Week 21 was a busy one for the club with five of our six teams in action.
Corstorphine 1 v Penicuik 3 (Division 2) – Tuesday 24th Feb 2026
The week started with Team 3’s trip to Corstorphine 1 on 24th February. For the second week in a row, the team had to call on a player from Division 3 as this time Chamika Diyunugalge played up as he joined forces with regulars Craig Linton and Kristian Skotzen. At 3-1 up the visitors looked like they might spring a surprise but match 5 went the way of the hosts and that was followed by a tense 5 end defeat for Kristian in match 6. A doubles defeat followed and the Penicuik trio were suddenly 4-3 down. Chamika gave hope to the visitors with an excellent win in Match 8 but neither Craig nor Kristian could win their final matches as the Edinburgh side squeezed home 6-4.
Haddington 4 v Penicuik 5 (Division 4) – Tuesday 24th February 2026
Team 5 made the trip to our East Lothian friends with Team Captain Roscoe Cairney unavailable. Rachel Petrie and Iain Caddell called on the services of John Grant from Division 5. This was a tight match which could have gone either way. John had an excellent 12-10 win in the fifth in Match 2 but when Rachel agonisingly lost match 4 11-9 in the fifth, what could have been 2-2 became 3-1 to the hosts. Match 5 went the way of the hosts before John showed great grit with another five end win in Match 6. 4-2 down but still in it. John and Rachel fell in four ends to put the hosts on the brink of victory but Iain kept the visitors in it with a good win in match 8. It wasn’t to be, however, as the last two matches also went the way of the hosts as they secured a 7-3 victory. The fat lady has been warming up her vocal chords for a while now but she has now finally sung – 4 matches to go and relegation unfortunately confirmed.
Penicuik 4 v Gullane 1 (Division 3) – Wednesday 25th February 2026
Whilst it has been a real struggle for Team 5 this season, Team 4 have from the outset been challenging for promotion. Aidan Craig, Chamika Diyunugalge and Patrick Shanks took to the table for the hosts at Ladywood on Wednesday 25th February and they were never in trouble as they powered to a 10-0 win against their East Lothian opponents. Two five end wins for Patrick and a five end victory in the doubles proved to be the visitors best chances of getting on the scoreboard. A terrific night for the hosts as they kept the pressure on league leaders Dunbar.
Penicuik 6 v Murrayfield 14 (Division 5) – Wednesday 25th February 2026
Also at home on Wednesday were Team 6 of John Grant, Arran Fitchett and Michael Daly. John continued his recent run of excellent form and fresh from his superb performance playing up for Team 5, he added another two to his tally of wins over the last few weeks. Unfortunately neither Arran, nor Michael were able to add to those two wins as Team 6 fell to an 8-2 defeat.
Murrayfield 3 v Penicuik 1 (Premier Division) – Thursday 26th February
Team 1 were understrength for their visit to Murrayfield as Colin Green and Peter Aird called up James Wighton from Team 2 and when they found themselves 3-0 down after the first round of singles fixtures, they knew this was going to be a difficult night for them. Peter won match 4 but going into the doubles it was 5-1 to the hosts. An 11-9 in the fifth win in that match kept the visitors mathematically in the match but only Colin could add to the score in the last three singles as the visitors fell to a 7-3 defeat.
Player of the Week
It’s a battle of Team 4 players this week. The three of them were the only undefeated players for the Club this week. Patrick won 9 ends and lost 4 whilst Aidan won 9 lost 1. Patrick is out of the running but good to see him pulling through in some tight matches. Don’t get excited though Aidan – a 9-1 ratio is difficult to beat but Chamika went through his singles matches without losing an end – add to that he had a good night playing up for Team 3 and he is this week’s deserved winner.
Controversy of the Week
We generally have a good relationship with our friends from the East but this week relations between Team 5 and their Haddington counterparts were a little frosty. Rachel became utterly frustrated by the fact that one of Haddington’s players kept catching the ball when he thought there had been a foul serve. He would call a let. When he’d caught 4 of Rachel’s serves in a game, Rachel tried to make a stand and told the player he couldn’t do that and it was up to the umpire to call lets. He continued his behaviour with the umpire effectively staying out of it. Rachel was so frustrated that she missed her serve several times. The player was keen to tell players that he had been on an umpiring course. Rachel may have come out on the wrong side of the TT result but the best response of the night belonged to her as she pointed out that the course must’ve not been a very good one!
