​Week 13 of the Edinburgh and Lothian’s Table Tennis League was Handicap Cup Week. Our winners from Round 1, Gary (my bat is older than me) McDougal, Sonny Taylor & Rachel Petrie combined again to face North Merchiston at Ladywood on Thursday evening. NM pulled together that wily old fox Graham Booth with his pimpled rubber to confuse people, young gun Aiden Davis and Mr “hit the ball as hard as I can” Slawomir Bess – a very varied combination on both sides.
 
First match up was Rachel v Slav – 9-0 to Rachel in a race to 13 – she didn’t mess around taking full advantage of her advantage to win in 3 very straightforward ends, 13-2, 13-8, 13-2. Next match saw Sonny take on Graham – Sonny is in a rich vein of form at the moment – and after his win in Division 1 v Alex and his pimples the previous week he was full of confidence with a 6-0 start in a match to 17. Even with that 6 point advantage, the sensible money was on Graham making it difficult for Sonny – nothing could have been further from the truth – 17-5, 17-2, 17-5 was an absolute thumping. The final match in round 1 of singles pitted Gary against Aidan – Aidan had a 5 point start but surely Gary’s awkwardness and experience would tell – nope! Aidan was untroubled as he got Merchiston on the board with a 15-11, 15-13, 15-5 win. Sonny restored the 2 match lead for the home side with another “easy victory” – Slav had no answer to Sonny’s controlled attacking play – the 1 point start made no real difference as Sonny eased to victory 12-2, 12-9, 12-6. Match 5 was to prove crucial on the night – Rachel v Aidan – Division 3 v Division 2 – Veteran v Junior (seemingly only about 50 years of difference) – Steady pusher v all out attacker – Rachel had a handy 6 point start which saw her win the first end 11-6 but Aidan then seemed to work things out a little as he took the next two 12-10, 14-12. The fourth end was pivotal to this contest – As Aidan fought his way back into this end, Rachel decided to try and drop some balls short – her long pushes were being punished by Aidan’s excellent loops – and it seemed to work as she secured a 14-12 victory. That seemed to knock Aidan off his stride and the same tactic in the decider saw Rachel get over the line comfortably with an 11-3 win. 4-1 to Penicuik and then the two oldies took centre stage – Gary’s dead rubber v Graham’s pimples – it wasn’t pretty to watch but it was tight – Gary held his nerve in the deciding fifth end as the home side secured an excellent 5-1 victory – well done to them as they progress to the Quarter final stage.
 
In the League, Team 1 made the trip to the Gyle to take on Murrayfield 2 after giving them a postponement earlier in the season – Colin is probably wishing he hadn’t done that – they were one player down for the original fixture and of course because David Simpson wasn’t registered for us at the time of that original fixture he couldn’t play in the rearranged match – well that’s the rule anyway – although the Match secretary seemed to ignore that rule when Team 1 played University earlier in the season – what’s happened to our appeal about that result?? Still waiting it appears…. Anyway, back to Murrayfield v Team 1.  We won’t spend much time on this report – Colin Green, David Melrose and Iain Johnstone were never really in this one – Colin did what he does so well and came back from the dead against Keith Dingwall winning ends 4 and 5 by an 11-9 scoreline and that was the highlight of the night for the visitors – Iain looked like he had a chance against Charlie Ellis in one of the other matches but from 2-1 up we won’t mention the scores in ends 4 and 5! As for David, his comments on how he played can’t be published! A 9-1 win for the Murrayfield outfit and that didn’t flatter them!
 
Team 2 also caught up on an outstanding fixture in Division 1 as they also took on Murrayfield opposition – the Edinburgh club’s Team 4 who sat in second place in the division. Julian Taylor, Gary McDougal and Sonny Taylor knew this was going to be tough. After losses for father and son in the first two matches, Gary got the visitors on the board with a good win against Colin Clark. Match 4 may have been a turning point – Sonny led Leandro Golinski 2-1 but lost the fourth heavily and then suffered a 14-12 deciding end loss – 3-1 to Murrayfield soon became 5-1 as Gary and Julian lost. The doubles was needed to keep hopes alive of an unlikely comeback – it wasn’t to be and in the third round of matches only Gary was victorious as the visitors fell to an 8-2 defeat. A lot of hard work to do for Team 2 in the second half of the season.
 
