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ELTTL - Week 15 Report

22/12/2019

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Week 15 was Handicap Cup Week and having managed to get all four entered teams through to the last 16 stage, spirits were high that the Club could maintain their recent excellent record in the Competition.

Last season a combination of David Melrose, Gary McDougal, Louis McLeod, Craig Linton & Tony Brentnall had gone all the way to the final and lifted the trophy. This year's random generator machine introduced by our Ex Treasurer, Craig J, had put together David, Craig & Krzysztof in the first round. With Krys being unavailable this time, in stepped one of our defending champions, Gary, as they faced West Lothian at Ladywood. The Bathgate side comprised a trio of positive handicapped players and when Penicuik raced into a 4-1 lead the match looked like being over in double quick fashion. After two consecutive wins for the visitors, however, nerves were starting to jangle a little as the final matches got underway. Gary took on Tommy Hamill (0-9 to 17) in Match 8 and what a game it was - fitting that it went to a deciding fifth end, not so fitting that that last end saw Gary fall to a heavy defeat. 4-4, time running out rapidly and we had a female caretaker in charge which meant we couldn't even lock her in a cupboard as we had earlier in the season with her male counterpart! David v Martin Rumsey (0-11 to 21) was the final match of the night and it had to go to five ends didn't it! The handicaps were pretty accurate - 21-19, 20-22 and 23-21 saw David take a 2-1 lead. But Martin fought hard and won the fourth 21-13. The stage was set for a nail-biting finish and unfortunately, as with Gary's match, the fifth end went the way of the visitors who secured a nerve-racking 5-4 victory. Has anyone seen the Handicap Cup Trophy? We'll be needing it back soon!

After a terrific win in the previous round Colin Green, Abby Wighton & Rachel Petrie stayed together as they took on Murrayfield 5. Unfortunately for them, their adventure came to an end for this season as they fell to a 5-3 defeat. We are shamefully going to steal Charlie Ellis' report on this match (only subject to correcting his grammar!) which is in the following terms:

Team 5 (Stuart Wilson, Derek Hamilton & Charlie Ellis) made it through to the quarter finals of the ELTTL Handicap Cup via a battling win versus Penicuik 4 (Colin, Abby & Rachel) at Ladywood. The match started promisingly for the away side with Stuart Wilson landing with some good swats to lead Colin 2-1; Colin recovered in typical fashion to win the 4th and 5th sets with some ease. Crucial to the win was the contribution of Derek who answered the call to play at the last minute and produced two vital wins, starting off with a 3-1 win versus Abby to level the match a 1-1. Key was probably his 3-2 win against Rachel, in a match of evenly handicapped players (+7 vs +6). After Derek cruised to a 2-0 lead , Rachel came back well and was generally ahead in the decider. A cruel net dribbler from Derek at deuce helped him scrape over the line and give Murrayfield a 4-2 lead (Rachel had lost out in a similarly close one against Charlie - the net again assisting Murrayfield at the conclusion).

Charlie seemed to be on course to close out the match, as he lead Abby 2-0. However Abby (armed with useful tactical suggestions from Tom Mackenzie - a rare sighting of the Penicuik coach in the UK!) came back to force a decider as her attacking play pushed Charlie back from the table. Charlie, who was running on empty after two long matches (& too much ping pong training the night before), was given a boost from a chunk of chocolate (cheers Stuart): he got off to a good start in the 5th and concluded the match with a 25-20 scoreline. (the match between Rachel & Stuart had started so was played to a conclusion). An excellent match with the closeness of the games further evidence of the accuracy of the handicaps.

