​Week 10 of the League saw four of our five teams take to the table with Team 4 first in action as they travelled to Ocean Terminal on Monday 18th November to take on Murrayfield 9 in Division 3. Patrick Shanks, Chamika Diyunugalge and Ben Miller made the journey to Leith hopeful that they could go one better against Murrayfield 9 compared to their match v Murrayfield 10 where they had secured a draw. Chamika got the match off to a great start for the visitors with a five end victory and when Patrick won in three ends, it was looking positive for the Penicuik trio. A tight 3-2 loss for Ben was followed by a 3-1 loss for Chamika before another victory for the home side in Match 5 gave them a 3-2 lead. Patrick brought the match level again with a tight victory in match 6. The doubles went the distance – Patrick and Chamika went 2-0 up before the Murrayfield pair forced a decider – the momentum in favour of the hosts was halted with an excellent 11-5 fifth end victory. Match 8 was another five ender – Ben was unlucky to again come out on the wrong side of a fifth end defeat and when Chamika lost in four ends the Murrayfield side held a 5-4 advantage. Man of the match, Patrick, was not going to be denied in the final game of the night as he comfortably secured his third win of the night and with it a 5-5 draw for Team 4.
 
Team 3 were in action at Ladywood on Thursday night, hoping to bounce back from their defeat the previous week to Edinburgh University. Bob Porteous, Charlie Brindley and Craig Linton hosted Haddington 3 in the knowledge that a win would take them back into second place in the Division 2 table. The hosts got off to a good start with Bob winning the opener but there then followed defeats for both Craig and Charlie as the East Lothian side took a 2-1 lead. A win for Craig followed to level the match before two crucial five enders in matches 5 and 6. Bob secured a 13-11 fifth end win against Magnus Wahrenberg and with Charlie 2-0 up against young Fergus Randall, it looked like the home side were going to lead by two for the first time on the night. Young Fergus had other ideas as he grew in confidence against Charlie’s anti-loop to win the final three ends to bring the scores level again. Team 3 knew they were in trouble after a loss in the doubles and when Craig lost match 8, only a point was on offer for the hosts. Charlie kept the chance of that alive in Match 9, leaving it to Bob to try and secure a draw. He started brilliantly and took a 2-0 lead v Fergus – just as he had done in his match against Charlie, however, the East Lothian youngster never gave up and pulled off another stunning comeback to win in five ends and to round off a couple of miserable weeks for Team 3.
 
In the other half of the Hall, Team 5 of Roscoe Cairney, Mat Dyluk and John Bald took on Haddington 5 in Division 4. The only positive thing to say about this match was the speed at which it was played – if Team 5 had been in the Hall on their own we could have asked for a refund for at least the last hour and half that wasn’t used! Some whitewash defeats flatter the winners – this one didn’t. Roscoe, Mat and John had an “off night” as one loss followed another in quick succession. 30 ends of table tennis played and regrettably, a record that Team 5 don’t want, 30 ends of table tennis lost! They may have lost badly but they win the picture of the week competition with the pic above - they all look remarkably happy, along with their opponents, despite the rather one sided affair. 

Away from home on Thursday there was a rare appearances for Ian Hislop as he joined Krzysztof Laszkiewicz and James Wighton in Team 2’s visit to Murrayfield 8. Undefeated so far this season, and top of the Division 2 table against a team that sat 2nd bottom of the table – this was a foregone conclusion wasn’t it? Krzysztof had child minding issues, so his kids had to travel with him to Murrayfield to watch “Super-Dad” in action – with thanks to Murrayfield, he was able to play his three on the bounce – not a great start for him as he lost his first but wins in his other two matches gave the visitors a 2-1 lead. When Ian and James both lost their openers, this match looked nothing like straightforward! It got worse for Team 2 as they lost the next two as well – suddenly 5-2 down and staring defeat in the face. Not to worry though the doubles was next – a James / Ian combination worked about as well as the seven other doubles matches this season – 8 doubles played 8 doubles lost! And just like that the match was over. In the end a 7-3 loss for Team 2 rounded off a pretty horrendous week for the Club.
 
