan they turned up with new recruit Brian Wright. Brian, when on form, is a class act, and it was no surprise when he finished off an undefeated night with his three singles wins. Greig and Marek normally have long difficult matches and despite Greig starting out in ultra-aggressive mode to take a 2-0 lead it wasn’t really a surprise when this match went the distance – Greig just about deserved the win with his 14-12 fifth end win. Colin meantime came back from the loss of the first set against Babu to win in 4. Marek put the visitors on the brink of a point with his win v Brian before Greig won his second match of the night against Babu. Everyone knew the doubles was going to be crucial. Greig and Colin were back in action after a couple of weeks off and they kept their cool in a fifth end decider to defeat Brian and Marek (another 14-12 fifth end victory). The match was in the balance and there for the taking for the home side – Colin v Marek and Brian v Babu would decide the outcome – two wins for the victory, one win for the draw and surely they couldn’t lose both? Colin secured the draw with a 3-0 win v Marek while Brian struggled v Babu – the match didn’t go Brian’s way but much worse than that was the fact that he injured himself in the process – such a shame for Brian and Team 1 – just back from a season ending injury last year to now have a shoulder injury – hopefully he’ll be back by the second half of the season. Another 5-5 draw for Team 1, their third in a row.
 
Team 3 also faced Edinburgh International opposition. James Wighton, Hannah McDonell and Julian Taylor faced Ken Benjamin, George Oliver and Shashibhushan Girish in their division 2 encounter. When Julian got the team off to the perfect start against Ken it looked like this was going to be a straightforward night for the undefeated Team 3. James, however, struggled against George and despite coming back from 2-0 down, he couldn’t get over the line as he lost out 11-7 in the fifth. Hannah then looked in complete control against Shashibhushan – 2-1 up and 9-7 up, she was nearly there – she never recovered from losing four consecutive points in the fourth as she too lost out in five. 2-1 down and suddenly the pressure was on – James pulled the match level v Ken before a crucial five end match between Julian and Shashibhushan – this time the home player came out on top in the decider. When Hannah then had an excellent win v George the team had rallied to lead 4-2 going into the doubles. Hannah and James had won their last two doubles matches and when they made it three in a row Team 2 had secured at least a draw. Shashibhushan clearly likes getting his money's worth as he was involved in yet another five-end match – James this time unlucky to lose out 12-10 in the decider. With George taking care of Julian 3-0 suddenly the win rested on the match between Hannah and Ken – a first end loss for Hannah piled the pressure on but she held her nerve to triumph in four ends and with that Team 2 maintained their undefeated record with a tight 6-4 victory.

Team 4 were without Rachel Petrie so called upon Chamika Diyunugalge to join regulars Jim Jack and Bob Porteous as they faced West Lothian 4 in Division 3. Bob won the first match of the night but that was followed by three losses before Bob played again and brought the score back to 2-3. Jim then played some of his best TT of the season to win match 6 and to level the overall score at 3-3. Confident that Bob looked likely to win his last match, the home side knew that the doubles was crucial – a win and their first point of the season was almost guaranteed. Games and Matches change on the narrowest of margins – Team 1’s 14-12 fifth end win secured a point for them, but Jim and Bob just fell short – a terrific effort saw them lose their fifth end decider 13-11 – so close.  Jim and Chamika lost their final matches of the night to give West Lothian an unassailable 6-3 lead before Bob won his final match in four ends as Team 4 fell to a narrow 6-4 loss – the signs are there, however, that performances are on the way up.
 
Before moving away from TT play, a quick mention of the Scottish National League second round of fixtures. Greig McDonell, James Wighton, Hannah McDonell and David Melrose travelled to Perth on Saturday for Matches 3, 4 and 5 of their division 4 campaign. The fixtures looked tough and before the day started Team Captain Greig had indicated that if the team could come away with 3 points out of a possible six, he’d regard that as an excellent day's work. In their first match against Knightswood, Greig won both his matches and David won 1 – Hannah needed to defeat her opposite number for an invaluable win – at 2-0 up it looked good for the Midlothian side but she lost the third and fourth ends 11-8, 11-3 and she looked in real trouble – hang on a minute though – she fought hard and got over the line 12-10 in the decider – a terrific 4-2 win for Penicuik to start the day. The second match was against League leaders Edinburgh University – hindsight is a great thing and perhaps the team ought to have rested David for this match, which was always going to be tough. He played with James and Greig and Greig was the only winner in a 5-1 loss. The final match v Drumchapel was a mammoth encounter – the team were virtually last out of the hall but secured a 3-3 draw with two more wins from Greig and one from James. So, in the end 3 points out of six which was the target at the beginning of the day – but the team left a little disappointed that they didn’t defeat Drumchapel. The good news is they lie just a point behind the league leaders and with two fixtures to go are already safe from the threat of relegation – and that was the goal at the beginning of the season. After 5 rounds of fixtures Greig has 9 wins out of 10, James and Hannah each have 3 wins out of 8 and David has 1 win out of 4.

And so, to our player of the week award for Week 7. The only undefeated player this week was Bob from Team 4 – but he was involved in losing the crucial doubles and his side lost 6-4 – sorry Bob! Hannah had another terrific week securing the win for Team 3 with two excellent wins – but she lost from 9-7 and 2 games to 1 ahead – sorry Hannah!  Team 1 played some excellent stuff with both Greig and Colin winning two singles – the doubles was crucial and anyone who has watched the clip of the last few points can clearly see how Greig pulled his Aussie partner through to the win (or so he says) – add to that his excellent record in the National league and this week’s winner is none other than Club President, Greig – well done to him! 

Finally, what about our controversy of the week section. The Playing-Up rule was causing havoc this week! Team 4 were in need of a replacement for Rachel. Most of our Team 5 players are new to the league. Patrick Shanks has had a terrific start to his first season with the Club in Division 4 – he was the obvious choice to play up in Division 3 – oh hang on a minute as a new player he wasn’t cleared to play up – let’s ask the Match Secretary to look at him. The problem here starts with the completely random initial rating given to a new player – for whatever reason, Patrick, like other players, was given a starting rating of 700. That’s higher than Bob, Craig, Phil, Aidan, Jim, Rachel and so on and so on. The only way that rating is going to take a tumble to a more realistic level is if he loses to a significantly lower rated player. Opening match of the season and he lost one match causing him to lose 171 points, but he picked up 85 for beating a 500+ player. Since then, he’s beaten a couple of 500+ players, lost to an 800+ player, defeated a couple of 400+ players and a couple of 300+ players. His current rating 669. That's been assessed as too high to clear him to play up in Division 3. Now hold on a minute. How can anyone say that his arbitrary rating having played mostly 300 and 400+ players is accurate. With no disrespect to Patrick or to his opponents, we have absolute confidence that if Rachel, Craig or Jim had been playing these 300 and 400 plus players they too would have won – the difference for them of course is that they are playing at a higher level and in Rachel and Jim’s case they haven’t been winning – even Bob who has played some terrific stuff and has won 60% of his matches in Division 3 struggles to sit ahead of Patrick in the ratings – he’s just under 700. The system is farcical – the only way to truly gauge Patrick’s comparative strength to the current members of Team 4 would be to let him play against similar rated players – and the only way to achieve that would be to let him play up in Division 3 and see how he gets on – but of course we can’t do that!
 
Week 8 here we come. And we’ve already got a couple of controversial moments lined up from the last couple of days!!