Week 19 saw five of our six teams in action with Team 4 sitting out.
Haddington 5 v Penicuik 6 (Division 5)
The week started with Team 6’s trip to Haddington in Division 5 on Tuesday 10th February. John Grant, Tony Walker and Ian Millar made the trip to our East Lothian friends who started the night ten points ahead of the Midlothian side. A close 6-4 loss in Week 18 had been a good result and when John won two of the first four matches on the night, there was positivity in the camp and that increased when Tony won match 5 to give the Midlothian side the lead. The East Lothian outfit won match 6 to level the scores going into the doubles. John and Tony combined well to restore the lead for the visitors but a 3-1 loss for Tony and it was level again. John has been in a rich vein of form over the last couple of weeks – 7 consecutive wins in singles and doubles going into his last match of the night. At 2-1 down he looked in trouble but an 11-9 fourth end win was followed by an 11-4 win in the decider, and a point was secured for the visitors. Ian was unlucky in Match 10 but a good point for Team 6 away from home.
Penicuik 1 v Edinburgh International 1 (Premier Division)
It was a busy night at Ladywood on Wednesday with three matches on the go. Team 1 of Colin Green, Peter Aird and Ryan Docherty were in confident mood after their 10-0 victory in Week 18 but tougher opposition awaited with their opponents starting the night 5 points ahead of the Penicuik trio, although they had played a couple of games more. 2-0 down in match 1, Colin showed his fighting qualities to pull out an 11-9 win in the fifth. Ryan and Colin were undefeated by the end of the second round of singles – 4-2 up going into the doubles. A five-end win for the away side kept them in the contest but all three home players then won their final singles in five ends as the Penicuik trio recorded an excellent 7-3 win.
Penicuik 5 v Heriot-Watt (Division 4)
Roscoe Cairney, Rachel Petrie and Mat Dyluk were not in confident mood as they hosted the students who are almost certain of promotion and fighting to win the division. But wait, the students turned up with only two players – a chance presented itself for the hosts. 3-0 up before a ball was hit, could they win at least two games to secure a point. Roscoe won his second match of the night in five ends to give the fourth win of the night but neither Mat nor Rachel could win that elusive game, Rachel falling just short, agonisingly losing in five ends. A 6-4 defeat for Team 5 and while the fat lady has not quite sung yet, with five matches left for the Midlothian side, they need to win at least four of them to have any chance of survival.
Penicuik 3 v Haddington 2 (Division 2)
A bit of a weird one for Team 3 as they faced Haddington for the first time this season, still to play the first half match which had been scheduled for October! Kristian Skotzen, Charlie Brindley and Bob Porteous took to the table for the home side in what was to turn out to be a very tight match. After the first round of singles matches the hosts held the lead 2-1 with wins for Charlie and Bob, the latter a tight 12-10 win in the fifth. The next two singles were won by the visitors before Bob was in action again in match 6 – at 2-1 up it was looking good for Bob but this time he was on the receiving end of a close loss, 12-10 in the fourth end was repeated in the decider. 4-2 down and it got worse as the doubles also went the way of the East Lothian outfit before a win in match 8 gave them a 6-2 lead. Bob was then involved in his third 5 end battle of the night but couldn’t get over the line. 6 matches in a row for Haddington and it was 7-2 in their favour. The night ended on a positive note as Kristian won match 10 but a 7-3 defeat for the home side.
Murrayfield 6 v Penicuik 2 (Division 1)
The week was rounded off with Team 2’s visit to Edinburgh on Thursday evening. Krzysztof Laszkiewicz, James Wighton and Hannah McDonell made the trip to the Church of The Good Shepherd, and it looked like being a long night given the hall set-up was for just one table. The good news about losing heavily is that at least the night goes quick! The first 6 matches were over in a flash, five of them going to the hosts. Krys and James then combined for the doubles and they somehow pulled back from 2-1 down to win a classic 13-11 in the fifth. That kept the team in the match but while the last round of singles produced two five-enders that went to deuce, all three final matches were won by the hosts to give them an 8-2 win. With Div 1 reduced to only 9 teams, there are only three matches left for Team 2 – their only hope for survival is that because of the lack of teams, reorganisation of the divisions might result in only one team going down! To finish second bottom though, they will need to win at least two of their last three matches.
Player of the Week
Last week’s player of the Week was at it again in Week 19 as he won all three of his singles and was in the winning doubles team in Team 6’s 5-5 draw – a terrific couple of weeks but you can’t win the award two weeks in a row, John! The only other undefeated players this week were Colin and Ryan in Team 1’s 7-3 win v close rivals Edinburgh International. How do we split them? Both combined in a narrow doubles defeat so it’s down to ends won and lost. Colin won 9 and lost 5 whilst Ryan won 9 and lost 4 – by the narrowest of margins well done to Ryan – the last two weeks have seen him pick up 6 wins out of 6 – well deserved.