And so, to our player of the week award. Hmm – a tough one this week. The rearranged league matches were disappointing and it’s difficult to give it to someone in the Handicap Cup who gets significant advantages. Rachel and Sonny were both unbeaten in the Cup, but both have favourable handicaps – although he only won 1 out of 2, it was the crucial match winning game and in the league he was the only player to pick up a two – yeah we’ll never hear the end of it but well done to Gary – jings we must really be in the festive spirit!
 
And finally, our controversy of the week section. We weren’t happy last week with the Handicap Cup. Our three teams entered in this year’s competition were all due to play on Thursday 16th December. The cost of hiring Ladywood for a night is not insignificant. Add to that the fact that we had spent a considerable amount of time gathering different pools of players and had selected teams to represent the Club and one can imagine the irritation caused by the following:
 
Two days before the scheduled matches and we had one email after another from our various opponents seeking postponements. Corstorphine have 17 players registered but in fairness had entered 4 teams in the Handicap Cup – they couldn’t get a team together. What about West Lothian – they have 21 players registered and have only entered 2 teams in the Handicap Cup – 3 players were therefore not available for selection and 2 were unavailable due to Covid issues – that still left 16 players to choose from – apparently the Handicap Cup is not popular with members of West Lothian – maybe they shouldn’t enter it next year if they can’t field 3 players from 16. North Merchiston had entered 2 teams this year and have 16 players to choose from – as of Wednesday morning this match was also off – they lost one player due to a self-isolation issue and couldn’t get a replacement. That request for a postponement made it 3 out of 3 matches which were then not going to take place.
 
It used to be the case that handicap Cup matches would just be played on the home night of the team that was hosting. The rules don’t say that – and probably never have – but that’s the basis on which everyone used to proceed. And anyway, this is the ELTTL – it doesn’t matter what the rules say – what matters is what our Match Secretary says! It was simpler when that’s how everyone proceeded – you knew when you’d be playing and you would just turn up on the home night of your opponents – if you couldn’t get a team together, it’s a knockout competition – you should be out. Even with this “reduced” season we now have to try and fit in additional Handicap Cup matches in a schedule which might be tight going into the new year. Now as outlined in this Report, North Merchiston, by Wednesday afternoon, had in fact found a replacement – Slav – but only because – wait for it – he was going to be playing for the other NM team in the Handicap Cup, but their game was cancelled!! Ultimately we therefore didn’t incur a full hall charge for no purpose at all, but we still incurred more charges than would otherwise have been the case had all 3 matches taken place – who do we send the bill to for our losses??
 
We love the Handicap Cup but surely it needs to be run on the basis that it is simple to organise for the teams without the need to be offering two dates in the Handicap Cup Week when lots of Clubs, like ours, don’t have that luxury – play it on the hosts home night and that’s it – sorted. If you can’t play your opponents are through! Maybe fine any clubs who enter and then can’t play and pass on any fines not to the ELTTL coffers but to the clubs who have been put out by any failure to play. Maybe that should also apply to League Matches – fines for postponements might help clubs like ours cover some of the costs incurred by having premises booked and then having them lie empty! This is still very festive – Scrooge is a Christmas character isn’t he?
 
First half of the season over already – that did go quick. Despite our controversy section filling column inches each week, we love playing in the League and missed it horribly during lockdown – lets keep our fingers crossed that further restrictions stay away from our sport and that everyone stays healthy and happy over the festive period – Merry Christmas to all our TT friends wherever you may be.

Week 12 of the Edinburgh and Lothian’s table tennis league saw a busy night at Ladywood with 3 of our teams in action on the same night.
 
