Week 8 of the Edinburgh League was a busy one – four matches played at Ladywood on Wednesday night was fun!
Team 1 were understrength as they hosted Murrayfield 3. Colin Green and Peter Aird were without Ryan Docherty and had to call up Greig McDonell as a replacement. Only Colin was victorious in the first set of three matches – a mammoth five end victory against Grant Williams. Peter was unlucky to lose out to the Murrayfield top player – he drew his match level at 2-2 after a 17-15 fourth end victory but couldn’t sustain it in the fifth. The second set of matches saw a 2-1 advantage in favour of the hosts and the match was tied at 3-3. The doubles produced a terrific performance from Colin & Peter, and the hosts held their first lead of the night. One victory needed from the last three matches – Peter lost out to Simon Ledwick whilst Colin battled away against the top-class Saravanan Veloumourougane – this was a classic match full of top-quality table tennis. It was destined to go the distance and despite some unbelievable attacking shots from the Murrayfield player, somehow Colin managed to stay in the fifth and the match reached 10-10. Unfortunately for Colin, he couldn’t quite make it over the line losing 12-10. Last match up saw Greig take on Grant. Whilst he gave it a go, the closeness of the overall match was summed up in the third end as one deuce followed another until eventually Grant got over the line 19-17! A disappointing 6-4 loss for the hosts having been 4-3 up.
Team 2 had rearranged a match against Murrayfield 6 in Division 1 meaning an interesting 4 matches on at Ladywood – despite some concerns as to how we would make that work, in the end the set-up was positive but the match itself not so good. James Wighton, Krzysztof Laszkiewicz and Hannah McDonell lost the first six matches, Krys being the only player to pick up any ends. The doubles saw Hannah & James play some excellent stuff and they were disappointed to lose in five. Hannah continued her form from the doubles in her last match of the night and managed a good five end win to avoid the team suffering a whitewash – a 9-1 defeat for Team 2.
Team 3 were also at home on Wednesday evening as Craig Linton, Bob Porteous and Charlie Brindley faced top of the table Corstorphine 1 in Division 2. At 2-0 down the hosts were in trouble – Charlie’s first match of the night went the distance and a 14-12 fifth end win got the hosts on the board. After the second round of singles and following wins for Bob and Craig the match was levelled a 3-3. Often crucial the doubles saw Craig and Charlie battle hard but when they fell in five ends it was advantage Corstorphine. A win for Craig but a loss for Bob left Charlie needing a win against Dave Grant to secure a draw for the home side, This was never going to be pretty but everyone probably knew it was going to go long – Charlie looked in control taking the first two sets 12-10, 11-7 but back came Dave with the next two ends 11-6, 11-7. It was fitting that the decider went the distance – Charlie held on and secured an excellent 12-10 win to secure the draw for the hosts.
The fourth team in action at Ladywood on Wednesday was Team 5. Roscoe Cairney, Rachel Petrie and Iain Caddell took to the table for the hosts looking to get a positive boost in their quest to survive in Division 4 as they took on Haddington. Only Roscoe got on the board in the first round of singles matches and it was a similar outcome in the next three with Iain getting a win on the board. 4-2 down going into the doubles and Rachel and Roscoe knew they needed a win – the hosts were in every game but when they fell to a four end defeat the East Lothian side had secured at least a point. Unfortunately, the pattern of the previous singles matches continued with only one win out of the last three as Team 5 fell to a 7-3 defeat.
A busy Wednesday night was concluded with Team 4’s away visit to Gullane in Division 3 – undefeated going into the match, Team Captain Patrick Shanks kept faith with the same trio from the previous week as Aidan Craig, Jay Jayalath and Chamika Diyunugalge made the trip to East Lothian. Match 1 saw Aidan go the distance against the Gullane number 1. The deciding fifth end sums up the season that young Aidan has been having – 10-7 down and facing defeat, he found a way to level the game at 10-10 before he exchanged a number of deuces before winning 15-13. The next three games all went the way fo the visitors before the East Lothian side threatened a comeback with wins in games 5 and 6 – 4-2 to the visitors and when Aidan and Jay won the doubles a point was secured. Team 4 have had a fantastic start to the season and that continued as all three players won their final matches to give them an 8-2 win.
And so, to our Player of the Week Award for Week 8. Only one player this week was undefeated – well done again to Aidan – top of the Division 3 averages with 18 wins out of 18 and his Team are sitting undefeated at the top of the Div 3 Table. It’s been a fantastic start to the season for Aidan and he’s been a candidate for this award every week he’s played. In the Premier League, Colin won 2 out of 3 and the match he lost was an absolute classic – Colin is playing some fantastic stuff at the moment and even though he lost a match, if this award is about the quality of play, he must surely be in the running. Let’s also give a shout out to one of our new players, Iain Caddell – first season in the League and he won his first league match during the week for Team 5 and was closer than his teammates were to winning a second game – well done to him. But this week’s winner is a man who held his nerve under intense pressure to salvage a draw for his side – two wins out of three and in his first match he pulled through 14-12 in the fifth and in the all important final match of the night he squeezed through 13-11 in the fifth – crucial wins for Team 3 – well done to Charlie.