Our Player of the Week Award this week is the most straight forward of the season – three wins out of three in singles play and a contribution to the winning doubles in a 5-5 result for Team 4, there can only be one winner – well done to Patrick.

As for controversies this week, bizarrely, our Team 4 v Haddington result which we commented on last week has still not been approved and worse than that, has its own special place on the Agenda for the ELTTL Committee meeting scheduled for 29th November. Team 4 are not quite sure why this needs to be discussed – as we stated last week, the rules are clear, they were not complied with, and whether “morally right or wrong” Team 4 have taken the victory for a team not turning up and not having agreed a postponement in advance. Simple isn’t it? Let’s see what happens at the Committee meeting.
 
One of the changes this season has seen a relaxation in respect of the playing order of players who are new to the League. Although the website showed a number of players as being not allowed to play up, that wasn’t actually the case. This has resulted in potential for players to be playing a significant number of games for a team which is too low for their strength. As an example, we were going to look at a North Merchiston player who we saw in action a couple of weeks ago. Darshan Doddamani. He was registered for NM 5 in Division 3. He had played 5 matches for Team 5 and won 15 out of 15 games played, including winning his three (and the doubles) against us in a 6-4 win for the Edinburgh side. He was top of the individual averages. Nothing wrong with that – he’s clearly an excellent division 3 player. The problem is he was probably put in too low a team to begin with. He played up twice for NM 4 in Division 2 and won 5 out of 6, his only loss being to the extremely awkward Lynn Sommerville and his “funny rubbers”. Maybe we can argue there’s not much difference between Divisions 3 and 2. But wait, the match we saw him play up in was in Division 1 against Edinburgh University where he won his 3 singles and contributed to a doubles victory in a 6-4 win. NM 3 are bottom of the Div 1 table – they’ve won two matches this season, both of which have involved Darshan. Now when we started writing this piece, this was more controversial than it has now become because as a result of now having played up five times, the player finds himself committed to NM 3 in Division 1 – it looks like that’s probably where he should have been placed at the beginning of the season. As a new player to the league and placed into Division 3 it looks like he was allocated a rating of 850. That has jumped up to 1276 after 8 matches played and 23 wins out of 24. Had he not played up a fifth time, there would definitely be an issue to address. Three of the four players in the Division above him were 200 points or more behind him in terms of ratings. Our understanding is that those type of things will be looked at before the second half of the season gets underway, but is that too late? By that point a player who is playing in too low a division could have played all of the matches available and surely give his team an unfair advantage.
 
At the other end of this argument, let’s look at our own Team 3 – they have registered Charlie Brindley who has been told he cannot play up for Team 2 because he started the season with a rating of 1300, which was more than 200 points greater than James in Team 2 who started the season at 1087. We told the League that we thought Charlie’s rating was “artificially too high”, particularly given that he had health issues which saw him play only two matches at the beginning of the 2023-24 season. That wasn’t a good enough explanation. James’ rating has remained very stable (1085 at the time of writing) whilst Charlie has fallen to 1153 (a difference of only 68). Our lowest rated player now in the team, after a bad run of results by his standards, is Gary with 1077 (only 76 points below Charlie). Of course, relying on ratings isn’t liked by us – a bad run of form doesn’t necessarily make you a poorer player – styles of opponents, what matches you play, some good or bad luck, what rating, artificial or otherwise, your opponent has, all have an effect. Hopefully, however, the League will look at our situation at the festive break and remove the condition that Charlie cannot play up. And maybe in future take on board that ratings (in scenarios where players have not played for a long time (or have had illness etc) shouldn’t jus be relied upon as the be all and end all of the decision making process.
 
Week 10 Report just finished as Week 11 nears its end!  Another report will be along before we know it.

Week 9 of the League was a quiet one for the club with only 3 teams in action.

