Week 13 saw Team 3 catch up on an outstanding Division 2 fixture as they hosted Haddington 4 at a warm and cosy Ladywood (the Heating’s fixed!). This week’s team saw James Wighton join forces with Julian Taylor and Ian Hislop. Ian was first up for the home side and when he lost the opening match in straight sets Team Captain James looked a little worried. The scores were levelled as Julian won his first match and then an important five set win for James gave the hosts the advantage. Further wins then followed for Julian and Ian before James lost match 6 – 4-2 entering the doubles and a point was secured when James and Julian combined for a 3-0 victory. When the final three matches all went the way of the hosts (another tight five ender for James) the Penicuik trio had recorded a bit of a flattering 8-2 victory – the match seemed a lot closer than that. A great end to the first half of the season for Team 3 – 11 matches played, 9 wins, one draw and one defeat sees them top of the Division 2 table – but it’s tight - Murrayfield have games in hand and if those are won they’ll lead by a point. Edinburgh Uni are also in the hunt 2 points behind the Penicuik side – should be an interesting second half of the season.
   
The Club also hosted two 2nd round Handicap Cup matches. After their opening round win v Gullane back in October, Jim Jack and Aidan Craig were joined by Colin Green replacing Greig McDonell. Colin’s first match saw him start at 0-16 in a race to 24 and after the loss of the first end, he showed great concentration to win the next three. Aidan then gave a three point start to his opponent in match 2 and also recorded a 3-1 win. Jim then rounded off the first set of singles with an excellent 3-0 win over his opponent (Jim receiving a 2 point start). In a straight fight to 11, Aidan fell in four ends in his second match but another 4 end victory for Colin put the hosts on the verge of victory and that was confirmed when Jim (giving a one point start to his opponent) won in straight sets – an excellent 5-1 win for the Penicuik side.
 
The other match saw Penicuik take on Murrayfield at Ladywood. Maybe if we could have fielded a full side this would have been close, as it was only Krzysztof Laszkiewicz and Charlie Brindley were able to turn out for the hosts and this was always going to be an uphill battle. Of the 6 matches played the Penicuik pair won 2 good games but obviously starting at 3-0 down that was never going to be enough. 3 of the 6 matches went to five ends but ultimately the hosts were never going to be able to avoid a defeat as Murrayfield progressed with a 4-2 win on the night (7-2 in reality).

And so to our player of the week award for Week 13. Julian was undefeated in league play for Team 3 whilst Colin and Jim were undefeated in the Handicap Cup. It’s handicap Cup week so we can’t really give the award to someone who played a league match – sorry Julian. Colin was giving mammoth starts to his two opponents - -13 v +3 on both occasions – 16 of a start to 24 and is due great credit for winning both matches in four ends. Jim, on the other hand got a 2 point start in one of his matches and gave a 1 point advantage away in the other. Jim’s tactics of having an awful start to his team’s League campaign was brilliant though – his rating has fallen but means that his handicap is a great one! For that and two straightforward wins to take the pressure of his teammates, this week’s award goes to Jim – well done!
 
Controversies this week?? Don’t be silly – it’s Christmas at the weekend. We wish all our table tennis friends all the best for the festive period.

​Week 12 saw all five of our teams in action and the week started with Team 2’s trip to West Lothian on Monday 5th December. Krzysztof Laszkiewicz, Gary McDougal and Abby Wighton made the trip to Bathgate. It was a quick night for the Penicuik trio – 35 ends played and only 5 won – Abby came closest to a win losing out 3-2 in match 6 but that was as good as it got as Team 2 fell to a 10-0 defeat
 
The next night saw Team 5 in action as they visited Corstorphine in Division 4. Patrick Shanks, Aidan Craig and Roscoe Cairney made the trip to Sighthill for this match and after the first set of games they trailed 2-1. A five end win for Aidan in Match 4 levelled the scores but that was followed by a loss in Match 5. The night turned on Matches 6 and 7 which both went the distance – Patrick lost out 11-9 in the fifth end before he joined Aidan in the doubles and that too was lost in a close fifth end decider. With only Patrick able to pick up a win in the final three singles, Team 5 fell to a 7-3 defeat – closer than the result sounds.
 
Team 4 were also in action on Tuesday with a trip to Heriot Watt in Division 3. This was a must win match for Team 4 – bottom of the table but signs of improvement in recent weeks and they were taking on the team just above them in the Division – a win by a decent margin would see them leapfrog Heriot Watt on game difference. Robert Porteous and Rachel Petrie were joined by new boy, Richard Millar, making his debut for the Club. This was a terrific match for Team 4 – the first five matches all went their way for the loss of only one end before Rachel narrowly lost out 15-13 in the fifth in Match 6. A five end win in the doubles secured the first victory of the season for Team 4 and two further wins gave the visitors an 8-2 win.
 