PTTC 1 had secured a narrow victory in the previous round but with Hannah McDonell unavailable, Kristian Skotzen stepped in to join James Wighton and Sonny Taylor as they travelled to take on another Murrayfield side. The match didn't get off to the best of starts as Sonny realised that he had picked up his dad's bat rather than his own. We won't put into print how Julian's bat was described for fear of offence being caused to our readers! They took on Jingu Kang, Arjun Singh & Masoud Nowbaveh. James was disappointed as he failed to overturn a 0-9 deficit v Jingu in Match 1 and Sonny couldn't get used to dad's bat quick enough as he lost the second match to Arjun. Kristian v Masoud was to prove critical. Kristian had chances in end 4 to finish the match but agonisingly lost out 18-16. In the fifth a little tension sneaked into the arm and mistakes cost him the match. A four end victory for Arjun over James then gave the hosts a commanding 4-0 lead. Was there any way back for the visitors? There was a glimmer of hope as Kristian and Sonny then reduced the gap to 4-2 before Kristian succumbed to Arjun, who was, by far, the player of the Match with his three wins for the hosts? 

So only one team left to salvage a terrible week - Greig McDonell, Julian Taylor and George Wilson travelled to Bathgate where they took on Keith MacKay, Richard Masterson and Jim Stewart. The first match saw Julian take on Richard (3-0 to 14) - three of the five ends went to deuce. The decider saw Julian hold his nerve for a 16-14 win. Greig then gave Jim a 15 point start in a race to 23. When Jim hit his first shot (a backhand winner down the line) Greig was left cursing whoever made up the handicaps. However, he battled on and despite a 23-10 hammering in end 3, he levelled the match with a 23-21 win in end four - that seemed to knock the stuffing out of Jim as Greig dug in to win the decider 23-18. Matches 3 and 4 were played simultaneously - George almost made his 6 point advantage count but in yet another 5 ender, he lost out 17-15 after having been caught at 11-11 before he played his best TT of the night. Jim v Julian also went to five ends. When Julian scraped through 13-10 in the fifth the match score stood at 3-1. With time marching on, for the fifth consecutive match 5 ends were required - this time George lost out narrowly to Richard and when Keith wasted no time in putting Greig away in three the match was tied at 3-3. Julian v Keith and George v Jim were next on with Captain Greig praying for two wins to avoid him having to play Richard in a ninth match decider. Under strange circumstances, George gave Penicuik the fourth win of the night (more on that later) and then Julian rounded off his excellent undefeated night with a four end victory over Keith. 5-3 in the end for the visitors but this match could easily have gone the other way.

Player of the Week Award this week is surely the easiest one of the season - only one player had an undefeated night in the Handicap Cup and that resulted in a win for our Team in Bathgate - despite George wanting the award for his "strangest" win of the season there really is no competition this week - well done to Julian.

Our Controversy of the Week is a good one! Our visit to West Lothian saw us embroiled in a really entertaining tight match. With the scores tied at 3-3, George faced off in his last match against a fellow Division 3 player  The overall match was in the balance and in the first few points George became a little vocal regarding his own play. At about 5-6 in points, the home Umpire called a let for a ball that he thought he saw come into the court just as George was in control of the rally - there was no ball in the Court and George pointed that out to the Umpire (Where's the ball??). Umpire apologised for his error but point had to be replayed - George then whacked his return of serve into the net, shouted at himself and generally looked moody! His opponent then asked what the problem was to be told by George "nothing - let's play". I'm not playing in this atmosphere says the WL player. George then attempted to explain to his opponent that he was angry at himself, no one else and once again said let's get on with it. Having none of it the WL player inexplicably indicated he was going to concede the match! What? Really? No one on the other table (nor the umpire) could really believe what was happening as they tried to continue with their game. With George's teammates playing and umpiring the other match with no clear view of what was going on, they overheard the best line of the week come from George in response to the offer of a concession - "Ok thanks - I'll take it!!" A shake of hands followed! 