Team 1 faced a crucial match against North Merchiston 1 in the Premier Division without regular David Melrose who was enjoying some early Christmas work festivities (before Nicola made those things difficult). They did, however, have their new secret weapon ready to step in to join Colin Green – no not El Presidente, Greig, but our newest Club member David Simpson. Greig was also due to play but after Abby pulled out of Team 3’s match injured some rearranging was needed and Iain Johnstone came in to complete the trio. For those who don’t know David, he is an excellent player who mixes terrific defence with great attack - he loves going back from the table and chopping with those pesky pimples – he must have been wondering what he’d let himself in for with three games on at Ladywood resulting in the length and width of the courts being significantly reduced – not ideal for his game nor for his first opponent, defender Geoff Hunter! Honestly, David, our normal playing conditions are much better! At the same time as David was slogging his way to a five end win, Iain was involved in a five end marathon against the ever improving Amelia Norbury. An 11-6 fifth end win for Amelia levelled the scores. Match 3 saw Colin take on Neil Innes. At 2-1 down and match points down, Colin looked dead and buried in the fourth – those watching on still can’t believe how he came back from the brink to win that end 13-11. Also down in the fifth, he somehow recovered to win that one 11-9! 3 matches played, 3 five enders. The next three were a little bit more straightforward – 3 end wins for David and Colin and a four end loss for Iain. 4-2 going into the doubles which turned into another marathon. Neil and Geoff recovered from a 2-0 deficit against Colin and David to force a decider which went all the way – a 12-10 win for the Penicuik duo saw them secure at least a point. David couldn’t complete the perfect debut, losing 11-9 in the fifth to Neil but wins for Colin and Iain saw the home side over the line with a 7-3 victory. Definitely one of those matches where a couple of points the other way could have made a huge difference to the outcome.
 
In Division 2, Team Captain, James Wighton, had to make a late selection change after daughter Abby pulled out with a foot injury! Hannah McDonell was therefore joined by dad Greig, making his Division 2 debut at long last as they hosted North Merchiston 3.  James and Hannah played their first matches simultaneously and both recorded 3-1 victories against Aidan Davis and Nick Adams respectively. Greig then defeated Anders Lundberg before Aidan played some lovely attacking TT to defeat Hannah. Wins for James and Greig against Anders and Nick then gave the home side a 5-1 advantage. The North Merchiston side stayed alive with a four end victory in the doubles against James and Hannah, but their hopes of an unlikely comeback were quashed by a terrific finish for the Penicuik trio who all won their final singles matches, the highlight being a cracking 5 ender between Hannah and Anders as Team 3 recorded an excellent 8-2 victory.
 
Finally, on a busy (and cramped) night, Team 2 hosted Edinburgh Sports Club 2 in Division 1 and this turned out to be the game of the night.  Julian Taylor, Gary McDougal and Sonny Taylor took on Chris Shaw, Richard Tallaron and Alexander Asyunkin. The first three singles saw only one win for the home side, Sonny defeating Richard. There was a 4 end loss for Gary v Chris and a five end loss for Julian against Alex. Game 4 was massive – after losing 16-14 to Richard in the fourth end, Julian dug deep to secure a fifth end victory by an 11-7 margin. Sonny then beat Chris to give the home side their first lead of the night but that was wiped out by a 4 end victory for Alex over Gary. 3-3 going into the doubles. How many times have we said how crucial the doubles are! This was another five ender which went the way of the home side, 5-11, 11-4,11-4, 14-16, 11-7.
 
Julian then somehow managed to lose from a winning position against Chris, another 5 ender, 11-13 in the fifth. 4-4 and the match was in the balance. This match didn’t finish until after 10pm but fortunately we didn’t get thrown out “at the bell”. No wonder they were last to finish – Gary squeezed home against Richard 8-11, 15-13, 10-12, 17-15, 13-11. The scene was set for Sonny to secure the win v Alex in the last match of the night. Dad Julian and Greig started packing away tables as Sonny looked in complete control in the first end at 7-2 up – by the time they’d put a couple of tables away the game was back to deuce. Chance after chance was missed by both players before eventually Alex was victorious 19-17! Sonny remained calm and confident at the changeover (you’ve got this encouraged club president and coach Greig - I know came the response!) A 12-10 win in the second was followed by a 15-13 win in the third before the fourth also went to deuce. Chances came and went but to his credit Sonny remained focussed to take another 15-13 win and with it he won the match for Team 2 by 6 games to 4. That victory rounded off a terrific night at the club with 3 wins out of 3.
 