We thought one of our biggest controversies of the season was going to be of our own making after we allowed a rearranged match to be played on a night when we already had three matches on the go at Ladywood. Although some of our opponents weren’t happy having to hang around until we were able to get some extra space, it actually worked out well and we managed to get four matches on each on two tables – in fairness the hall was buzzing with 24 players in the hall not to mention some supporters.
Speaking of supporters, Krys brought his two young kids along and they sat quietly all night until dad was finished losing all his matches and then disappeared. One of our opposing teams also brought a child with them – not quite so quiet and in Colin’s crucial match towards the end of the night for Team 1, at 9-8 in the fifth the young child who was happily running around with a ball and a bat hit the ball into the court during one of the best rallies of the match – who knows whether Colin would have won the point or not but he needed all the patience he’s mustered as a teacher over the last 30 years to keep his control – his look was probably enough to get his irritation across (it would have caused many a grown man to quake in his boots). The opposing team took every opportunity they could to “mess around with the youngster” – whenever one match finished in their game, they were either on the table themselves knocking up or giving the child a shot of trying to hit the ball. Now, call us grumpy if you wish but really…… Fair enough if we had a club night running along side a league match (as Haddington do at their venue) but there were four matches on – the tables weren’t set up for some extracurricular creche type play. Yes, the child was only having fun and we’re sure there was a good reason why the child was brought along, but it was still irritating and loud. At one stage it was pointed out in a friendly manner that whilst we accepted the child was having fun, it was becoming a bit too loud – the response was that with four matches on it was loud in the hall – yeah the difference is it was loud with TT matches and the normal noises you’d expect on a busy competitive night – very different from the “fun” noises coming from one part of the hall.
Just so we’re clear we don’t blame our opponents for this – we blame Rachel and Roscoe for allowing it to happen – they needed to take control of the situation and lay some ground rules early on – the writing was on the wall from before a ball was hit when Colin walked in to find the youngster standing on one of our tables! Bah Humbug – bring on that Xmas spirit!!
Finally, Murrayfield appear to have found themselves another excellent player in the aforementioned Saravanan. He's playing for the Club's third team and no less than 11 players are registered above him in the top 2 teams - does that mean he's at best the 12th best player Murrayfield have?? Hmmm - guess what? He's sitting second in the individual averages in the Premier league with 17 wins out of 18 matches played - he certainly makes Murrayfield 3 a difficult team to play against!
Team 1 were understrength as they hosted Murrayfield 3. Colin Green and Peter Aird were without Ryan Docherty and had to call up Greig McDonell as a replacement. Only Colin was victorious in the first set of three matches – a mammoth five end victory against Grant Williams. Peter was unlucky to lose out to the Murrayfield top player – he drew his match level at 2-2 after a 17-15 fourth end victory but couldn’t sustain it in the fifth. The second set of matches saw a 2-1 advantage in favour of the hosts and the match was tied at 3-3. The doubles produced a terrific performance from Colin & Peter, and the hosts held their first lead of the night. One victory needed from the last three matches – Peter lost out to Simon Ledwick whilst Colin battled away against the top-class Saravanan Veloumourougane – this was a classic match full of top-quality table tennis. It was destined to go the distance and despite some unbelievable attacking shots from the Murrayfield player, somehow Colin managed to stay in the fifth and the match reached 10-10. Unfortunately for Colin, he couldn’t quite make it over the line losing 12-10. Last match up saw Greig take on Grant. Whilst he gave it a go, the closeness of the overall match was summed up in the third end as one deuce followed another until eventually Grant got over the line 19-17! A disappointing 6-4 loss for the hosts having been 4-3 up.
Team 2 had rearranged a match against Murrayfield 6 in Division 1 meaning an interesting 4 matches on at Ladywood – despite some concerns as to how we would make that work, in the end the set-up was positive but the match itself not so good. James Wighton, Krzysztof Laszkiewicz and Hannah McDonell lost the first six matches, Krys being the only player to pick up any ends. The doubles saw Hannah & James play some excellent stuff and they were disappointed to lose in five. Hannah continued her form from the doubles in her last match of the night and managed a good five end win to avoid the team suffering a whitewash – a 9-1 defeat for Team 2.
Team 3 were also at home on Wednesday evening as Craig Linton, Bob Porteous and Charlie Brindley faced top of the table Corstorphine 1 in Division 2. At 2-0 down the hosts were in trouble – Charlie’s first match of the night went the distance and a 14-12 fifth end win got the hosts on the board. After the second round of singles and following wins for Bob and Craig the match was levelled a 3-3. Often crucial the doubles saw Craig and Charlie battle hard but when they fell in five ends it was advantage Corstorphine. A win for Craig but a loss for Bob left Charlie needing a win against Dave Grant to secure a draw for the home side, This was never going to be pretty but everyone probably knew it was going to go long – Charlie looked in control taking the first two sets 12-10, 11-7 but back came Dave with the next two ends 11-6, 11-7. It was fitting that the decider went the distance – Charlie held on and secured an excellent 12-10 win to secure the draw for the hosts.