The "discussion" continued until Greig (umpiring the other match) asked the pair of protagonists to leave the hall if they wanted to continue their "friendly chat" so match 8 could proceed without interruption. They both remained to support their teammates but with that win for George, Julian's win then secured the overall victory. At the end of the match, we asked the Bathgate player why he had conceded - I play for fun came his response - I don't like playing in bad atmospheres! Wow! Honourable? Don't be ridiculous! That was the craziest decision we've ever seen in a match which was clearly in the balance and we couldn't help but point out to the Bathgate player that it was a good job he hadn't been a member of the away team - whether you play for fun or not doing that to your teammates who were trying their hearts out and wanting the chance of a decider was utterly ludicrous!! This fun game we play is about having some talent but as with all sports your mindset has to be right - you have to be able to cope with what comes from the opponent and lots of times block out what your opponent is up to. Maybe he remembered that George had beaten him 3 straight in the League earlier in the season and just fancied an early finish! Crazy stuff.

Away from the Handicap Cup, the Heriot Watt story rumbles on and on. We're beginning to think people do  actually read this piece after we saw various exchanges between a couple of Clubs and the League Match Secretary which raised the same points we made in last week's Report! The main issue remains that the promotion of the HW side is conditional upon them completing all of their Div 3 fixtures and, more than that, winning them all comfortably by no less than 8-2 seemingly!! As we pointed out last week, we had stupidly fallen into that trap of thinking that a promotion which was conditional upon another event happening meant that event had to happen before the promotion would be ratified - silly us - the condition doesn't need to be fulfilled until.........?????? The end of the season maybe?? Who knows - what is for sure is that it is not conditional upon HW completing their Div 3 fixtures before they start playing their Div 1 fixtures - what an absolute load of nonsense!

Rather than compromising in any way with suggestions made by a couple of Clubs, we are told that if HW don't win their last 3 fixtures handsomely then the Match Secretary will resign from his post! Really?? So now we have the promotion of HW and the Match Secretary's position conditional upon the results from 3 outstanding fixtures in Division 3! Crazy stuff. The other issue which has been fudged is what the promotion and relegation situation will be - the response to a direct query regarding this was in the following terms:

"Promotion and relegation will BROADLY (our emphasis) remain two up and two down". The word broadly has never been used before. What does that mean? It was then pointed out that the composition of the Divisions will depend on the number of teams entered next season etc. That of course is true but what we need clarity on is the simple question posed by our friends from North Merchiston and Edinburgh International - will promotion and relegation remain two up and two down across the divisional structure - surely that can't be a difficult question to answer!

2019 is coming to an end - eventful as ever this ELTTL business - we wouldn't change a thing and can we make our position clear - we have nothing but admiration and appreciation for all the hard work that certain people put in every year to make the League run smoothly. Every amateur organisation needs committed and dedicated individuals and we are most grateful to those who give their time so we can then play the game we love. As for Mr Benjamin's silly suggestion that he will resign - we would hate that to happen - not only is Ken Ben a good friend to the Club, a dedicated member of the league committee and an all-round nice guy but if he resigned our write ups would be much less enjoyable!

Merry Xmas to all our friends (including some from Fife) and best wishes for 2020 from all at PTTC.

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ELTTL - Week 14 Report

18/12/2019

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Week 14 of the ELTTL saw Division 2’s top of the table clash between Team 3 and Fife 2 take place at Ladywood. The match received top billing from our match secretary, Ken Ben, who helpfully sent an email to league players inviting them to attend and watch this clash. In mentioning the teams’ strengths, it became apparent to us that Mr Benjamin is clearly not a fan of our weekly reports! He had no idea that the “bad sports” from Fife had refused a postponement and as a result neither Krzysztof Laszkiewicz nor Abby Wighton were able to compete. Krzysztof sat third in the individual averages for the Division and his presence would surely have had a big impact. Abby, with her fantastic attacking style, would also have caused Fife problems. As it was, Team Captain James Wighton pulled in some help from the PTTC committee to convince Team 4 to sacrifice their match to enable Sonny Taylor to play up for Team 3! He joined James and Iain Johnstone against the regular trio of Stockdale, McKay and Dow for Fife. 
 