The week started with Team 1’s Premier Division fixture at North Merchiston 1 on Monday 11th November. Greig McDonell, Colin Green and Peter Aird took on what looked on paper to be an understrength Merchiston side, with Willie Mabon absent and Jack Murray playing up from the division below. The Edinburgh side have found a good replacement for last season’s top gun Gavin Yuan, with Shounak Kelkar slotting in as the side’s number 1. The first match saw Peter take on the stylish Quentin Renau – a battle of styles was won by Quentin in four ends. When Greig then lost to Jack, the visitors knew they were in trouble. Colin then somehow managed to get himself into a winning position against Shounak – 2-1 up and 10-8 up in the fourth, the match was there for the taking – the way the Merchiston player saved those match points was outstanding – one of the best backhands off the bounce that the spectators had ever seen was followed by an unbelievable forehand winner – Colin battled away but lost 11-8 in the fifth. 3-0 down before Peter managed to get the visitors on the board – Jack could not cope with his “funny rubber”. Colin then comfortably defeated Quentin to bring the scores back to 3-2, but Greig was no match for Shounak as the hosts restored a 2 game advantage. A point was then secured as the hosts won the doubles. Match 8 saw Colin take on Jack – the first two ends went Colin’s way 11-2, 11-2 – Greig watching on was wondering how on earth he had lost out to the Merchiston player – but hold on, a tight 13-11 third end win was followed by an 11-5 fourth end win as Jack came back to level the game – the decider went down to the wire – sometimes the luck just isn’t with you – Colin had two match points, the first saved by an outrageous edge from Jack, the second followed by a rally where he hit the net cord three times! At 12-12, Jack got another edge before finishing the match off with a terrific forehand winner! Colin couldn’t believe it. 6-2 became 7-2 when Shounak eventually worked out how to play Peter, and when Greig was thumped in the first two ends of the last match v Quentin it looked like being 8-2. From somewhere, however, Greig found some motivation and a bit of form and turned the match round for a 3-2 win – a second consecutive 7-3 defeat for Team 1.
 
Team 4 had Ladywood to themselves on Thursday night as Team 2 had a week off. It was really quiet at Ladywood by the time the boxing had finished – Haddington 4 didn’t show up! More on this match later!
 
The week came to an end on Friday evening as Team 3 visited Edinburgh University 3 in Division 2. Bob Porteous, Craig Linton and Kristian Skotzen made the visit to St Leonards Land in the knowledge that another win would bring them within two points of top of the table Penicuik 2, but with a much better game difference. The students had other ideas – Bob lost match 1 before Kristian squeezed through in five ends. The Uni lead was restored after Craig lost out in five ends. We were level again after Bob won match 4 but another five ender went the way of the students as Craig lost his second tight contest of the night. A two game gap was opened up for the first time after Kristian lost match 6 – 4-2 down going into the doubles – a win for the students secured them at least a point and the pressure was on Team 3 to try and salvage something from the match. Wins for Craig and Bob kept the match alive, but Kristian couldn’t quite get the draw as he lost out to the Uni’s best player on the night Yinjun He. 2 wins for Bob and 1 each for Craig and Kristian saw team 3 taste defeat for the first time this season as they fell to a 6-4 defeat.

And so, to our Player of the Week Award. Not much to choose from this week with only two matches actually played! Colin, Greig, Peter, Craig and Kristian all won 1 singles match and none of them won a doubles!! Bob was the only player with a better result, winning two out of three. Surely the award is his – apparently according to Team captain Craig, the crucial doubles was lost because of Bob’s contribution – Craig seemingly played brilliantly! Internal turmoil in Team 3 and if your own team can’t support you Bob, the selection committee can’t either. So, this week we’re really struggling for a winner! Who did our opponents vote for as player of the match this week – Bob got it for Team 3, but we know he’s out of the running! So, we turn to Team 1 – whoever got the Player of the Night Award will be this week’s winner – Colin lost two five enders and won his match 3-0. Peter won 3-0 and lost in four and five ends in the matches he lost. Greig was never at the races in his two losses and his win was in five ends. Yip you guessed it, Greig won the POTM award – it’s not about the quality of TT he played - it’s about how nice he’s become this season, or maybe how unlikeable his teammates are! Well done to this week’s winner!