Controversy of the Week
People may recall the “controversy of the season” being Murrayfield 1 having points deducted for a breach of the rules in relation to fielding an ineligible player. It looks like that’s going to cost Murrayfield 1 the Premier Division title. The matter was brought to the league’s attention by Heriot Watt. Well, this week it appears that “what goes around comes around”. We’re told by the students that they received a little bit of payback from Murrayfield (they’re not bitter) – apparently HW had requested a postponement of the fixture against Murrayfield scheduled for 8th January. They went back to Murrayfield to try and reorganise the date on 11th February. Murrayfield brought to the league’s attention Rule 6 b which is in the following terms:
“A team may not postpone a fixture except with the prior written confirmed consent of the other team, such consents and confirmations to be obtained no later than three days prior to the scheduled date of the fixture.……… In the event of the revised date not having been agreed upon and the fixture played within four playing weeks of the originally scheduled date, the fixture will be awarded against the team requesting the postponement, unless with the express permission of the Match Sub-Committee”
Now, we have to say that we have never seen this rule enforced – maybe that’s because teams agree to play outwith the four-week period and they get the express permission of the Match Sub-Committee. We can point to numerous examples, season after season, where matches are rescheduled beyond this 4 week period – not wanting to get ourselves in trouble, but we’'re just about to play a match next week in Division 2 which was postponed from October!
Heriot Watt, we understand, attempted to appeal against the match being awarded to Murrayfield suggesting that there is a principle in the rules that matches should be played if at all possible. They pointed out part of Rule 4 c which states:
“The ELTTL principle is that both teams should whenever possible make all reasonable efforts to enable fixtures to be played rather than forfeited.”
Now in fairness we think that principle applies specifically in relation to Rule 4 although we have heard it used generally and if we turn the clock back to season 24/25, who can forget the outrageous decision of the Committee not to award a handicap cup match to Penicuik when Murrayfield couldn’t field a team in the required week. What were we told by the Committee? They decided that all efforts should be made to play the match (the principle - better for a match to be played than not)! Different circumstances but an outcome which basically ignored the rule and forced a game to be played. Maybe HW should try and found on previous examples like that! That said, you’ve got to admire Murrayfield’s ability to “get back at their opponents”! Would they have taken this stance had the earlier incidents not occurred? We think not! So back to where we started – what goes around comes around!!
Fun and games continue next week!
Haddington 5 v Penicuik 6 (Division 5)
The week started with Team 6’s trip to Haddington in Division 5 on Tuesday 10th February. John Grant, Tony Walker and Ian Millar made the trip to our East Lothian friends who started the night ten points ahead of the Midlothian side. A close 6-4 loss in Week 18 had been a good result and when John won two of the first four matches on the night, there was positivity in the camp and that increased when Tony won match 5 to give the Midlothian side the lead. The East Lothian outfit won match 6 to level the scores going into the doubles. John and Tony combined well to restore the lead for the visitors but a 3-1 loss for Tony and it was level again. John has been in a rich vein of form over the last couple of weeks – 7 consecutive wins in singles and doubles going into his last match of the night. At 2-1 down he looked in trouble but an 11-9 fourth end win was followed by an 11-4 win in the decider, and a point was secured for the visitors. Ian was unlucky in Match 10 but a good point for Team 6 away from home.
Penicuik 1 v Edinburgh International 1 (Premier Division)
It was a busy night at Ladywood on Wednesday with three matches on the go. Team 1 of Colin Green, Peter Aird and Ryan Docherty were in confident mood after their 10-0 victory in Week 18 but tougher opposition awaited with their opponents starting the night 5 points ahead of the Penicuik trio, although they had played a couple of games more. 2-0 down in match 1, Colin showed his fighting qualities to pull out an 11-9 win in the fifth. Ryan and Colin were undefeated by the end of the second round of singles – 4-2 up going into the doubles. A five-end win for the away side kept them in the contest but all three home players then won their final singles in five ends as the Penicuik trio recorded an excellent 7-3 win.
Penicuik 5 v Heriot-Watt (Division 4)
Roscoe Cairney, Rachel Petrie and Mat Dyluk were not in confident mood as they hosted the students who are almost certain of promotion and fighting to win the division. But wait, the students turned up with only two players – a chance presented itself for the hosts. 3-0 up before a ball was hit, could they win at least two games to secure a point. Roscoe won his second match of the night in five ends to give the fourth win of the night but neither Mat nor Rachel could win that elusive game, Rachel falling just short, agonisingly losing in five ends. A 6-4 defeat for Team 5 and while the fat lady has not quite sung yet, with five matches left for the Midlothian side, they need to win at least four of them to have any chance of survival.