After Iain got the hosts off to the perfect start, Match 2 was a cracker and against the odds James came back from 2-1 down for a fantastic win against Fife’s number 1, Lance. Sonny lost his first match before James and Iain took care of the two Steve’s and Penicuik looked in control at 4-1 up. Match 6 was to prove to be a turning point. Sonny led 2-1 against Lance and found himself 6-2 up and on course to secure at least a point for the hosts. A wild shot by Lance resulted in the ball getting stuck in the dividing curtain which surrounds the hall – the pause in the game to retrieve the ball completely changed the momentum as Sonny lost his way and fell to a 5-end defeat. James and Sonny then lost the doubles before James lost match 8 and suddenly the match was tied at 4-4. The last two matches were played simultaneously, Ian v Lance and Sonny v Steve Dow. Ian took care of Lance in 3 straight ends, Lance seemingly losing his concentration a little as he seemed more interested in what was happening in the other match – maybe he didn’t feel he was in with a chance of defeating Ian?? Sonny fell 2-0 behind (4-11, 9-11). El Presidente entered the playing arena to give some encouragement to Sonny – and it seemed to work as he took the next two ends 11-3, 11-9 to set up a nail-biting decider. Despite the win eluding him, Sonny can hold his head up high having made a great effort throughout the night. So, in the end a 5-5 draw, 3 for Iain and 2 for James, A fair result? Of course not!
 
With Sonny having eventually been persuaded to play for Team 3, Team 4 were always going to struggle, and they fell to a 7-3 defeat at the hands of Corstorphine. Maybe dad Julian was missing and thinking about Sonny too much as both he and Rachel Petrie playing up from Team 5 were winless in singles. 2 wins for Chris Markey and a doubles victory made the score respectable.
 
Team 5’s task for their final match of the first half was to get at least a point v Corstorphine who were below them in the Division 3 table. Captain Kristian Skotzen took some amount of flak as a result of his call-off from the team with about 5 minutes to go before the match was due to start – seemingly he was a bit sniffly! It looked like George Wilson and Craig Linton were going to have to play on their own with Rachel already committed to helping out Team 4 and Hannah’s return to league play not scheduled until the New Year. Has anyone noticed another McDonell registered in Division 3 though?? A dash to Ladywood for both and despite McDonell Snr saying he wanted to play none of the other Team 5 members would sit out! Shocking! Ultimately, Hannah won player of the match for her good attacking play and smile. Craig nearly defeated David Sykes in Match 9 (7-11 in the fifth) which may have meant a draw was on the cards and George somehow managed to win two of the ugliest games of Table Tennis ever witnessed at Ladywood – it all added up however, to a 6-4 defeat for Penicuik who now only hold a one point advantage over 2nd and 3rd bottom in the Division!
 
Our Player of the Week Award this week is a fairly easy one. After Ken Ben promoting the Penicuik v Fife match there were a few emails back from League players about the result and Kevin Lawson from Granton TT Club summed things up perfectly in his email (not often that’s been said)! 
 
“When I looked at the match card last night James Wighton's performance stood out like a beacon. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Big congrats to James. Top man always”
 
We couldn’t agree more – well done to James. 
 
And finally, to our Controversy of the Week. 
 
The Heriot Watt promotion mid-season fiasco drags on – plenty of criticism directed at the proposal – no change of view or taking on board what was being said. Hold on, sorry did we say it was a “proposal”? Of course, by the stage it reached the League membership it wasn’t a proposal it was a decision, and clearly a decision which is not going to be reviewed. The only condition that remains for the mid-season jump to take place is that Heriot Watt fulfil all of their first half fixtures in Division 3. Should be easy – a week until Christmas and they’ve still got three matches to play according to the Online Scoring Site. Do students not tend to have gone home by now??? Maybe they’re planning on playing them in between Xmas and the New Year? Hold on! One of those three fixtures is scheduled for the 24th of January – their match against Edinburgh University. Did there not used to be a Rule to say that all postponed first half fixtures had to be played before the second half got underway? Maybe we’re dreaming that? We could be really pedantic and say that Heriot Watt do not get the same concession as Edinburgh University who are specifically allowed more than one postponed fixture – but that would be silly on our part – they’re new to the League and the Rules have just not been updated to include them in the same bracket as Edinburgh Uni. We can safely assume that the League will treat HW and Ed Uni the same - What the Rules say, therefore, is:
 
“For EUTTC teams, postponed fixtures should be re-scheduled within 4 playing weeks of their first completed fixture.”
 
