The first week back after the festive period started with Team 2’s trip to North Merchiston 3 on Monday 9th January. Team 2’s only win of the season came in the reverse fixture at Ladywood at the beginning of the season but the festive period seems to have resulted in NM managing to recruit a new player, Quentin Renau, and he was undefeated with 3 singles wins to give the hosts the advantage. The match, however, was still in the balance but a five end loss for Gary McDougal against Nick Thomas (Gary was 2-0 up) and a deuce in the fifth doubles loss for Gary and Krzysztof Laszkiewicz dented the visitors hopes – Abby Wighton won 1, Gary won 1 and Krys won 2 in a disappointing 6-4 loss – it’s still early but the bookies have closed the book on the chances of Team 2 surviving the drop!
Team 1 were understrength as they hosted Murrayfield 2 at Ladywood on Thursday 12th January. Only one regular player available, our request for a postponement was refused by Murrayfield (Happy New Year). Rather than conceding the fixture, Team 1 made a last minute plea for replacements and Krys from Division 1 and Ian Hislop from Division 2 came to the rescue. Colin Green had a bad night by his standards – his best was a deuce in the fifth loss to Keith Dingwall. The highlight of the night was Colin & Krys in the doubles – 2-1 down they fought hard and remarkably produced a 14-12 in the fifth win (according to Krys, all as a result of his excellent steady play). A 9-1 defeat for Team 1.
With Teams 3 and 4 having free weeks, the final match of the week saw Team 5 travel to take on Murrayfield 10. The reverse fixture at Ladywood in September had seen Murrayfield secure an 8-2 win. Away from home and with a different trio, the Penicuik side were always going to struggle. Chamika Diyunugaige, Ian Millar and Sian McDonald were unlucky in a few of the matches – Chamika, in particular, will feel he could have won a couple - he lost his first match in 4 ends, his second was lost 12-10 in the fifth and his final singles was also lost in five ends. Sian picked up the only win of the night as the visitors fell to a 9-1 defeat.
So a pretty horrendous start to the second half of the season for the club – where do we find our player of the week from that lot?? There is really only one candidate – 2 singles wins for his own team and a doubles win in the Premier, well done to Krzysztof – don’t let anyone tell you that you don’t deserve it Krys!!
Our first controversy of 2023 – Murrayfield getting their own back on us after the Handicap Cup debacle of last season?? Rachel, Sonny and Gary were due to play Murrayfield (captained by Keith Dingwall) in an early round of the Handicap Cup – Murrayfield didn’t show up for the match (confusion re communication at their end) and the decision taken by Rachel and co was to claim the game rather than fit in a replay – what goes around comes around as they say – fast forward 8 months or so and a request (fairly late in the day) for a postponement is rejected by none other than Keith Dingwall. Now perhaps it will be claimed that the Handicap Cup situation did not feature in the decision to refuse to postpone but we think it must have been at least in the mind of the Murrayfield side! And hey, no hard feelings from us – if the roles had been reversed we would probably have done exactly the same. And in the end of the day the walkover taken by our handicap cup side last season (whether right or wrong to have done so) was always going to lead to a little bit of bad feeling. Of course we justified that decision not only on the basis of the failure of Murrayfield to turn up but at the back of our Club Secretary’s mind (he was at the match) was the Handicap Cup game a few seasons ago (a quarter-final we think) when Murrayfield claimed the victory at 4-4 with one match left to play after we ran out of time at our venue to complete the fixture!! As we've already said, what goes around comes around!!
Happy New Year everyone…..
Team 1 were understrength as they hosted Murrayfield 2 at Ladywood on Thursday 12th January. Only one regular player available, our request for a postponement was refused by Murrayfield (Happy New Year). Rather than conceding the fixture, Team 1 made a last minute plea for replacements and Krys from Division 1 and Ian Hislop from Division 2 came to the rescue. Colin Green had a bad night by his standards – his best was a deuce in the fifth loss to Keith Dingwall. The highlight of the night was Colin & Krys in the doubles – 2-1 down they fought hard and remarkably produced a 14-12 in the fifth win (according to Krys, all as a result of his excellent steady play). A 9-1 defeat for Team 1.
With Teams 3 and 4 having free weeks, the final match of the week saw Team 5 travel to take on Murrayfield 10. The reverse fixture at Ladywood in September had seen Murrayfield secure an 8-2 win. Away from home and with a different trio, the Penicuik side were always going to struggle. Chamika Diyunugaige, Ian Millar and Sian McDonald were unlucky in a few of the matches – Chamika, in particular, will feel he could have won a couple - he lost his first match in 4 ends, his second was lost 12-10 in the fifth and his final singles was also lost in five ends. Sian picked up the only win of the night as the visitors fell to a 9-1 defeat.
So a pretty horrendous start to the second half of the season for the club – where do we find our player of the week from that lot?? There is really only one candidate – 2 singles wins for his own team and a doubles win in the Premier, well done to Krzysztof – don’t let anyone tell you that you don’t deserve it Krys!!
Our first controversy of 2023 – Murrayfield getting their own back on us after the Handicap Cup debacle of last season?? Rachel, Sonny and Gary were due to play Murrayfield (captained by Keith Dingwall) in an early round of the Handicap Cup – Murrayfield didn’t show up for the match (confusion re communication at their end) and the decision taken by Rachel and co was to claim the game rather than fit in a replay – what goes around comes around as they say – fast forward 8 months or so and a request (fairly late in the day) for a postponement is rejected by none other than Keith Dingwall. Now perhaps it will be claimed that the Handicap Cup situation did not feature in the decision to refuse to postpone but we think it must have been at least in the mind of the Murrayfield side! And hey, no hard feelings from us – if the roles had been reversed we would probably have done exactly the same. And in the end of the day the walkover taken by our handicap cup side last season (whether right or wrong to have done so) was always going to lead to a little bit of bad feeling. Of course we justified that decision not only on the basis of the failure of Murrayfield to turn up but at the back of our Club Secretary’s mind (he was at the match) was the Handicap Cup game a few seasons ago (a quarter-final we think) when Murrayfield claimed the victory at 4-4 with one match left to play after we ran out of time at our venue to complete the fixture!! As we've already said, what goes around comes around!!
Happy New Year everyone…..
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