Team 4 weren’t finished there though as they played their second match of Week 12 on Thursday night at Ladywood against Fife 2. Jim Jack came in to replace Richard Millar and two crucial five end wins in the first three matches gave the hosts the advantage – Bob, somehow came back from the dead in his five-ender to win 12-10 whilst Jim won the fourth and fifth ends 11-9, 11-8 for a great comeback win. Two of the next three matches were won by Fife and so going into the doubles, the match was all square at 3-3. It was looking good for Bob & Rachel as they led 2-0 but when the next two ends were won by the Fife duo this crucial match was on a knife’s edge. Bob & Rachel retained their composure and the hosts led 4-3. Rachel then secured a point by winning match 8. Fife won the next and it was left to Bob to round off an excellent week for Team 4 as he won match 10 for a 6-4 victory. 4 points in the space of three days has seen the team move out of the relegation zone for the time being – long may it continue.
 
Thursday was a busy night at Ladywood with Team 1 and Team 3 also in action. Team 1 were again short of a player as Colin Green & Greig McDonell hosted Fife 1 in the Premier Division. 3-0 down, both players lost out to Peter Aird but they battled to wins in their other matches and with only the doubles left to play they trailed 5-4. Colin & Greig took on Peter and Jim Wilson. At 2-1 up the home pair looked like they might have been able to secure a point but it wasn’t to be as Peter’s dodgy rubber came to the fore in the deciding end as they secured an 11-7 fifth end victory. A 6-4 loss for the home pairing left them very frustrated.
 
Team 3 meanwhile hosted Murrayfield 8 in Division 2. After dropping Julian Taylor last week, Team Captain James dropped himself this week as Julian was joined by Ian Hislop and Hannah McDonell. This match could have ended up being a difficult one for the hosts after Murrayfield’s third player turned up some 45 minutes late and the match was played out of order. In the end, it was Julian who played the best TT on the night, winning his three singles in Team 3’s 7-3 victory. He also combined with Hannah for a good win in the doubles.
   
And so to our player of the week award for Week 12. Three players were undefeated in Week 12 – Julian from Team 3 and Bob and Richard from Team 4. It was Richard’s first match for the Club having just joined so too early for him to win it – sorry Richard! Julian must be in with a chance – he won his 3 singles for the loss of only one end and also won in the doubles – he was also pleading his case at our Xmas night out on Saturday pointing out that he had to be in the running this week. Well he was but what about the terrific week for Bob – 6 singles wins out of 6 and also two doubles victories, both in five ends, one with Rachel and one with Richard – now that’s impressive – but hold on, there’s a late entry for the award this week. We don’t always have to look at the ELTTL for this award – this weekend saw the Edinburgh Schools Championships take place – not only did this youngster reach the semi-finals of the family doubles, with a win against the strong Toner father and son duo, he won the Under 11 title with seven wins from seven matches played – how impressive is that – although his dad is trying to claim the credit for it, we think it’s the superb coaching at the Club – well done to Colin Green’s son, Fletcher! Equal now with his dad for the number of weekly awards won!

As for controversies this week, we don't have to look much further than Thursday night at Ladywood. We had a couple of dodgy moments from Team 3’s match v Murrayfield. First off, Hannah was made to feel great by her own Teammate before the match even started – with Team Captain James not there at the beginning of the night, Ian Hislop was tasked with filling in the match card – that will be the last time he does it – he managed his own name and Julian’s but had to look at the young girl who he’s played with since October and ask her name! Oh dear – fair enough though, Ian is in his 90’s and he’s not known Hannah that long – and what’s your surname again he asks! Oh dear – he’s only known dad Greig for about 35 years!!
 
On the table, Murrayfield’s third player showed up at about 7.30pm, some 45 minutes late – he then proceeded to wander away for another five minutes or so before re-entering the Hall and hanging about aimlessly. Our own shortcomings meant that Team 3 played the match out of order to make up for the missing third player – After 4 ends against Ian Hislop, Murrayfield’s second player went on immediately thereafter against a very cold Hannah – Hannah should have pretended not to hear Ian as he told her to play out of order – it completely messed up the flow of the night and just led to one problem after another. The old rule used to be that if you turned up more than 30 minutes late you were too late and your games could be claimed – that rule seems to have been mothballed in favour of the rule that if you’re late and the match can’t get finished then the late team have to concede any unplayed fixtures – we prefer the old rule – or at least the courtesy of a call to give advance notice of a late arrival.
 