And so, to our player of the week award. Let’s not beat around the bush! There were four players with undefeated nights in singles play - Colin, James and Greig were three of them - whilst they could have lost a match and their team would still have won, there was no such luxury for the fourth undefeated player. He also won a doubles match giving him 4 wins in a 6-4 victory – a huge well done for a cracking night’s play goes to Sonny.
 
And finally, our controversy of the week section. In our Week 11 Report we had a go at Edinburgh International’s premises and how little space there was – fast forward a week and oh dear!! 6 match tables in half of the hall at Ladywood and we were just as cramped (maybe even more so)! For players like David and Geoff it was a nightmare. Add to that a constant stream of lets as balls came in from another court and we can understand why there may have been a sense of irritation in some of our opponents. Unlike Edinburgh International however this isn’t our normal setup. Team 2, who seem to consistently be appearing in this section, had rearranged a match (without really thinking of the consequences) for a night when we already had two home fixtures! Now in fairness the atmosphere at the club was electric, players from all three teams in action encouraging each other. Team 2s game was by far the loudest – yelps of delight and despair and everyone left in the centre at 10pm was adding to the atmosphere by cheering on Sonny. Alex coped well with that (or did he – maybe he lost focus a little with all the additional support). We know certain of our players who would hate that if it was happening to them - it’s bad enough when two teammates are clapping and encouraging – add to that others joining in and the atmosphere can quickly turn a little toxic – now to be clear we don’t say that was the case in this match but you could see that it could become that way. One thing that ESC did not pick up on or complain about was encouragement both spoken and by gestures (for example clapping) from the umpire’s chair! Isn’t the umpire meant to be neutral. Yes he’s a teammate but in his role as umpire he/she should not be announcing the score in one breath and then in the next shouting out “Come on Mr X” etc. No one complained though – had they done so, a word would have been had! Maybe we’re overreacting and there’s nothing wrong with that conduct??
 
Whatever the problems though with three teams playing we had three wins out of three and our players loved Week 12 - what a great atmosphere we had in the hall - unless you were an away player probably! But then that’s what home advantage should be about shouldn’t it??
 
One week to go before the Xmas break – 2 rearranged fixtures and three handicap cup matches to fit in to next week’s report! 

Week 11 saw 3 of our 4 teams in Edinburgh League action and it was a week of full of Penicuik v Edinburgh International action.
 
Wednesday evening saw Teams 1 and 3 both travel to face the Edinburgh Club's Teams 1 and 3 at James Gillespie’s High School – Team 1's Captain, Colin Green was joined by David Melrose and, making his debut for the season, Greig McDonell – playing his first premier league match since 2017. They took on the very international trio of Marek Domagala, Debjit Roy Choudhury and Than Htay Aung.
 
Colin was first up against Debjit and found it hard going – despite taking a 2-1 advantage with an 11-4 win in end 3, Debjit recovered to force a fifth end decider, just losing out 11-7. Meanwhile, David was taking on Marek in another five end marathon – Dave pulled it back from 2-1 down but he failed to take the decider. Match 3 saw Greig roll back the years (or did he just catch his opponent cold) with a 3-0 win against Than. The next round of singles saw a 4 end victory for Colin over Marek, a four end victory for David over Than but a four end loss for Greig. 4-2 for the visitors going into the doubles. Colin could see Greig already struggling with his fitness levels after 7 ends of table tennis, so it was Colin and David who took on the attacking pairing of Debjit and Than – the Penicuik duo were never in it losing out in straight sets. The match was in the balance – Greig v Marek and Colin v Than then took place simultaneously – Colin didn’t have things his own way as he struggled to victory in 4 tight ends thus securing a point for the visitors. Greig’s match with Marek was a battle of wills more than a good match of TT – at 2-0 down Greig remembered that the only way he’s beaten Marek in the past is by pushing – Expedite system was nearly needed in end 3 – neither player willing (or able) to take the initiative – how Kenny Benjamin in the umpire’s seat kept awake is beyond us – Greig won the third end and was out on his feet by the by the time the score reached 12-12 in the fourth - he couldn’t keep the 45 shot boring pushing rallies going any longer so decided to attack –and that was his mistake! 5-4 up – David had the chance to secure victory in the last match against Debjit, a man who remains so focused against a man who, well lets just say can lose his focus quite easily! Debjit’s stylish game prevailed with a 3-0 win to secure a 5-5 draw – who was the happier team captain? Marek by the looks of it at the end of the night as they stayed within two points of the Penicuik side at the foot of the Premier table.
 