As for controversies, Team 4 are in the spotlight again this week. They were due to play Haddington 4 on Thursday night at Ladywood. With Team 2 not playing, they were the only match on at Penicuik. They were set up by just after 6.30 for their 6.45 start. By 7pm no one from Haddington had arrived. By 7.15pm they were on the phone to Club President Greig asking what the rules were about teams turning up late. Greig suggested they contact their opponents to find out what was happening. Roger Thomas was listed as the relevant team captain but only an email address was available for him – email sent just after 7.15. By 7.45 there was still no sign of the Haddington side and no response from Roger. It was clear to the Penicuik trio that by that point, even if Haddington did show up they wouldn’t have time to get the match played. Rachel sent another email to Roger advising they were packing up and were going to claim the match. Just after 9pm Roger emailed Rachel to advise that one of the team had apparently emailed Rachel the previous day seeking a postponement. Rachel pointed out that the email hadn’t been received by her. Team 4 have submitted a card claiming a walkover. Without wanting to be unkind to our East Lothian friends, surely if you have sought a last minute postponement by email the day before a match and you’ve not had any response, you would try and make contact again with the same person or someone else in the team / club. Clearly there was no agreement to a postponement and simply to leave things on that basis was not helpful. We ended up paying for the hire of the hall when such was not necessary. Our team ended up having a wasted night hanging around anticipating a match which was never going to happen. It appears Haddington could have sent at least a team of two but decided that would be pointless.
 
The Rules are fairly clear:
 
“A team may not postpone a fixture except with the prior written confirmed consent of the other team, such consents and confirmations to be obtained no later than three days prior to the scheduled date of the fixture. Agreed postponements must be notified to the Match Secretary to be reflected in the ELTTL System.”
 
Clearly, none of the above was complied with. Whilst there will always be a need for late postponements and we don’t think many teams actually pay too much attention to the above rule in its entirety, the element which has to surely be taken on board is that you cannot proceed on the basis of a request for a postponement having not had any agreement from the other side – that’s just crazy. Going forward, one issue which perhaps needs to be addressed, and this appears to be the case for quite a few teams / clubs, is that there are very few phone numbers available for other players on the website – maybe there should be a rule that, at the very least, each team captain / secretary should have their phone number available – we have 4 email addresses for the four players in Team 4. Four of the five players registered for the Haddington side including their Team secretary only have email addresses listed. Emails are perhaps not the best when trying to reach someone urgently! The scorecard has been submitted but not yet approved and it appears that the Match Secretary is now involved - Haddington appear to be looking to reschedule. Update no doubt on this next week!
 
Double figures already – Week 10 is upon us.

Week 8 once again saw four of our five teams in League action, starting with Team 2s visit to North Merchiston on Monday 4th November.
 
Team 2 have had a terrific start to their division 2 campaign but with Krzysztof Laszkiewicz, Hannah McDonell and Ian Hislop all unavailable, James Wighton and Gary McDougal had to call upon help from Bob Porteous from Team 3 as they travelled to Edinburgh. Bob was first up against Julia Domagala and after losing the first two ends 11-3, 11-6 Bob was in big trouble. He somehow managed to turn the match around for a fifth end win but the scores were quickly levelled following a loss for James. When that was followed by a fifth end win for Nick Adams against Gary and a three-end loss for Bob against Fares Carbrera, Team 2s undefeated start to the season was in danger.  Match 5 saw a good 4 end win for Gary to reduce the deficit to 3-2 before James took on Nick in Match 6 – this turned out to be the closest match of the night – James took a 2-0 lead 11-5, 12-10 but then lost both ends 3 and 4 by a 12-10 scoreline. The decider also went the distance but it was James who just got over the line 11-9 for a crucial win. 3-3 going into the doubles. As reported last week, the doubles have been a horror story for Team 2 so far this season. Six matches played six doubles lost – make that SEVEN! At some point Team 2’s failure to win the doubles is going to have an impact on the match score – maybe this was the night it was going to prove crucial. Fares, undefeated on the night started as favourite against Gary in match 8 – Gary had other ideas and he kept the visitors in it with a 3-0 win. Bob then secured a point for Team 2 with a 3-1 victory v Nick and it was left to James to complete a brilliant comeback as he defeated Julia – from 3-1 and 4-3 down a 6-4 victory for Team 2 was a terrific result, all three players winning two.
 