Penicuik 3 v Haddington 2 (Division 2)
A bit of a weird one for Team 3 as they faced Haddington for the first time this season, still to play the first half match which had been scheduled for October! Kristian Skotzen, Charlie Brindley and Bob Porteous took to the table for the home side in what was to turn out to be a very tight match. After the first round of singles matches the hosts held the lead 2-1 with wins for Charlie and Bob, the latter a tight 12-10 win in the fifth. The next two singles were won by the visitors before Bob was in action again in match 6 – at 2-1 up it was looking good for Bob but this time he was on the receiving end of a close loss, 12-10 in the fourth end was repeated in the decider. 4-2 down and it got worse as the doubles also went the way of the East Lothian outfit before a win in match 8 gave them a 6-2 lead. Bob was then involved in his third 5 end battle of the night but couldn’t get over the line. 6 matches in a row for Haddington and it was 7-2 in their favour. The night ended on a positive note as Kristian won match 10 but a 7-3 defeat for the home side.
Murrayfield 6 v Penicuik 2 (Division 1)
The week was rounded off with Team 2’s visit to Edinburgh on Thursday evening. Krzysztof Laszkiewicz, James Wighton and Hannah McDonell made the trip to the Church of The Good Shepherd, and it looked like being a long night given the hall set-up was for just one table. The good news about losing heavily is that at least the night goes quick! The first 6 matches were over in a flash, five of them going to the hosts. Krys and James then combined for the doubles and they somehow pulled back from 2-1 down to win a classic 13-11 in the fifth. That kept the team in the match but while the last round of singles produced two five-enders that went to deuce, all three final matches were won by the hosts to give them an 8-2 win. With Div 1 reduced to only 9 teams, there are only three matches left for Team 2 – their only hope for survival is that because of the lack of teams, reorganisation of the divisions might result in only one team going down! To finish second bottom though, they will need to win at least two of their last three matches.
Player of the Week
Last week’s player of the Week was at it again in Week 19 as he won all three of his singles and was in the winning doubles team in Team 6’s 5-5 draw – a terrific couple of weeks but you can’t win the award two weeks in a row, John! The only other undefeated players this week were Colin and Ryan in Team 1’s 7-3 win v close rivals Edinburgh International. How do we split them? Both combined in a narrow doubles defeat so it’s down to ends won and lost. Colin won 9 and lost 5 whilst Ryan won 9 and lost 4 – by the narrowest of margins well done to Ryan – the last two weeks have seen him pick up 6 wins out of 6 – well deserved.
Controversy of the Week
People may recall the “controversy of the season” being Murrayfield 1 having points deducted for a breach of the rules in relation to fielding an ineligible player. It looks like that’s going to cost Murrayfield 1 the Premier Division title. The matter was brought to the league’s attention by Heriot Watt. Well, this week it appears that “what goes around comes around”. We’re told by the students that they received a little bit of payback from Murrayfield (they’re not bitter) – apparently HW had requested a postponement of the fixture against Murrayfield scheduled for 8th January. They went back to Murrayfield to try and reorganise the date on 11th February. Murrayfield brought to the league’s attention Rule 6 b which is in the following terms:
“A team may not postpone a fixture except with the prior written confirmed consent of the other team, such consents and confirmations to be obtained no later than three days prior to the scheduled date of the fixture.……… In the event of the revised date not having been agreed upon and the fixture played within four playing weeks of the originally scheduled date, the fixture will be awarded against the team requesting the postponement, unless with the express permission of the Match Sub-Committee”
Now, we have to say that we have never seen this rule enforced – maybe that’s because teams agree to play outwith the four-week period and they get the express permission of the Match Sub-Committee. We can point to numerous examples, season after season, where matches are rescheduled beyond this 4 week period – not wanting to get ourselves in trouble, but we’'re just about to play a match next week in Division 2 which was postponed from October!
Heriot Watt, we understand, attempted to appeal against the match being awarded to Murrayfield suggesting that there is a principle in the rules that matches should be played if at all possible. They pointed out part of Rule 4 c which states:
“The ELTTL principle is that both teams should whenever possible make all reasonable efforts to enable fixtures to be played rather than forfeited.”
Now in fairness we think that principle applies specifically in relation to Rule 4 although we have heard it used generally and if we turn the clock back to season 24/25, who can forget the outrageous decision of the Committee not to award a handicap cup match to Penicuik when Murrayfield couldn’t field a team in the required week. What were we told by the Committee? They decided that all efforts should be made to play the match (the principle - better for a match to be played than not)! Different circumstances but an outcome which basically ignored the rule and forced a game to be played. Maybe HW should try and found on previous examples like that! That said, you’ve got to admire Murrayfield’s ability to “get back at their opponents”! Would they have taken this stance had the earlier incidents not occurred? We think not! So back to where we started – what goes around comes around!!
Fun and games continue next week!
RSS Feed