In the other half of the hall, James Wighton, Hannah McDonell and Abby Wighton took on Artur Labecki, Christophe Bauer and, the not very international sounding, Alastair Hill. The Edinburgh outfit sat joint second in Division 2 and the Midlothian trio knew they were in for a tough match. After straightforward 3-0 wins for Alastair and Artur v James & Abby the Penicuik trio looked in big trouble. Matches 3 and 4 were played simultaneously and saw Hannah brilliantly recover from a 2-0 deficit to win 11-9 in the fifth v Christophe whilst Abby played some great stuff to win in 4 ends against Alastair. Suddenly it was 2-2 and the team were back in it! Hannah then lost to Artur (who looked in great form throughout the night) but James had the chance to level again against Christophe. After losing the first two sets, James fought back to win the next two 11-8, 11-7. 3-3 looked very much on the cards but a terrible start for James in the decider let Christophe off the hook as he won 11-5. The doubles then saw Abby & Hannah take on Alastair and Artur and what an excellent doubles match it was – Artur again made the difference with some fantastic attacking play as the girls fell to a narrow 3-1 defeat. Abby kept the match alive with a victory over Christophe but both Hannah and James lost their final matches as the visitors fell to a 7-3 defeat, 2 wins for Abby and one for Hannah – no doubt the difference on the night was Artur with his 3 wins and a pivotal role in the doubles – are we lining him up for a surprise player of the week award……
 
Team 2 hosted Edinburgh International 2 in Division 1 and they needed to call upon Abby from Team 3 to play her second match in as many nights as she joined Charlie Brindley and Julian Taylor. Team 2 are in trouble and if they aren’t able to put out a full side every week they might find themselves in serious relegation trouble. When the first four matches of the night all went the way of the visitors, the writing was on the wall for Team 2 – brief hope was given when Charlie defeated Stan Stoodley and credit to Abby as she stepped up and performed terrifically to defeat Amjad Mohammed in straight sets in match 6 thus reducing the gap to 4-2. The doubles, however, secured a point for the visitors and that quickly became 2 as Julian fell to Stan in Match 8. A win for Charlie in the last match of the night wasn’t much consolation as Team 2 fell to a 7-3 defeat.
 
And so, to our player of the week award. There was only one undefeated player in the League for us this week and that was Colin – but he let David down in the doubles and with that loss 2 points turned into just one – so he’s out the running! Oh, and he won the award last week! What about Club President, Greig – he was back to his best – well back to his best in terms of being irritable – his best line of the night was after one of those 70 stroke pushing rallies with Marek when he looked over to daughter Hannah and shouted that he wouldn’t even merit a game for Team 3 playing like this! Hmm – maybe not him then – 2 wins for Charlie in a 7-3 defeat is worthy of a mention as are Abby's two wins - she played some excellent table tennis and her win over the Edinburgh International number 1, Alastair, was a great victory – she then went on to win a match playing up for Team 2 so, like Colin, also has 3 wins this week – well done to her for this week's award.
 
