Week 24 of the Edinburgh & Lothians League again saw all six of our teams in action.
Monday 11th March saw Team 1 travel to the Gyle to face Murrayfield 2 in the Premier Division. Peter Aird, Colin Green and Greig McDonell have had a bit of a wobble in the second half of the season, their performances seeing them slip out of the top three in the division. Greig was still feeling under the weather but managed to win the first match of the night against young Nichole Lee, playing up from division 1. Five of the next six games however went the way of the hosts and the match was effectively over as a contest. Young Nichole nearly took out Colin in the last match of the night, taking him to five ends and she deservedly won player of the night for her performances. A 7-3 victory for the Murrayfield outfit was probably enough for them to secure a top four finish.
Team 3 went into Week 24 after two consecutive wins but their trip to Heriot-Watt on Tuesday 12th March proved to be a very difficult one. Krzysztof Laszkiewicz, Bob Porteous and Gary McDougal struggled to cope with the attacking play of the students. The best it got was a win each for Gary and Krzysztof as Team 3 fell to an 8-2 defeat.
The following night saw Team 5 make the trip to Gullane in Division 4. Rachel Petrie, Patrick Shanks, and Chamika Diyunugalge started the night above their opponents although the East Lothian outfit had recorded a 6-4 victory in the reverse fixture. This match could genuinely have seen virtually any result. Of the 10 matches played, SIX of them went to deciding ends with three of those deciders going to deuce. The difference on the night was that the East Lothian outfit won five of those six deciders as the hosts recorded a 7-3 victory. Patrick did brilliantly to win all his singles matches including a comeback from 2-0 down to win 16-14 in the fifth. A terrific match which could easily have ended 7-3 the other way!
Thursday was another busy night at Ladywood with our remaining three teams in action. Ian Hislop, David Melrose and James Wighton hosted Murrayfield 6 in Division 1 with only pride to play for. David again showed his experience as he won all three of his singles including a tight five end victory against Ian Moran. Unfortunately, neither Ian nor James could get on the board as Team 2 fell to a 7-3 defeat.
Team 6 called on Phil Daly to help out after illness struck their team. He joined Roscoe Cairney and Ian Millar as they hosted Heriot-Watt 3 in their last home match of the season. The hosts were given a huge boost when the students turned up with just two players. 3-0 up at the outset and when Phil won match 2 the team were close to at least a point. But the students battled away and after all the singles were played the hosts trailed 4-5 with only the doubles left to play. At 2-0 up Roscoe and Phil looked in control but losses in ends three and four forced a decider. The hosts held their nerve for an 11-8 win and that was enough to secure a 5-5 draw.
Finally on Thursday night, Team 4 hosted Corstorphine 4 in Division 3 knowing that a point would be enough to secure a second place finish in the division. Kristian Skotzen and Craig Linton called on the services of Patrick Shanks from Division 4. Kristian won match 1 on the night before Craig was involved in a five end tussle in match 2. Craig has played brilliantly this season and again showed his fighting spirit as he won the deciding end 11-8. A loss for Patrick kept the visitors in the match but then Team 4 showed great acceleration as they won the next 6 matches to extend their lead to 8-1. Whereas Craig had defeated Corstorphine’s number 1 in five ends, Kristian fell in five, but an 8-2 victory secured a second place finish for Team 4 and promotion awaits. A terrific season for the team.
And so, to our player of the week award. David, Patrick and Craig were undefeated in singles play (for their own teams) this week. Patrick deserves extra credit for his two wins whilst playing up for Team 4 (surely five out of six puts him in the driving seat for the award)? A special mention to Roscoe as well, who according to doubles teammate, Phil, played a blinder to secure the draw for Team 6 – Phil kept it on the table, but Roscoe hit the winning shots. But this week’s award goes to a man who only won 1 in the league – why on earth would we do that we hear you say. In fairness he also took Murrayfield’s top player to five ends in the league match and this season he has provided a huge boost to the fortunes of Team 1. Away from the League, he has played some excellent TT in the British Veterans League and last weekend he took away a medal from the Over 60s in the North-West Masters Veterans Event held in Preston. Well done to Peter.