Thursday 7th November saw teams 1, 3 and 5 in action at Ladywood. Greig McDonell, Colin Green and Peter Aird took on defending Premier League champions Murrayfield 1 in the Premier Division. A slightly understrength Murrayfield 1 took to the table but they were still too good for the hosts. All three players defeated William Wang but that was as good as it got for Team 1. There were chances for Peter in his match v Charlie McGowan but at 6-6 in the fifth, Charlie rolled off 5 consecutive points for the win. Colin was also unlucky as he lost out in five to the stylish John Hannah. Had they gone the way of the hosts then maybe a point was a possibility? But they didn’t and a 7-3 defeat ensued.
 
Team 3 took on Edinburgh University 4 in the knowledge that they needed to keep winning to keep pace with Penicuik 2. Charlie Brindley, Kristian Skotzen and Craig Linton turned out this week for Team 3 and three more awkward players are unlikely to be found in the division! Long pips, short pips and anti-loop all on show! When Charlie lost out to Enrique Calisto in the first match of the night it looked like Team 3 were going to be in for a real challenge. From there, however, Team 3 showed how hard they are to beat as they ran off 9 victories in a row for an impressive 9-1 win.
 
Finally in Week 8, Team 5 took on Heriot Watt University 2. Sian McDonald, Mat Dyluk and Roscoe Cairney were in action for the hosts.  After the first two matches, the hosts were 2-0 down, but with Sian scraping through match 3 with an 11-5 win in the fifth, and Roscoe then winning the next match in 4 ends, the hosts were back in the game. But unfortunately for the Penicuik trio,  the visitors won the next 6 games for an 8-2 win. In fairness, Sian’s other 2 games went to fifth end deciders, and 2 of 3 of Mat’s games went to 4 ends – the 8-2 score line doesn’t really reflect how close the game was.

And so, to our Player of the Week Award. Team 3 had a terrific night at Ladywood with both Kristian and Craig undefeated and combining in the doubles for a victory. There were a number of players who won two out of three and crucially all of Team 2 won 2 in a 6-4 victory – Team 2 were indebted again to Team 3 for keeping them top of the table – Bob this time contributing 2 to the victory. A special mention this week also for Mat from Team 5 – although Mat didn’t win any of his three matches, he played some lovely table tennis and hit some gorgeous and stylish forehands. Great to see such improvement. But this week there can only be one winner. This week sums her up perfectly – 3 matches played and every one of them went to five ends – so what if she only won 1 of them – she competes hard in every match. The award this week is a special one recognising this player’s contribution to the Club over the last few years. She joined the Club in 2021 and first played in the league in the 2022-23 season. That year she had an average of just under 30%. She has always worked hard in training and is one of the “Saturday morning regulars” who puts 100% effort into everything she’s asked to do. Her improvement is clear for everyone to see. In season 2023/24 her average jumped to 66%. This weekend saw her attend her last session at the Club before she moves to pastures new – we ran a competition in her name (James and Greig still can’t say it properly apparently). Well done to Sian. Not only will Team 5 miss her TT abilities, but the Club as a whole and the coaches in particular will miss her terrific attitude and we will all miss her great humour and personality. We wish Sian all the very best for the future and if she gets fed up with the hectic lifestyle of London, she’s welcome back to Penicuik any time.  

As for controversies this week, the saga of postponements continued from last week. After Team 4 had no problem in agreeing to a postponement request from our friends from West Lothian, despite WL refusing James’ team a postponement the previous week, this week saw the same team who had refused the postponement seeking a postponement from our Team 3. It appears that WL have an issue later this month / early December because their venue is not available. It was pointed out that the reason behind the request was for very different reasons than the request from our Team 2 to WL and the resultant refusal to agree to a postponement. Our Team 3 captain, Craig, is a much nicer guy than some of our other team captains! There would be no issue with him agreeing, would there? The point of course is that the reason for a postponement request is not the only consideration to take into account. Rescheduling arrangements are more important to ensure that the team who agree to a postponement are not prejudiced by agreeing to a postponement. Whether a month’s notice is given or 2 days’ notice is given makes no difference in our view – and as we said previously, it makes a huge difference whether the match is a home one or an away fixture due to the difficulty with getting our venue on days other than the match days already scheduled. As for this request, of course Craig agreed to a postponement – he did it within about half an hour of the request being made – he really is a nice guy! So 2 postponement requests agreed to by us from WL and one from us to WL refused – as per our report last week, hopefully no issue when we come knocking later in the season for a postponement.
 
