
In the Premier Division, Team 1 welcomed back into the fold Peter Aird as he joined Colin Green and Greig McDonell to take on Merchiston 2. The first three matches all went the way of the visitors and when Peter and Colin then won matches 4 and 5 a point was secured. Lewis Hills kept the match alive in Game 6 but a terrific doubles victory for Colin and Greig was then followed by three more wins for Team 1 as they recorded an excellent 9-1 win.
Team 3s bad start to 2024 unfortunately continued as they took on Merchiston 4 in Division 2. Krzysztof Laszkiewicz, Bob Porteous and Gary McDougal were looking to bounce back from a damaging 6-4 loss to league leaders Murrayfield the previous week – this performance resulted in more disappointment. Team Captain Krys was a doubt before the match due to illness and he’s now wishing he’d stayed at home – he wasn’t his usual self as he lost all three played. Only once the match was over as a contest (at 6-0 down) did the visitors show some signs of quality – a good doubles win was followed by excellent wins for Bob and Gary but the result was a poor 7-3 loss.
Tuesday evening and it was the turn of Team 5 to visit Edinburgh as they took on Corstorphine 5 in Division 4. An indifferent start to 2024 has seen Team 5 become embroiled in a tussle at the wrong end of the table. Having defeated their opponents 6-4 in the reverse fixture at Ladywood, Rachel Petrie, Patrick Shanks and Chamika Diyunugalge were in confident mood that they could pick up another win. Five wins on the bounce for the visitors and a point was secured in super quick time. Match 6 went the way of the hosts and when they won the doubles a mini comeback was on the cards. Match 8 was crucial – Patrick sneaking over the line 13-11 in the fifth. That secured a point before a loss for Rachel was followed by a win for Chamika as the visitors recorded an excellent 7-3 victory.
It was another busy night at Ladywood on Thursday evening with Teams 2, 4 and 6 all in action. Team 2 of David Melrose, James Wighton and Hannah McDonell hosted North Merchiston 3 in Division 1. The story of the season so far for Team 2 has been match after match where they nearly get something from the game – oh so close yet so far. This was no exception. David was in terrific form but the only other win on the night came in the doubles when he and Hannah combined. Another 6-4 loss and is that the fat lady warming up her vocal chords we can hear?
Team 4 were back in action after a couple of weeks off as they hosted Murrayfield 10 in Division 3. Kristian Skotzen, Craig Linton and Aidan Craig took to the table for the hosts in super confident mood after the reverse fixture had gone their way by a 9-1 scoreline. They faced a different player from the first half encounter with someone playing up from Div 4. An even easier night in store for the hosts then - eh no! The Div 4 player won all his matches and nearly did enough to get the visitors over the line in the doubles – but not quite. Other than those three losses, the Penicuik trio all won two singles as they triumphed by a 7-3 scoreline.
Team 6 rounded off the week as they hosted Murrayfield 12 in Division 5. Like Team 4 the reverse fixture had seen a 9-1 result – unfortunately for Team 6 that had been a loss! Sian MacDonald, Roscoe Cairney and Ian Millar took to the table for the hosts and this match was far more competitive than the reverse fixture. A win for Sian and two for Roscoe gave the hosts an encouraging 3-1 lead after four matches played. The difference on the night was Murrayfield’s Marcin Well who was too strong as he picked up his three singles wins. He also contributed for a doubles victory and with Ian unable to pick up a win against the other two players, Team 6 fell just short with a 6-4 loss.
And so, to our player of the week award. Colin, Peter, David and Patrick were all undefeated in singles play this week – well done to them for some terrific TT. But this week’s award goes to a player who returned to the fold in the New Year, picked up a new blade and some new rubbers - a massive change given what was being used previously and has subsequently coped brilliantly in only her second season of table tennis – 4 matches played, and she leads the way for Team 6 in terms of percentage of wins – she picked up another two victories in Week 19 to give her an overall 50% win rate so far – well done to Sian.
And finally, our controversy of the week section. Really quiet after last week! This season has seen far fewer difficulties with suggestions that players are playing out of position across the divisions. Much of that has to do with the fact that the old “100 point rule” has been changed so that the rule is that there needs to be a 200 point difference before issues arise. As we referred to in our Report, Team 4 faced a Murrayfield team who played a player up from Division 4. Oh well this would be an easier ride for the Penicuik trio – nothing could be further from the truth. The player in question won his three singles defeating our three players who all find themselves in the top 10 of the individual averages in Division 3. The Murrayfield opponents, it appears, have seven players registered but still needed to call upon a player from Division 4. It turns out that in terms of ratings the player is higher rated than all of the Division 3 players (other than a player who has only played one league match and was given an arbitrary rating). He is more than 200 points higher than a few of the Division 3 players. No doubt after his three wins his rating will climb higher? Our Team 4 were certainly surprised by his performance which they say was clearly of a far higher standard than anticipated for a Division 4 player. It is of course very difficult at the beginning of a season to put people into place if they are new players to your club etc. And if he hadn’t played up it probably wouldn’t even have been an issue. Maybe Murrayfield played him up with a view to seeing what his standard was? They know now!
We often talk about umpiring difficulties in the ELTTL – it’s not just in the league that issues arise – A couple of our players played in the British Veterans League at the weekend in Derby – official umpires are provided for the top divisions, but the lower divisions umpire themselves. On a table next to where our players were playing there was an almighty row as a player refused to play on because the umpire (from the opposing team) had called him for “shielding the ball” at service. We think the issue was with him doing the pendulum serve and either getting his body in the way of the ball or not moving his arm away. A tough call to make. It seemed to take an eternity for the problem to be resolved – eventually the Tournament Referee was called, and he made the decision to replace the umpire with an “officially sanctioned one”. We of course don’t have that ability in the league. There's been many a time apparently when opponents would have loved to have had James replaced after his dodgy umpiring calls!
Handicap Cup Quarter finals in Week 20 – should be a short report next week with our one remaining team travelling to North Merchiston. Good luck to them.