And finally, our controversy of the week section. Whilst last week we were in a good mood after the League permitted Greig to play up we’re now wishing they hadn’t bothered – he thoroughly disliked playing up in the Premier Division –apparently he far prefers watching Team 3 in Division 2! Only joking League Committee! Playing on two tables comes under the spotlight this week – a topic we’ve covered before – it really does detract from the “team spirit” of the matches but as we have said before with time pressure on most clubs it seems to be the only way to get matches played these days. Whilst we seem to be stuck with it, surely we should only have to put up with it where premises are big enough to enable it to happen. At Edinburgh International on Wednesday evening there were two League Matches and we assume some sort of Club night as well – 4 match tables in the Hall would have been great – but when two other tables were put up, jings it was tight – add to that a massive TV and stand in the corner where Team 1 were playing and it felt like the matches were being played in a very confined space – the fact that if you had a chance to watch a match you were sat on a narrow very low bench trying to avoid banging your head on the PE Equipment added to the feeling of over-crowdedness (is that a word??). For someone like Colin who loves scrambling around from side to side and back from the table this was a nightmare scenario. Add to that the dodgy light at one end of the hall and we can understand Colin’s comment about disliking the venue. What’s the answer? There probably isn’t one – just some thanks perhaps that like us they only have four teams entered in the league this year. We know the problem – when we had more teams entered in previous seasons, fitting 3 matches into Ladywood was really difficult. Thinking back to four or five years ago when we had 8 teams entered we have no idea how we did it! Maybe do away with home venues for League matches – one central venue in Edinburgh hired out for a few nights of the week? Our fees increase to the League, but we don’t incur the rental costs of having to have our own home nights? There’s only an average of 20 matches per week across the five divisions – two nights at Royal High and we’re sorted! It will never happen (probably) but the experience of the National League shows it’s possible – and imagine the amount of controversies we could cover if we were all playing in one venue – endless fall outs could be reported on a weekly basis! Until that happens though we’ll just have to keep going – in fairness to Edinburgh International, their venue at least has a good floor – we remember when we played at MacTaggart Scott on a concrete floor that became more lethal as it got covered in condensation as the night went on – and even then we still had one of the better venues – thinking back we played in some dodgy places and compared to back then our current venues have actually improved significantly – ah the good old days……. 

Week 10 was a very quiet one for the Club with only Team 4 in Edinburgh League action.
 
Craig Linton, Rachel Petrie and Jim Jack made the trip west to Bathgate to take on West Lothian 3 – a fixture identified as a must win, the Penicuik side being 3 points adrift of their opponents in this “basement battle” in Division 3.
 
First up was Martin Rumsey v Rachel and after a heavy first set defeat, Rachel recovered well to level the contest at 1-1. She then fell just short in ends 3 and 4 losing out 11-8, 11-7. When Bob Lander then defeated Craig 3-0 the visitors were already under pressure. Jim got the Penicuik trio on the board with a good win in Match 3 before Bob then comfortably disposed of Rachel to give the hosts a 3-1 advantage. Jim was in good form and when he won his second match of the night the visitors had hope. The next two matches were to prove crucial. Craig took on Tommy in Match 6 and after falling 2-1 behind he won the fourth set comfortably before an almighty scrap in the decider – it went the distance (and then some) but Tommy held his nerve for a 15-13 win. The doubles then became a must win for the visitors – Jim & Craig who had played well together the previous week combined again and they too came back from 2-1 down to level at 2-2 before this match was also decided by the finest of margins – a 12-10 win in the fifth for the West Lothian pairing made the match score 5-2. And with that Penicuik’s chances were gone. Craig won the last match of the night (in five) but that was the only win in the final round of singles as Penicuik fell to a 7-3 defeat. Oh, what could have been, had those 2 fifth end deuce matches gone the other way!
 
Now with no other league matches last week, we turn our attention to the second round of fixtures in the Scottish National League held at Perth on Saturday 27th November. Penicuik have entered a team for the first time this year and were placed in Division 5 for the 2020-21 season. With a record 48 teams competing across 6 divisions there was a great atmosphere at Bells Sports Centre with over 150 players competing on 24 tables. All teams faced 3 matches during the day, starting at 9.30am - An early start for Greig McDonell, Gary McDougal, James Wighton & Hannah McDonell! After the first two matches in October, Penicuik had one solitary point to their name following a draw with North Ayrshire and a loss against Knightswood from Glasgow. They knew they needed to pick up at least a couple of good results to lift themselves from the bottom half of the table. Having travelled all the way to Perth, they were to face 3 Edinburgh League Clubs!

First up was North Merchiston. When a rusty Gary lost the first match of the day there were worried faces on the side-lines – Greig pulled the scores level before James lost out to give the Merchiston trio a 2-1 advantage with 3 matches left to play. Greig levelled again with his second win of the match before Gary secured a point against Merchiston’s Number 3. The scene was then set for James to bring home an unlikely victory and he duly did so with an excellent 3-1 win – Final result Penicuik 4 North Merchiston 2.
 
