Team 3 had the first outing of the week as Krzysztof Laszkiewicz, Bob Porteous and Gary McDougal travelled to East Lothian on Tuesday 27th February to take on Haddington 3 in Division 2. After a horrendous run of matches, Team 3 were in need of a win but when the first two matches were shared and captain Krys then found himself 2-0 down in match 3, it looked ominous for the Midlothian outfit. Krys, however, turned his match around to give the visitors the lead. Only Gary won in the second round of singles and suddenly it was 3-3. Bob and Gary continued their good run of form in the doubles to give the advantage back to the Penicuik side and an excellent last round of singles play saw all three matches won to give the visitors a much needed 7-3 win.
Team 4 have had an excellent season so far in Division 3 and they hosted West Lothian 4 at Ladywood on Thursday 29th February. The hosts started the night only a point ahead of their rivals but with a couple of games in hand. They knew that a win would virtually end West Lothian’s hopes of promotion. Kristian Skotzen and Craig Linton welcomed back to the team Richard Millar, fresh from some warm weather training (or so he tells us)! The first five matches of the night flew by and the hosts lost only two out of 17 ends played. Match 6 went the distance but when Craig secured that, a win was guaranteed. With the victory in the bag a new combination of Richard and Kristian took to the table – it wasn’t easy but they secured a five end win in the doubles and a whitewash was on the cards. It took the West Lothian outfit until the last match of the night to get their solitary win as Team 4 romped to a comfortable 9-1 victory.
Also at home on Thursday night was Team 2. A five man team but they weren’t able to field three players and it was left to David Melrose and James Wighton to try and secure a miracle victory from a 3-0 starting deficit against Corstorphine in Division 1. Oh what might have been with a full side - David was again on song winning all three of his singles but James was unable to add to the score, particularly unlucky in his match against Dave Grant losing out in five ends. A draw had maybe been possible but with the doubles also lost, the hosts suffered a 7-3 defeat. We indicated last week that miracles can happen, but not anymore – even a miracle can’t save Team 2 – with bottom placed Murrayfield picking up a point, the Penicuik side now find themselves at the foot of the table and mathematically unable to get any higher than second bottom! It’s been a tough season for Team 2 – maybe the miracle will come with league re-organisation in the off-season – that’s the only way Team 2 will survive in Division 1!
In the Premier Division, Greig McDonell was welcomed back from his “unauthorised” mid-season holiday, as he joined Peter Aird and Colin Green in Team 1s visit to Haddington. After a poor loss in Week 21, the visitors were looking to get back on track. The East Lothian side had other ideas and a win in match 1 for Peter Lugton v Colin was a great start for the hosts. Wins for Peter Aird, Greig and then Colin, however, gave the visitors a 3-1 advantage. With matches 5 and 6 shared the lead was 4-2 going into the doubles. Greig and Colin had their chances but lost 3-1 and when Greig then lost a mammoth encounter with Carsten Giebeler in five ends the scores were tied. Colin secured a point for the team but in the battle of the two Peters it was the Haddington number 1 who came out on top – a 5-5 draw felt more like a point dropped for the visitors than a point gained.
And so, to our player of the week award. David, Kristian and Craig were undefeated in singles play this week. Well done to all three of them. David lost in the doubles (played badly according to James!), so he’s out of the running. How do we split Craig and Kristian – they each won 9 ends and lost 2 in singles play. Point difference? How sad are we! Kristian scored 115 points and lost 83 (+32) whilst Craig scored 127 points and lost 102 (+25). It’s got to be Kristian then doesn’t it? A bit like the player of the match awards given out by the teams, our decision this week is for neither of them!! According to his captain he played some terrific stuff and given that he’s only played a handful of matches, has hardly had time to train, and apparently pulled Kristian through in the doubles, this week’s winner is Richard - well done to him on two important singles wins and a doubles victory to ease the pressure on the team.
And finally, our controversy of the week section. There is not a nicer man in table tennis than Haddington’s Peter Lugton (well apart from our James of course) – but like James, winner of our “most liked player” award, season after season, recently controversy just seems to follow him about. In the first half of the season Mr L refused Team 1 a postponement (but obviously blamed his team captain Russell Firth). He was centre of the controversy again in Week 22 – charming, personable, difficult to dislike but underneath, like all true “champions” he has a killer instinct. That came to the fore towards the end of the night. With more than 40 minutes left until the 10pm deadline, Greig was in a fifth end decider with Carsten. Colin’s match with Russell had just ended. Peter L needed to get match 10 going so across comes Russell to take over umpiring duties from Peter Aird. Greig wasn’t happy – can’t we just carry on with the final end and then you’ll still have plenty time to get the final match completed? Oh no says Peter (and Russell) – time is marching on! Disruption follows and eventually its Colin who takes over umpiring (can anyone remember what happened the last time Colin umpired Carsten – we don’t talk about that anymore)! Imagine Greig’s annoyance as his match is virtually over in the fifth end and he looks across to see the two Peter’s still warming up and Umpire Russell chatting with other Haddington members who were involved in another match, getting something signed by the look of it, club business perhaps! Greig didn’t hold back! Of course had he not lost the fifth end badly, this probably wouldn’t be a controversy at all! We had a go at our now Teammate Peter A last season for something very similar when we played against him at Fife – whilst we have no issue with playing on two tables, switching umpires to get other matches on can be disruptive and it’s that which causes problems! In the end the final match was finished in four ends by Peter L and Team 1 couldn’t resist yet another comment about how there was still plenty of time on the clock before time would have been called! Peter L actually begged us to include him in our controversy section – he’s fed up of having a reputation of the least controversial player in the League - he apparently wants to try and convince people that underneath that cuddly exterior he's got a really evil streak - no one will believe it Pete!
There was plenty of foul serving on show at Haddington as well – but none of it pulled up – we asked Mr Firth at the end of the night how it could be that a Club who has Roger “Foul” Thomas as an “official umpire” could ignore so many blatant service infringements – his answer was that if he was applying the rules strictly, everyone would be called for dodgy serves – that’s the point though isn’t it? Raise the standards by actually applying the rules!
Speaking of the similarities between Mr Lugton and James, it will come as no surprise that Mr Wighton was involved in more controversial moments in Week 22. It was unfortunate that Steve had to pull out at the last minute due to illness (he’s gone from hero to zero in a week – hope you’re feeling better Steve)! It was indicated to James that whatever he did he shouldn’t play with two players. We had no one playing for Teams 3, 5 or 6 last Thursday so there was a pool of players available, some of whom live in Penicuik and could no doubt make the trip at the last minute to Ladywood if needed. We’re sure James would try and get someone wouldn’t he? Apparently he felt it was a bit late in the day to ask for help and it was unlikely anyone would have been available. We might have bought that had it not been for our Reporter receiving some photographs of the Thursday night matches – hang on a minute – who had taken the photos? None other than Chamika from Team 5 who had been IN THE VENUE and helped out by umpiring a couple of matches for the understrength Team 2! Oh my goodness! Whilst in all likelihood the match score would have been the same, all we can say is.......... REALLY!!!!!! It’s a good job James is as likeable as Peter Lugton – it’s impossible to be annoyed at him for any longer than about five minutes!
The end of the season is getting close – some of our Teams only have two matches left. On to week 23 we go.