During the match, the Murrayfield umpire gave a warning to one of our players for foot stamping whilst pushing! What? Team Captain James had arrived by this point and had an argument with the Murrayfield player that no such rule existed and there was nothing wrong with what was happening. He didn't accept that. The same umpire was then playing in the doubles and complained about Julian’s service technique! Pot and Kettle came to mind for Team 3 – of course if the umpire had been a bit stronger he would have told the players that it was up to him to decide on service errors not the players – who was umpiring – ah 92 year old Ian – we don’t think he heard any of the commotion!
 
Our own problems continued on Thursday night with our premises – funny now but not at the time as various players in the hall had to keep their tracksuits on whilst playing – and for some they were tempted to keep their woolly hats, jackets and gloves on whilst playing – we have never previously looked around the hall to see all the spectators dressed in full winter apparel! Good news though – the heating was fixed by Saturday – just in time for Xmas!
 
Next week sees an outstanding league fixture for Team 3 as well as two Handicap Cup 2nd Round matches – should be fun!

Week 11 and we’re into December already!
 
The week started with Team 1’s trip to Edinburgh to take on Murrayfield 3. Despite struggling with injuries and absences this season, Team 1 have had a remarkably decent first half of the season. This match would see them really tested as they turned up with just two players – Colin Green & Greig McDonell. The only memorable thing about this visit turned out to be the lovely Xmas decorations at the Gyle Shopping Centre (and the fact they have a nice couple of couches to sit on in their Pop-in-play premises). After Colin lost match number 1 in four ends, Greig then proceeded to jolt his back in Match 2 of the night and thereafter found movement even more difficult than he normally finds it! Had there been a third player he may well have retired. Just when it wasn’t needed, Greig had his first winless league match of the season as Team 1 fell to an 8-2 defeat.

Team 2 also faced Murrayfield opposition as they hosted Murrayfield 5 at Ladywood on Thursday night. Charlie Brindley played only his second match of the season and was joined by the Wighton father and daughter combination of James and Abby – hold on they don’t play for Team 2, do they? Abby now does – due to difficulties with Team 2 she’s now committed to playing for them after having played up more than permitted by the league. They only had one registered player available and so James also had to play up. On the table this was a match where Team 2 felt they were in with a chance. Their Edinburgh opponents were only 3 points ahead of them in the Division 1 table at the start of the night. The first three matches of the night were a bit of a disaster for the home side, all three lost in straight sets. They were really under pressure and when only Charlie was able to win an end in the next three games, the match was over as a contest. 6-0 down and only pride to play for, Abby combined with Charlie for a win in the doubles and then she played some terrific stuff to win match 8. That was as good as it got though as Team 2 fell to an 8-2 defeat.

Team 5 were also in action on Thursday night as they hosted Haddington 7. Phil Daly, Patrick Shanks and Ian Millar were picked by NPC Brian Bailey for this match and after the first set of matches Team 5 led 2-1. A four end win for Patrick was followed by a three end victory for Phil before Ian was unlucky in match 6 losing some tight games. The doubles went the way of the visitors to keep them in the contest trailing 4-3. Patrick secured a point for the hosts with his third win on the night and Phil finished the match off for a 6-4 victory. Here’s a unique fact about this team – they’ve never played the same trio more than once in Division 4. Ten matches played and ten different combinations – impressive! Well for all those boffins out there probably not mathematically impressive I suppose – they could go through nearly 3 full seasons before needing to have 3 the same but impressive, nonetheless. Apparently there are 56 different combinations available!
 
Finally in Week 11 Team 3 travelled to Edinburgh University on Friday evening. The vicious rumour going around is that Team Captain James Wighton dropped Julian Taylor after he lost the last match of the night in Week 10 - surely not! He picked himself to join Ian Hislop and Hannah McDonell for the trip to St Leonards Land in their Division 2 encounter. When James lost match 1 the Penicuik trio looked a tad worried but four of the next five matches went the way of the visitors to give them a 4-2 lead going into the doubles. It was back to the reliable combination of James and Hannah who after losing in their opening match of the season have been undefeated since. They weren’t at their best and some might say their win was rather “ugly” but a win’s a win – their 5th consecutive doubles victory and that secured a point. The score was made to look comfortable when all three players won their final matches – an 8-2 victory which keeps them within a point of the League Leaders.
   