And finally, our controversy of the week section. Let’s look at the top of the Premier Division. Murrayfield 1 were tested this year but have once again taken the title, North Merchiston 1 being their closest rivals. A top of the table clash took place in Week 24. North Merchiston had sought a postponement, their top gun Gavin Yuan (35 out of 36 wins) being unavailable. After some back and forth Murrayfield were not in a position to find an alternative date when their venue would be available, and they refused the postponement request. They went on to win the match 8-2. Would the result have been different had Gavin played? Who knows? It would, however, have been good to see the top player in the league playing in this fixture against three players who are all in the top 5 of the individual averages. The problem of course with refusing postponements is that teams / clubs will remember it in the future. We doubt that North Merchiston will be accommodating if they are asked for a postponement next season.
With two matches left to play, Murrayfield 1 have dropped only one point all season – and that was to their own second team. A 5-5 draw was secured by Murrayfield 2 – a terrific result, particularly when you look at that fact that the second team turned out with just two players! Wow imagine what might have happened had they had a full team?
Postponements are a constant source of problems, and we had our own issue with a request for a postponement this week. Earlier in the season, Team 2 had requested a postponement from Haddington in Division 1. Haddington had agreed to the request so when they sought a postponement of their Week 26 fixture, surely Team Captain, James would return the favour? Hold on a minute – our nicest team captain couldn’t possibly refuse to rearrange could he? Oh yes he could! Now in fairness, Team 2s match is scheduled for the 28th of March. Ladywood closes for Easter on the 29th for 10 days and when they reopen, we no longer have a league night booking at the centre. Given our restricted availability we couldn’t bring the match forward either, three matches being played already on each of the preceding three Thursdays. Sorry Haddington – genuinely nothing we could do about this one, according to James!
Two weeks of the regular season left – where have the last 24 weeks gone!
Monday 11th March saw Team 1 travel to the Gyle to face Murrayfield 2 in the Premier Division. Peter Aird, Colin Green and Greig McDonell have had a bit of a wobble in the second half of the season, their performances seeing them slip out of the top three in the division. Greig was still feeling under the weather but managed to win the first match of the night against young Nichole Lee, playing up from division 1. Five of the next six games however went the way of the hosts and the match was effectively over as a contest. Young Nichole nearly took out Colin in the last match of the night, taking him to five ends and she deservedly won player of the night for her performances. A 7-3 victory for the Murrayfield outfit was probably enough for them to secure a top four finish.
Team 3 went into Week 24 after two consecutive wins but their trip to Heriot-Watt on Tuesday 12th March proved to be a very difficult one. Krzysztof Laszkiewicz, Bob Porteous and Gary McDougal struggled to cope with the attacking play of the students. The best it got was a win each for Gary and Krzysztof as Team 3 fell to an 8-2 defeat.
The following night saw Team 5 make the trip to Gullane in Division 4. Rachel Petrie, Patrick Shanks, and Chamika Diyunugalge started the night above their opponents although the East Lothian outfit had recorded a 6-4 victory in the reverse fixture. This match could genuinely have seen virtually any result. Of the 10 matches played, SIX of them went to deciding ends with three of those deciders going to deuce. The difference on the night was that the East Lothian outfit won five of those six deciders as the hosts recorded a 7-3 victory. Patrick did brilliantly to win all his singles matches including a comeback from 2-0 down to win 16-14 in the fifth. A terrific match which could easily have ended 7-3 the other way!
Thursday was another busy night at Ladywood with our remaining three teams in action. Ian Hislop, David Melrose and James Wighton hosted Murrayfield 6 in Division 1 with only pride to play for. David again showed his experience as he won all three of his singles including a tight five end victory against Ian Moran. Unfortunately, neither Ian nor James could get on the board as Team 2 fell to a 7-3 defeat.