The fourth team in action at Ladywood on Wednesday was Team 5. Roscoe Cairney, Rachel Petrie and Iain Caddell took to the table for the hosts looking to get a positive boost in their quest to survive in Division 4 as they took on Haddington. Only Roscoe got on the board in the first round of singles matches and it was a similar outcome in the next three with Iain getting a win on the board. 4-2 down going into the doubles and Rachel and Roscoe knew they needed a win – the hosts were in every game but when they fell to a four end defeat the East Lothian side had secured at least a point. Unfortunately, the pattern of the previous singles matches continued with only one win out of the last three as Team 5 fell to a 7-3 defeat.
A busy Wednesday night was concluded with Team 4’s away visit to Gullane in Division 3 – undefeated going into the match, Team Captain Patrick Shanks kept faith with the same trio from the previous week as Aidan Craig, Jay Jayalath and Chamika Diyunugalge made the trip to East Lothian. Match 1 saw Aidan go the distance against the Gullane number 1. The deciding fifth end sums up the season that young Aidan has been having – 10-7 down and facing defeat, he found a way to level the game at 10-10 before he exchanged a number of deuces before winning 15-13. The next three games all went the way fo the visitors before the East Lothian side threatened a comeback with wins in games 5 and 6 – 4-2 to the visitors and when Aidan and Jay won the doubles a point was secured. Team 4 have had a fantastic start to the season and that continued as all three players won their final matches to give them an 8-2 win.
And so, to our Player of the Week Award for Week 8. Only one player this week was undefeated – well done again to Aidan – top of the Division 3 averages with 18 wins out of 18 and his Team are sitting undefeated at the top of the Div 3 Table. It’s been a fantastic start to the season for Aidan and he’s been a candidate for this award every week he’s played. In the Premier League, Colin won 2 out of 3 and the match he lost was an absolute classic – Colin is playing some fantastic stuff at the moment and even though he lost a match, if this award is about the quality of play, he must surely be in the running. Let’s also give a shout out to one of our new players, Iain Caddell – first season in the League and he won his first league match during the week for Team 5 and was closer than his teammates were to winning a second game – well done to him. But this week’s winner is a man who held his nerve under intense pressure to salvage a draw for his side – two wins out of three and in his first match he pulled through 14-12 in the fifth and in the all important final match of the night he squeezed through 13-11 in the fifth – crucial wins for Team 3 – well done to Charlie.
We thought one of our biggest controversies of the season was going to be of our own making after we allowed a rearranged match to be played on a night when we already had three matches on the go at Ladywood. Although some of our opponents weren’t happy having to hang around until we were able to get some extra space, it actually worked out well and we managed to get four matches on each on two tables – in fairness the hall was buzzing with 24 players in the hall not to mention some supporters.
Speaking of supporters, Krys brought his two young kids along and they sat quietly all night until dad was finished losing all his matches and then disappeared. One of our opposing teams also brought a child with them – not quite so quiet and in Colin’s crucial match towards the end of the night for Team 1, at 9-8 in the fifth the young child who was happily running around with a ball and a bat hit the ball into the court during one of the best rallies of the match – who knows whether Colin would have won the point or not but he needed all the patience he’s mustered as a teacher over the last 30 years to keep his control – his look was probably enough to get his irritation across (it would have caused many a grown man to quake in his boots). The opposing team took every opportunity they could to “mess around with the youngster” – whenever one match finished in their game, they were either on the table themselves knocking up or giving the child a shot of trying to hit the ball. Now, call us grumpy if you wish but really…… Fair enough if we had a club night running along side a league match (as Haddington do at their venue) but there were four matches on – the tables weren’t set up for some extracurricular creche type play. Yes, the child was only having fun and we’re sure there was a good reason why the child was brought along, but it was still irritating and loud. At one stage it was pointed out in a friendly manner that whilst we accepted the child was having fun, it was becoming a bit too loud – the response was that with four matches on it was loud in the hall – yeah the difference is it was loud with TT matches and the normal noises you’d expect on a busy competitive night – very different from the “fun” noises coming from one part of the hall.
Just so we’re clear we don’t blame our opponents for this – we blame Rachel and Roscoe for allowing it to happen – they needed to take control of the situation and lay some ground rules early on – the writing was on the wall from before a ball was hit when Colin walked in to find the youngster standing on one of our tables! Bah Humbug – bring on that Xmas spirit!!
Finally, Murrayfield appear to have found themselves another excellent player in the aforementioned Saravanan. He's playing for the Club's third team and no less than 11 players are registered above him in the top 2 teams - does that mean he's at best the 12th best player Murrayfield have?? Hmmm - guess what? He's sitting second in the individual averages in the Premier league with 17 wins out of 18 matches played - he certainly makes Murrayfield 3 a difficult team to play against!
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