And so to our player of the week award for Week 11. Maybe this could be Phil’s week – he was one of only three players to be undefeated in singles play this week, Patrick and Ian being the other two. But hold on a minute he side-stepped the doubles – how did the other two fare in the doubles matches – Captain James didn’t give Ian a chance for Team 3 – slightly unkind when he said he couldn’t bear to watch another end of that dodgy bat! And as for Patrick, he played but lost the doubles! Wow! Phil really is in with a chance this week – and add to that he was awarded player of the match by his Haddington Opponents; it’s a certainty isn’t it? Well it was but after about 6 weeks of him pleading his own case, this week when he’s in with a chance he was pleading the case for another player – he watched some of Team 2’s match on Thursday night at Penicuik and was most impressed with Abby firstly pulling Charlie through in the doubles before then playing some terrific TT to win Team 2’s only singles match of the night. Abby definitely deserves credit for her performance – playing for a higher team than initially registered for, playing in a higher division and still playing with a smile on her face irrespective of how the results have gone. But the selection Committee must make some tough decisions and she came a close second place. The award this week is not just based on the performance this week, but for this player’s general participation in PTTC. Not only is our winner playing in the League after some serious health concerns kept him out of the game for a long period, he’s there whenever he can be on a Wednesday with grandson Michael, he’s always super supportive of the Club in general and of all its players, he’s always happy to give guidance and help to others and he plays a vital role at our Saturday Junior session when he attends (more frequently than the coaches) to be an adult feeder – all your efforts for the Club are appreciated Phil – well done to him for this week’s award.
 
Now we can’t bring the tone done with a controversy after that tear-jerking award to Phil, can we? Well…….
 
This year at Ladywood on a Saturday morning we have the joy of sharing the Hall for the first couple of hours with some kids’ class (Enjoy-a-ball). Not sure there’s any kids class where more noise is made than this - a bunch of youngsters running around a very echoey (is that a word) hall screaming at the top of their voices as they presumably chase after various balls. Tom, it appears, hadn’t had his morning coffee last Saturday and went to point out how noisy it was – not only could our Juniors not hear what he was saying, he couldn’t hear himself speak. He may have had to raise his voice to the Enjoy-a-ball class to make himself heard – oops that was a mistake – one of the parents of a class member didn’t take kindly to the interruption and a bit of a “heated debate” then ensued! We’ve had lots to contend with over the years at Ladywood – the worst must have been our old Thursday Night friends from the Zumba class. Now talk about noisy – that genuinely left you not able to have a conversation with anyone, even when you were standing right next to them. Some of us complained about the dogs that used to share Match night with us – dog obedience class – what did we expect – they weren’t going to be well behaved were they? And now match night sees us share the hall with the Boxing Club – who would have thought they could make so much noise! At least Tom’s not tried to have a go at them – he’s not that stupid! The point to all of this of course is back to that old chestnut of premises. Without our own premises we just have to put up with sharing – and obviously this isn’t a criticism of Ladywood – they have to provide for various other sports and it’s great to see the Centre being utilised more these days – the latest addition being trampolining on a Wednesday Practice night.
 
Speaking of the Centre, we have never previously had to consider that our session finishing time (other than match nights) meant that we needed to be packed up and put away by that time. Obviously we’ve had a few occasions where we have run over on a League night beyond closing time and the Centre has invariably been most accommodating to us – two tables it is from now on for League play and so that shouldn’t be an issue going forward – but our Saturday morning sessions have now become an issue – 9am to 12noon should be plenty of time. In the old days, a Friday night saw our tables being rolled out into position for a 9am start the next morning – some ridiculous insurance issue now makes that a non-starter. If the Centre doesn’t open its doors until 9 (most weeks we are fortunate to get in a bit in advance of that) it can then take 10 to 15 minutes or so to get set up impacting on our junior session and with them not finishing until 10.30 (and sometimes we’re a bit late with that) that has a knock on effect on our Senior session, some weeks not getting properly started until 10.40ish. A warm-up takes us beyond 10.45 and that leaves us only an hour and a quarter at most until we end. And now we’re told that a 12 noon finishing time means 12 noon is when we have to be out of the hall as there may be other bookings put in for a 12 start. Jings! 8 tables most weeks, barriers, net posts, nets etc all to be stored away – suddenly that would mean stopping about 11.45! What option do we have – extend our booking – simple. Well, it would be if cost wasn’t such a vital consideration for us – Covid and a reduction in numbers has seen the Club’s finances stretched. Wouldn’t it be great to have our own premises, to be able to open up, set up, pack away and lock up at your leisure? Where do we find that millionaire benefactor? We can but dream!
 
One week of regular League Action left before Xmas – where have the last 3 months gone!