Hmmm. September 9th, September 16th and the Uni match from 13th December. Looks to us as if none of those matches have been rescheduled within 4 weeks of their first completed match (Sep 25th). Never mind though, we only play for fun and it’s only a rule if someone makes an issue about it…. So, it looks like we’re going to have a situation where we have a team competing in Division 1 and Division 3 at the same time – hope someone has had the sense to check whether any of HW’s new Div 1 fixtures clash with any of their rearranged Div 3 matches?? And what if they don’t manage to play all of their outstanding Div 3 fixtures, are they then relegated back into Division 3? Silly us to have thought the condition that they fulfil their Division 3 fixtures meant that they would be fulfilled as a pre-requisite to being promoted into Division 1!
 
We could go on and on this week with various other matters but let’s save some up for a pre-Xmas treat next week! To finish though it’s back to our friends from Fife. Not happy enough with their desire for League points by refusing a postponement, their Team Captain then came up with the best complaint of the week after the match had switched onto two tables. He complained (mid match) that there was a rule which prevented any coaching taking place if a match was split onto two tables as this was an unfair advantage to the away team! Whilst there may be some merit in such a rule (we can see some rationale behind it) there is of course no such rule in existence. Had he referred to the rule about only one fellow player or nominated coach being able to coach once a fixture has commenced (Is that a rule?) then he may have at least avoided the sarcastic response and chuckle from El Presidente. Talk about desperation! What happened to this just being a fun sport. We have to take one final opportunity of reminding Fife’s Captain of his words earlier in the season in his email to the League about a different fixture:
 
“it's only a game but it looks like Penicuik are seizing an option for some easy points which reflects very badly on Penicuik.”
 
Hmm……..
 
Until next week – and we already have a brilliant controversy from a Handicap Cup game on Monday night to look forward to!

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ELTTL - Week 13 Report

10/12/2019

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Week 13 of the ELTTL saw our first derby match of the season as Team 3 took on Team 4 in Division 2. Iain Johnstone, Krzysztof Laszkiewicz and James Wighton were undefeated and top of the Division going into the match. Team 4 had to rely on Kristian Skotzen playing up from Team 5 to join Julian and Sonny Taylor. Whilst Team 3 started as firm favourites, they were feeling the pressure in the run up to the match and so it was extremely important to get off to a good start. When Krzysztof lost the first end of the night to Sonny it looked like Team 3's fears were well founded. From there, however, Krzysztof battled back to win in four ends before Iain and James comfortably won their opening matches. When Krzysztof then scraped over the line v Julian in match 4 of the night (12-10 in the fifth), the match score was suddenly 4-0 and it was virtually all but over as a contest. James and Iain then won their second singles matches of the night before James and Krzysztof combined for a doubles win resulting in Team 4 taking a 7-0 lead.  In the last round of fixtures, Julian won in four ends against James to give Team 4 their solitary win of the night. Team 3 proved too strong overall, although the 9-1 win flattered a little. Still top of the Division but second placed Fife visit this week – at full strength this would be a cracking match but as we know Fife have refused to agree to a postponement so against two players, they should make that unfair advantage count.
 