In a separate match a different umpire foul served John without any warning and simply awarded the point to his opponent. Our team felt this was ridiculous behaviour for a league 4 game. The problems had actually started in a previous match between the same player who had “been on the course” and John. Iain was umpiring and as a new player to the league was a little confused as to what to do when the opponent caught John’s serves about 20 times during the match, whilst throwing in the line that the ball wasn’t being tossed up high enough. In Iain’s opinion John was throwing the ball up high enough. Iain, like Rachel, thought the conduct became ridiculous as the player just continued to catch the ball. Iain didn't feel that he had the umpiring experience to intervene.
What made things worse for the Penicuik side was that many of the serves of their opponents could clearly fall into the dubious category but were not called out. Unfortunately, the issue created a lot of tension and took away any fun from the evening. It all became very unpleasant and most unexpected because visiting Haddington is usually a great away night.
Now one of Rachel’s concerns was that a warning should be given before a point is awarded. She felt this especially applies to lower leagues when many of players are inexperienced and serve outwith the rules. She felt that a more experienced umpire would have known how to take control. The latter point is absolutely correct – can you imagine if it had been Colin or Greig umpiring – they would have just started awarding points to the server if the receiver kept catching the ball (assuming they agreed that the serve was legal). That would soon have stopped the player catching serves!
As for Rachel’s other point, unfortunately we disagree with that – it is clear in the rules that if a serve is illegal a point is awarded to the opponent – no warning needs to be given. Now in reality we can’t think of many occasions when that has happened in the Edinburgh league – Rachel should remember one of them though from a match she was involved in a number of seasons ago at Haddington when the Roger Thomas, Lead Umpire for the league just awarded a foul in what was then the lowest division of the Edinburgh League. It is of course Roger who runs the Umpiring course! Maybe he needs to have a word with his clubmate though regarding his conduct while playing.
Oh well – a learning experience for all but just a pity that it spoilt the evening for the players involved.
Corstorphine 1 v Penicuik 3 (Division 2) – Tuesday 24th Feb 2026
The week started with Team 3’s trip to Corstorphine 1 on 24th February. For the second week in a row, the team had to call on a player from Division 3 as this time Chamika Diyunugalge played up as he joined forces with regulars Craig Linton and Kristian Skotzen. At 3-1 up the visitors looked like they might spring a surprise but match 5 went the way of the hosts and that was followed by a tense 5 end defeat for Kristian in match 6. A doubles defeat followed and the Penicuik trio were suddenly 4-3 down. Chamika gave hope to the visitors with an excellent win in Match 8 but neither Craig nor Kristian could win their final matches as the Edinburgh side squeezed home 6-4.
Haddington 4 v Penicuik 5 (Division 4) – Tuesday 24th February 2026
Team 5 made the trip to our East Lothian friends with Team Captain Roscoe Cairney unavailable. Rachel Petrie and Iain Caddell called on the services of John Grant from Division 5. This was a tight match which could have gone either way. John had an excellent 12-10 win in the fifth in Match 2 but when Rachel agonisingly lost match 4 11-9 in the fifth, what could have been 2-2 became 3-1 to the hosts. Match 5 went the way of the hosts before John showed great grit with another five end win in Match 6. 4-2 down but still in it. John and Rachel fell in four ends to put the hosts on the brink of victory but Iain kept the visitors in it with a good win in match 8. It wasn’t to be, however, as the last two matches also went the way of the hosts as they secured a 7-3 victory. The fat lady has been warming up her vocal chords for a while now but she has now finally sung – 4 matches to go and relegation unfortunately confirmed.
Penicuik 4 v Gullane 1 (Division 3) – Wednesday 25th February 2026
Whilst it has been a real struggle for Team 5 this season, Team 4 have from the outset been challenging for promotion. Aidan Craig, Chamika Diyunugalge and Patrick Shanks took to the table for the hosts at Ladywood on Wednesday 25th February and they were never in trouble as they powered to a 10-0 win against their East Lothian opponents. Two five end wins for Patrick and a five end victory in the doubles proved to be the visitors best chances of getting on the scoreboard. A terrific night for the hosts as they kept the pressure on league leaders Dunbar.