In another week when we struggled to get full teams out, here’s an interesting one – Team 1 played Murrayfield 1 last Thursday, 7th November. Interestingly, Murrayfield 1 also played Edinburgh University last Thursday – at exactly the same time as they were in action at Ladywood, they were in action at their home venue! What? There’s a rule that no one player can play for two different teams on the same night but nothing in the rules about a team playing two matches simultaneously! It’s probably never been thought of as an issue. Wow – talk about an embarrassment of riches! At Ladywood two regulars were joined by William Wang whilst at Murrayfield another two regulars were joined by Angus Halliday, both youngsters registered for Murrayfield 2 in the Premier Division. Talk about confidence – even with the two youngsters playing up losing all 6 of their combined singles games, the two Murrayfield 1 teams still produced victories against their opponents! Maybe if Edinburgh Uni and ourselves are struggling towards the end of the season, we can try and appeal against these results if we can somehow argue that the same team playing 2 matches on the same night is forbidden - if only!! Some might argue that rather than confidence this was arrogance on the part of the Defending Premier League champions. Not us – we are just envious that a Club can have so many players to choose from, and quality players at that!
 
Finally, we end on a sombre note – we were really saddened to hear at the end of last week of the passing of Slawomir Bess, a terrific guy who played his table tennis at North Merchiston. Slav was a fierce competitor on the table and a lovely guy off the table – he will be sadly missed by those of us who knew him well. We send our condolences to Slav’s family and friends at this difficult time.

Week 7 saw four of our five teams in League action, starting with visits on Wednesday 30th October to Edinburgh International for Team 1 and to Gullane for Team 5.
​
Greig McDonell, Colin Green and Peter Aird knew that their visit to EI in the Premier Division would be a tough encounter – the previous season had seen two good wins for the Penicuik trio but those matches could easily have gone the other way. With Peter unable to get to the venue on time, matches were played out of order and after the first four singles only Greig had recorded a victory – 3-1 down when Peter arrived – he played the next two singles and won them to draw the match level at 3-3. In hindsight, Peter should have sat out the doubles to give him a rest but instead he combined with Colin in a three set loss – advantage EI. The last three matches were played simultaneously – that meant 4 matches in a row for Peter and he just ran out of steam losing in five ends to Marek Domagala. Meantime, Greig could find no answer to the attacking play of Debjit Choudhury and to round of a miserable night for Colin he lost to Babu Valaguruvan in four sets. So two wins for Peter and one for Greig resulted in a disappointing 7-3 loss for the visitors.
 
Team 5 made the long trip to the East Coast to take on top of the table Gullane in Division 4. Sian McDonald, Mat Dyluk and Ian Millar were under no illusions as to how difficult this match was going to be. In fairness, Sian got the side off to a decent start, unluckily losing out in five ends in Match 1. That, however, was as good as it got for the visitors. The Gullane outfit showed why they sit at the top of the Division 4 table as they dropped only one further end all night in their 10-0 victory – where was Team Captain Roscoe? Protecting his average apparently!

The next night was Halloween and Teams 2 and 4 were trying to avoid any horror results as they faced Corstorphine and Edinburgh University respectively.
 
James Wighton, Gary McDougal and Krzysztof Laszkiewicz took to the table for Team 2 in Division 2 and after the first three singles matches they held a 3-0 lead. Gary narrowly lost match 4 but wins for James and Krzysztof gave the Penicuik trio a commanding 5-1 lead going into the doubles. The doubles have been a horror story for Team 2 so far this season. Krys and Gary didn’t work out in Match 1, James and Gary lost in Match 2, James and Hannah didn’t do any better in Match 3, Krys and James lost in Match 4 before James and Gary gave it another go in Match 5, only to lose again – this was the night fortunes were going to change – Krys and James both unbeaten took to the table and duly lost another doubles – SIX doubles matches played and SIX lost – some practice needed it appears. Despite their shocking doubles performances, James and Krys won their remaining singles as the hosts recorded a good 7-3 victory.
 