Team 1 of Colin Green, Carsten Giebeler and David Melrose visited North Merchiston 1 on Wednesday last week in the knowledge that the match provided a chance for the Midlothian side to end the first half of the Edinburgh & Lothians Table Tennis season on a high. For the hosts, Stewart Armitage was absent and even though Merchiston were able to pull in an able replacement in Geoff Hunter, Penicuik's spirits were buoyed by Stewart's absence and the thought of an upset was at the forefront of their minds. There was some terrific TT played throughout the night, none more so than in the crucial doubles. 3-3 going into that match which saw Colin & Carsten take on Glyn Eggar and Mark Lundberg. 2-0 up to NM and they had match points in the third - the match suddenly turned as the Penicuik duo fought back and courtesy of some brilliant attacking play from Carsten in the deciding end, they took the match score to 4-3. Colin then secured a point by defeating Glyn before David came back from 10-6 down in the fourth end v Geoff to secure the win. In the end Team 1 were 6-4 victors, with two wins each for Carsten and Colin, one for David and that crucial doubles victory. Although they may be overtaken before Xmas, Team 1 probably hold their highest ever position in the Premier Division at this stage of a season - 3rd after 11 matches is a terrific return for Team 1.
 
In Division 1, Team 2 faced high flying ESC with only Gary McDougal and Charlie Brindley available. ESC sits second in the Division and it was no surprise to see the Penicuik duo fall to a heavy 9-1 defeat, Gary picking up the only win for the hosts. 
 
Our Player of the Week Award this week sees only two players record undefeated performances – Iain and Krzysztof for team 3. With two wins each, however, Colin and Carsten deserve to be in the running and Carsten deserves special mention for pulling out some fantastic stuff in their crucial doubles victory which effectively secured the win for Team 1. In the end, even though the match sounded like it was one sided (it really wasn’t!), for his momentum shifting wins coming back under pressure this week’s winner is Krzysztof – well done to him.
 
And finally, to our Controversy of the Week. 
 
We’ve already mentioned Team 3’s table topping match v Fife in Division 2 scheduled for this Wednesday – no change of view by Fife - they’re playing the match despite Team 3s request for a postponement. Is it wrong to hope for snow on Wednesday…….?
 
The last League Committee meeting seems to have been interesting. Internally as a Club, we were frustrated at not being represented – we need to ensure that doesn’t happen again! Two main issues arose – Iain Johnstone has now been prevented from playing doubles for Team 3 as a result of him playing out of strength order. Seemingly that decision ought to have been made at the beginning of the season but was missed by the League. It was thought by certain individuals that the rule only applied to someone playing so far out of their strength order that it made it unfair for them to be allowed to play doubles – so for example when Graham Booth dropped down to Division 4 a few years ago to play with young Amelia for North Merchiston, he wasn’t allowed to play doubles. In Iain’s case he is between 100 and 200 rating points better than two of our Division 1 players – it was felt he wasn’t so out of order and thus the rule didn’t apply to him. Certain senior members at our Club were outraged by the decision until El Presidente pointed out that the rule is very clear – there is nothing about having to be significantly out of playing strength – 
 
“Any player allowed by the league to be registered in a team lower than their playing strength warrants will be prohibited from participating in the doubles unless he/she is one of only two players in a team.”
 
Simple as that! Controversial then that we have benefitted from this rule being missed – there remains a feeling amongst some on the League committee that this is not what was intended when the rule was brought in but that’s what it says so unless it’s changed that’s what we are stuck with. The only thing we can say is the timing of this is great – just in advance of a top of the table match v Fife where the opponents seem more interested in winning than sportsmanship – was it them who raised the issue at the Committee meeting? As if refusing a postponement wasn’t bad enough! We can’t really complain about this though – Iain is out of ratings central order and we can see the reasoning as to why this rule was brought in.
 
The second interesting issue to be “decided upon” is far more controversial. Heriot-Watt Team 1 were placed in Div 3 this season. They look as if they are going to win the title - undefeated so far and their closest match of the season was a 7-3 win v Murrayfield. Having said that they’re still only in second place in the table although they have games in hand on leaders West Lothian who they comfortably defeated last week. So what we hear you say? Well, so confident are certain individuals on the League Committee that they are far too good for Div 3 that a proposal was made, and seemingly by majority decision approved, to promote HW for the second half of the season, jumping them not just one division but two into Div 1. 
 