Penicuik 6 v Murrayfield 14 (Division 5) – Wednesday 25th February 2026
Also at home on Wednesday were Team 6 of John Grant, Arran Fitchett and Michael Daly. John continued his recent run of excellent form and fresh from his superb performance playing up for Team 5, he added another two to his tally of wins over the last few weeks. Unfortunately neither Arran, nor Michael were able to add to those two wins as Team 6 fell to an 8-2 defeat.
Murrayfield 3 v Penicuik 1 (Premier Division) – Thursday 26th February
Team 1 were understrength for their visit to Murrayfield as Colin Green and Peter Aird called up James Wighton from Team 2 and when they found themselves 3-0 down after the first round of singles fixtures, they knew this was going to be a difficult night for them. Peter won match 4 but going into the doubles it was 5-1 to the hosts. An 11-9 in the fifth win in that match kept the visitors mathematically in the match but only Colin could add to the score in the last three singles as the visitors fell to a 7-3 defeat.
Player of the Week
It’s a battle of Team 4 players this week. The three of them were the only undefeated players for the Club this week. Patrick won 9 ends and lost 4 whilst Aidan won 9 lost 1. Patrick is out of the running but good to see him pulling through in some tight matches. Don’t get excited though Aidan – a 9-1 ratio is difficult to beat but Chamika went through his singles matches without losing an end – add to that he had a good night playing up for Team 3 and he is this week’s deserved winner.
Controversy of the Week
We generally have a good relationship with our friends from the East but this week relations between Team 5 and their Haddington counterparts were a little frosty. Rachel became utterly frustrated by the fact that one of Haddington’s players kept catching the ball when he thought there had been a foul serve. He would call a let. When he’d caught 4 of Rachel’s serves in a game, Rachel tried to make a stand and told the player he couldn’t do that and it was up to the umpire to call lets. He continued his behaviour with the umpire effectively staying out of it. Rachel was so frustrated that she missed her serve several times. The player was keen to tell players that he had been on an umpiring course. Rachel may have come out on the wrong side of the TT result but the best response of the night belonged to her as she pointed out that the course must’ve not been a very good one!
In a separate match a different umpire foul served John without any warning and simply awarded the point to his opponent. Our team felt this was ridiculous behaviour for a league 4 game. The problems had actually started in a previous match between the same player who had “been on the course” and John. Iain was umpiring and as a new player to the league was a little confused as to what to do when the opponent caught John’s serves about 20 times during the match, whilst throwing in the line that the ball wasn’t being tossed up high enough. In Iain’s opinion John was throwing the ball up high enough. Iain, like Rachel, thought the conduct became ridiculous as the player just continued to catch the ball. Iain didn't feel that he had the umpiring experience to intervene.
What made things worse for the Penicuik side was that many of the serves of their opponents could clearly fall into the dubious category but were not called out. Unfortunately, the issue created a lot of tension and took away any fun from the evening. It all became very unpleasant and most unexpected because visiting Haddington is usually a great away night.
Now one of Rachel’s concerns was that a warning should be given before a point is awarded. She felt this especially applies to lower leagues when many of players are inexperienced and serve outwith the rules. She felt that a more experienced umpire would have known how to take control. The latter point is absolutely correct – can you imagine if it had been Colin or Greig umpiring – they would have just started awarding points to the server if the receiver kept catching the ball (assuming they agreed that the serve was legal). That would soon have stopped the player catching serves!
As for Rachel’s other point, unfortunately we disagree with that – it is clear in the rules that if a serve is illegal a point is awarded to the opponent – no warning needs to be given. Now in reality we can’t think of many occasions when that has happened in the Edinburgh league – Rachel should remember one of them though from a match she was involved in a number of seasons ago at Haddington when the Roger Thomas, Lead Umpire for the league just awarded a foul in what was then the lowest division of the Edinburgh League. It is of course Roger who runs the Umpiring course! Maybe he needs to have a word with his clubmate though regarding his conduct while playing.
Oh well – a learning experience for all but just a pity that it spoilt the evening for the players involved.
RSS Feed