Team 6 called on Phil Daly to help out after illness struck their team. He joined Roscoe Cairney and Ian Millar as they hosted Heriot-Watt 3 in their last home match of the season. The hosts were given a huge boost when the students turned up with just two players. 3-0 up at the outset and when Phil won match 2 the team were close to at least a point. But the students battled away and after all the singles were played the hosts trailed 4-5 with only the doubles left to play. At 2-0 up Roscoe and Phil looked in control but losses in ends three and four forced a decider. The hosts held their nerve for an 11-8 win and that was enough to secure a 5-5 draw.
Finally on Thursday night, Team 4 hosted Corstorphine 4 in Division 3 knowing that a point would be enough to secure a second place finish in the division. Kristian Skotzen and Craig Linton called on the services of Patrick Shanks from Division 4. Kristian won match 1 on the night before Craig was involved in a five end tussle in match 2. Craig has played brilliantly this season and again showed his fighting spirit as he won the deciding end 11-8. A loss for Patrick kept the visitors in the match but then Team 4 showed great acceleration as they won the next 6 matches to extend their lead to 8-1. Whereas Craig had defeated Corstorphine’s number 1 in five ends, Kristian fell in five, but an 8-2 victory secured a second place finish for Team 4 and promotion awaits. A terrific season for the team.
And so, to our player of the week award. David, Patrick and Craig were undefeated in singles play (for their own teams) this week. Patrick deserves extra credit for his two wins whilst playing up for Team 4 (surely five out of six puts him in the driving seat for the award)? A special mention to Roscoe as well, who according to doubles teammate, Phil, played a blinder to secure the draw for Team 6 – Phil kept it on the table, but Roscoe hit the winning shots. But this week’s award goes to a man who only won 1 in the league – why on earth would we do that we hear you say. In fairness he also took Murrayfield’s top player to five ends in the league match and this season he has provided a huge boost to the fortunes of Team 1. Away from the League, he has played some excellent TT in the British Veterans League and last weekend he took away a medal from the Over 60s in the North-West Masters Veterans Event held in Preston. Well done to Peter.
And finally, our controversy of the week section. Let’s look at the top of the Premier Division. Murrayfield 1 were tested this year but have once again taken the title, North Merchiston 1 being their closest rivals. A top of the table clash took place in Week 24. North Merchiston had sought a postponement, their top gun Gavin Yuan (35 out of 36 wins) being unavailable. After some back and forth Murrayfield were not in a position to find an alternative date when their venue would be available, and they refused the postponement request. They went on to win the match 8-2. Would the result have been different had Gavin played? Who knows? It would, however, have been good to see the top player in the league playing in this fixture against three players who are all in the top 5 of the individual averages. The problem of course with refusing postponements is that teams / clubs will remember it in the future. We doubt that North Merchiston will be accommodating if they are asked for a postponement next season.
With two matches left to play, Murrayfield 1 have dropped only one point all season – and that was to their own second team. A 5-5 draw was secured by Murrayfield 2 – a terrific result, particularly when you look at that fact that the second team turned out with just two players! Wow imagine what might have happened had they had a full team?
Postponements are a constant source of problems, and we had our own issue with a request for a postponement this week. Earlier in the season, Team 2 had requested a postponement from Haddington in Division 1. Haddington had agreed to the request so when they sought a postponement of their Week 26 fixture, surely Team Captain, James would return the favour? Hold on a minute – our nicest team captain couldn’t possibly refuse to rearrange could he? Oh yes he could! Now in fairness, Team 2s match is scheduled for the 28th of March. Ladywood closes for Easter on the 29th for 10 days and when they reopen, we no longer have a league night booking at the centre. Given our restricted availability we couldn’t bring the match forward either, three matches being played already on each of the preceding three Thursdays. Sorry Haddington – genuinely nothing we could do about this one, according to James!
Two weeks of the regular season left – where have the last 24 weeks gone!
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