Gary was then unceremoniously dropped for the team’s second match of the day against League Leaders Edinburgh University! James was first up this time and lost to the University Number 1 in straight sets – Greig levelled again before Hannah lost out in Match 3. 2-1 down and it was the battle of the number 1’s as Greig took on long pimpled Haonan Ji – Hannah made him watch a You-Tube video about how to play against that funny rubber and it seemed to have worked as he was in control at 2-0 up – then fatigue seemed to set in! Not known for his fitness, he struggled to put the match away and the Uni player rallied to level at 2-2. The fifth end was tight all the way, but Greig just managed to squeeze home to level the overall score at 2-2. Hannah then played her best TT of the day but wasn’t quite consistent enough as she lost out to the Uni’s number 2 – it was left to James again to play the final match, this time against Uni’s number 3 – could he win this match for a draw? The match swung one way then the other before James squeezed home in the fifth – a terrific 3-3 draw for Penicuik.   
 
The final match of the day saw us take on Haddington – despite two excellent performances, James was dropped this time – the chances of a third win, according to Gary, were very remote! This time Greig was first up and won comfortably in 3 before Gary repeated that feat. The first round of singles was then completed with an excellent 3-0 win for Hannah – a point secured and hardly a bead of sweat between the trio. Greig then secured the win with another 3-0 victory and this match had 6-0 written all over it. Oops – something then happened as Hannah seemed all at sea in her last match before Gary then lost to the player Hannah had comfortably beaten – table tennis is a funny old game! Never mind, the hard work had already been done as the team finished the day with a good 4-2 victory – 5 points out of a possible 6 was an excellent return for the Penicuik side which lifts them into third place in the table.
 
And so, to our player of the week award. Jim Jack deserves a mention for his two singles wins for Team 4 – if we hadn’t have played National League this week, Jim, you would have had your first ever player of the week award! Bad luck! Surely Greig wins this week’s award then – 6 wins out of 6 over the course of Saturday’s 3 matches and some brilliant tactical captaincy decisions about team selection (even if he does say so himself). He’s a certainty. But hold on a minute – there is a late contender in the mix – he organised the biscuits, he made some camomile tea for the team, he spent loads of time at the Tees Sport stand getting Gary a new sheet of rubber for the first time since 1957 and he bought Hannah a gift (all in an effort to get over last week’s nastiest player of the week award) – that in itself puts him in the running. Although a 50% record from Saturday doesn’t sound terrific (two wins out four matches played) both of those wins came in vital last matches – one to give us the win against North Merchiston and the other to secure a draw against the League leaders – brilliant play under pressure – well done to James!
 
And finally, our controversy of the week section. We’re in a good mood this week. After all our efforts trying to get the League to look again at their decision not to allow Greig to play up for Team 1, common sense has prevailed – at various points this season the 100 point rule has not applied as both Iain Johnstone and David Melrose have been within that “mysterious” 100 point margin which seems to be the guide used by the League for making decisions of this nature. Perhaps the fact that Greig hasn’t played a match in Division 2 played a part, not to mention that we are now a player down in Team 1 after Carsten’s departure from the Club – hmm – how did that happen again??  Let’s not go there! A check on the current ratings shows Iain still comfortably within 100 points of Greig, whilst after a bad week in the League as opposed to Greig not playing, David fell 106 points behind. What the rating’s do not show yet (and in fairness to the League they made the decision prior to this) is that Greig took on David at the Scottish Vets Tournament at Bathgate on 21st November – Greig was supremely confident having not lost to David since about 1989! Guess what – David strolled to a 3-0 win and when that result hits the ratings Central scoring site goodness knows what the difference between them will be – and even if it doesn’t impact significantly it proves the point about using ratings central scores to decide matters like this – the fact that Ratings Central says Greig is 106 points better than David means absolutely nowt!
 
Anyway, thanks to the League - one controversy happily resolved well in advance of Xmas! Only a couple of games left for some of our teams before that Christmas break – where has the time gone!