In the other half of the hall, Team 4 could only field one regular player of their four registered as Chamika Diyunugalge was joined by Phil Daly and Jay Jayalath playing up from Team 5. They took on Edinburgh University 5 in Division 3. In the first three matches, Jay was unlucky losing out 12-10 in a nail-biting five end encounter but all three matches were lost. Match 5 saw Chamika play some terrific stuff as he recorded a 3-2 win but with the other two singles lost, the hosts trailed 5-1 going into the doubles. Another marathon as Chamika and Jay came back from 2-1 down to win 11-9 in the fifth. 5-2 and the hosts needed to win all three remaining singles for a point. Jay was again unlucky losing out in five but ultimately that was as close as the home side got to a win as they suffered an 8-2 defeat. Not a horror show but a disappointing result for Team 4.

And so, to our Player of the Week Award. It wasn’t a great week for the Club with three losses and only one win – that win saw both James and Krzysztof undefeated in singles play. It’s difficult to split them this week – they both won 9 ends and lost 1. Our Player of the Week Panel got bored counting up points won and lost so we turn to who the other side thought was better on the night – the player of the match according to Corstorphine and therefore our Player of the Week is James - Well done to him.  

As for controversies this week, the theme continues a little from last week with player availability a bit of a concern. Team 4 had to call on two players to play up from Team 5 in a game, which on paper, looked as if it could have produced a chance to pick up some points. In fairness, the three players who were unavailable all had other commitments but it does show how important it is to have a squad of players to call upon. Our opponents on the night had EIGHT players registered to play in the team. We’ve always taken the view that having a pool as big as that would be counter-productive (and a nightmare to get everyone playing a fair amount of games). Given how difficult it is to get postponements these days, however, one can easily see how having a bigger pool would be advantageous. In seasons gone by, if you only had one player out of 4 available, a postponement request would be put in without hesitation. It seems, however, that more and more clubs are taking the view that fixtures just need to be played. We, as a Club, would struggle to give postponements to others because of the limited availability of our venue and so we have to understand that asking other clubs to postpone is likely to result in a similar position being taken by them.
 
We were not surprised therefore when in Week 6, Team 2 sought a postponement of their match away to West Lothian in Division 2. No came the response from our Bathgate based opponents. Difficulty in rearranging etc. As we have said before refusal of postponements, irrespective of how merited they are, lead to a bit of ill-feeling and a suggestion that those refusing the postponement are not very “sporting”. But we just have to live with it. What was a surprise is that the very next week West Lothian sought a postponement of their fixture against our Team 4! They cannot get their venue on the date set for the fixture. Not our problem is it? Surely we’re just going to tell them, sorry - you guys refused last week so we’re refusing this week – of course not – we’re not like that. We don’t hold grudges! We want to play games not take concessions! We’re all so accommodating and sporting (or maybe Team 4 just weren’t aware of the refusal the previous week!! Fixture rearranged for later in the year. Let’s just hope that WL, if called upon in future, are able to return the favour!
 
The only other matter of any note arose in Team 1’s visit to Edinburgh International. As we mentioned, Peter was unable to get to the venue on time – he was very late. In the old days, more than 30 minutes after start time and you’d forfeit your games. We had played four singles before Peter arrived and some EI players (spectators) commented that the 30 minute rule could be invoked. Of course that rule doesn’t exist anymore – now we have the strange situation that a player can turn up as late as they want and so long as the hosts are able to complete the 10 matches in time there is no punishment for the late arrival. If we hadn’t been able to complete match 10 for example that match would be awarded to the team who had been on time but for venues where there is no time limit does that mean someone can turn up at the end of the match effectively and still be allowed to play? A player turns up at North Merchiston just as the doubles are finishing (match 7). I’m here and able to play – NM don’t have a “finish time” so that player can play his three matches in a row at the end of the night! That can’t be an outcome that this rule was intended to allow but that seems to be what we have.
 
Week 8 is already upon us!