The constitutional basis for doing so? There is none. There must be a precedent that is being relied upon though? Nope. Putting aside the rules – who needs rules anyway – we just play for fun according to some who have commented on this issue – what would the second half of the season look like for teams in Div 1 and Div 3? Well, Div 3 results would stand for everyone and really no impact on those teams in the division other than the loss of one fixture for the second half. Rachel will be both disappointed and delighted by this turn of events – disappointed that she won’t get another crack at these “top guns” – she took an end of two of their three players when they met at Ladywood – delighted that according to the league Rachel won ends against Div 1 quality opposition. George too won ends against them. David MacRae from West Lothian defeated one of them, as did Jamie Toner – does that make them Division 1 quality? Who’s to say that because a team have a great first half of the season that will continue in the new year? Will two teams still be promoted? We believe so – better then, for a team that may finish third if HW remain.
 
As for Division 1 teams we’re told that HW will gain double points in every match they play but an adjustment of -2 will be applied at the end of the season. What?? If they win every match, 12 of them, they could rack up 48 points. That’s not fair we’re told because if another team won every match they played, all 23 of them they could only reach a maximum of 46 points! So, we will make a 2-point adjustment! More realistically it’s likely that they may struggle a little in what is a very tough division. Pick up a couple of 4-point wins though and they’re probably safe from relegation. Surely that can’t be right. A team could win 4 matches throughout the season but go down as a result of a team being catapulted into the division who perhaps win one match and draw 2 – the result of that would be 8 points to HW.
 
This “decision” has drawn widespread criticism from a number of Clubs. Our final point on this is that the minutes refer to there being a general consensus at the committee meeting. It is then said by the League that the motion was approved by a “majority decision”. What was the majority? The match secretary had already expressed some disappointment that there were only 6 clubs represented at the meeting. One of those six was Heriot-Watt. Can they vote on their own promotion? This seems to us to be an extremely significant decision to be made by a majority decision of representatives from 5 clubs, who didn’t have any advance notice of the issue and therefore had no opportunity to take their Club view on the matter?? The Agenda simply referred to the Match Secretary’s report covering three items one of which was headed “Heriot-Watt teams”. Add to that the fact that neither the Constitution nor the Rules provide any basis for the Committee to act in this manner and surely this wins the award for most bizarre moment of the season so far!! 
 
But hey as a number of League members have said we're just a bunch of amateurs playing TT for the social fun of it – try telling that to Fife! 
 

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ELTTL - Week 12 Report

2/12/2019

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Week 12 of the ELTTL saw Team 1 of Colin Green, Carsten Giebeler and David Melrose visit Edinburgh International 1 who started the night just two points behind the Midlothian side. The first match of the night set the tone for the rest of the evening as David saw off the dangerous Toby Waterhouse in 3 straight sets. That seemed to lift some pressure from Carsten and Colin who won their first matches comfortably in 4 ends. After 5 matches Penicuik led 4-1. The next two matches were the tightest of the night and saw an 11-9 win for Carsten in Match 6 before he combined with Colin for an 11-7 in the fifth doubles victory, coming back from 2-0 down in ends. Undefeated nights for Colin and Carsten saw the visitors run out 8-2 winners.
 
In Division 1, Team 2 can’t wait for the Christmas break to try and regroup in advance of what is going to be a tough second half of the season. Their match v Haddington was bizarre! Not one regular player available, Penicuik put out two players from Team 3 (James and Abby Wighton) and one from Team 4 as they went down to a 9-1 defeat. Sonny Taylor playing up from Division 2 produced the solitary win for the Midlothian side. 
 
In Division 2, Team 3 had a busy week as they faced two away matches, firstly at Haddington on Monday followed by University at the end of the week. Iain Johnstone, Krzysztof Laszkiewicz and Abby Wighton made the trip to East Lothian and came away comfortable 7-3 winners. Dad, James replaced Abby for Friday night’s trip to Edinburgh University and this match was in the balance throughout. 4 of the 10 games went to deciding fifth ends with the visitors only managing to win one of those, that coming courtesy of a Match 1 win for Krzysztof. James was unlucky losing two tight five set matches but after the doubles Penicuik held a 5-2 lead and it looked like they would secure victory comfortably. However, when James and Krzysztof both lost, suddenly the pressure was on Iain to secure a win for the visitors in the last match of the night. Iain never really shows that he is nervous, but he commented that for the first time this season he felt ill at ease with his game. Despite that he came through in four ends to give Penicuik a vitally important 6-4 win.  
 
Team 5 started their division 3 campaign really well – unfortunately the wheels seem to have come off a little over the last few weeks. They travelled to Fife on Wednesday night and when George Wilson lost the first match 11-8 in the fifth his Teammates, Kristian Skotzen and Craig Linton knew they were going to be in for a tough night. At 3-0 down George picked up a four-end win but this match was effectively over as a contest by the time of the doubles. Although two close five end matches rounded off the evening, George was the only winner as Team 5 fell to a heavy 9-1 defeat.  
 
Our Player of the Week Award this week sees three players in the running after undefeated performances – Colin and Carsten played some excellent TT in their 8-2 win v close rivals Edinburgh International, whilst Iain had a great week for Team 3 – he played 6 singles and two doubles and won the lot. All three players have won this Award once already this season – although Iain is playing at a lower level, given the importance of his wins to Team 3 who continue to push for the Division 2 title, he picks up the Award for a second time after his 8 match wins in the space of 5 days.
 
And finally, to our Controversy of the Week. Let’s start with our own shortcomings – Team 2 are in danger of relegation from Division 1 – a full strength team may still have fallen to a defeat against a strong Haddington side but to not have one regular player in the side was a bad show. Having said that, maybe the controversy is more to do with the fact that Haddington refused Team 2’s request for a postponement. They seemingly couldn’t fit in a rearranged fixture – really? Doesn’t seem very sporting! Hang on we think we have been here before…. Perhaps rather than feeling ill-will towards Haddington, however, we should look at the fact that our trio of players were always going to have to rely on people stepping up from lower divisions given that we knew at the start of the season that one of our trio spends a considerable period of time abroad. One of the others was on holiday whilst one was ill. Bad organisation on our part and maybe we should have looked to postpone the match much earlier!
 
Turn the clock forward a week and here we go again - Team 3’s table topping match v Fife in Division 2 is scheduled for Wednesday December 11th. Two of our four registered players are unavailable – the obvious replacements from Team 4 have a match on the same night – Team 3 suggested to their opponents that the match is moved one day from Wed 11th to Thursday 12th December. Alternatively we could postpone to another date to fit in with them. Fife’s response?? Take a hike! Now for those avid readers who follow this piece, cast your minds back a few weeks to our Team 1’s decision to initially refuse Fife 1 a postponement. We ultimately relented and offered a postponement which wasn’t taken up and in one of the most bizarre twists of the season, Fife who couldn’t field a team at all, hence their request for a postponement, ended up playing with two regular first team players whilst our Team 1 played with just one! Has that whole episode had an impact on Fife’s decision to refuse our request?? Absolutely would be our view! In the team 1 scenario, it was alleged by Fife, who involved the League Committee, that Penicuik picking up a win was more important than being sporting which reflected very badly upon the Club. Surprisingly, they don’t seem to have that concern now for a top of the table match which sees both sides level on points and separated by only one individual game! Maybe they’ve just forgotten about the concept of fair play and sporting behaviour to which they referred, and which ultimately led to us agreeing to a postponement……
 
Ah well, you reap what you sow as the saying goes – but hold on – we didn’t actually refuse the postponement – obviously you reap what you started to sow then stopped sowing! Ah the Christmas spirit - Good tidings and all that…… 



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