
Team 1 v Murrayfield 3
First up on Wednesday, 22nd January, Team 1 travelled to the Church of the Good Shepherd to face Murrayfield 3. Back in action after a free week, Colin Green, Greig McDonell, and Peter Aird took to the table, aiming to avenge their 6-4 defeat in the reverse fixture at Penicuik. The match began on a high, with Colin securing a straight-sets victory. However, after Greig narrowly lost in five ends, the pressure shifted to Peter to overcome Ed Mitchell, Murrayfield’s number one player. The first three ends were nail-bitingly close, with Peter winning 12-10, Ed edging the second 13-11, and Peter reclaiming the momentum with another 12-10 victory in the third. This shift carried Peter to an 11-6 win in the fourth. In the next round of matches, the visitors claimed two more victories, as they headed into the doubles 4-2 up. Peter and Colin played brilliantly, securing at least a point for Penicuik. Peter clinched both points with another singles win, and Colin and Greig rounded off a successful night with two further wins, resulting in an excellent 8-2 victory for the Midlothian side.
Team 4 v Murrayfield 10
The following night at Ladywood, Teams 2 and 4 hosted matches against Haddington 3 and Murrayfield 10, respectively. For Team 4, Rachel Petrie, Patrick Shanks, and Chamika Diyunagalge were determined to continue their excellent run. With the Murrayfield team sitting below them in the League table, a win would significantly bolster their chances of securing Division 3 status for next season. The night started slowly for the hosts as Rachel suffered a four-end defeat in her opening match, while Chamika found himself trailing 2-0 against the experienced Bob Sterling. However, Chamika battled back to win the third end 11-9 and carried that momentum to an excellent five-end victory. Patrick appeared to be cruising to victory at 2-0 up in his first match but was forced into a decider after two 12-10 losses. He held his nerve to give the hosts a 2-1 lead. The next round of singles saw all three players secure relatively comfortable wins, taking the score to 5-1 and guaranteeing at least a draw. The doubles would surely see last week’s combination continue their winning ways to secure the victory – eh hold on, they switched it around as Chamika and Rachel took to the table – a four end loss kept the Edinburgh side in the contest. No need to worry, though, as Chamika and Patrick both triumphed in their final matches, sealing a solid 7-3 victory for Team 4.
Team 2 v Haddington 3
Meanwhile, Team 2 faced Haddington 3 in Division 2, aiming to maintain their position in the top two of the table. Krzysztof Laszkiewicz, Ian Hislop, and James Wighton faced off against their East Lothian opponents. After Ian lost the opening match 3-0, the pressure was on. Wins for James and Krzysztof, both by 3-0 scores, gave the hosts an early lead. The second round of singles fixtures followed the same pattern: Ian lost 3-0, but James and Krzysztof secured 3-0 victories, bringing the score to 4-2 heading into the crucial doubles. Despite their poor doubles record, Team 2 had won in their past two matches. James and Krzysztof started strong, taking the first end 11-4, but the change of formation at the end of each end made a big difference. The visitors won the second end 11-4, back came Team 2 with an 11-7 victory in end 3 before Haddington forced a decider with an 11-5 victory. The hosts knew they had to start strong in the decider and they did, but the change of ends and formation, made the difference again as the visitors narrowly edged it 11-9, keeping the match alive. Haddington needed to win all three remaining singles matches to pull off a 6-4 upset. Krzysztof, top of the averages, was expected to at least secure the draw, but Gordon Aien had other plans, handing him a surprising 3-0 defeat. James faced Magnus Wahrenberg next and looked comfortable after taking the first two ends 11-5 and 11-4. However, a third-end loss brought tension into the fourth - James held his nerve to clinch the match and give the hosts a 5-4 lead. Ian then faced young Blair Randall in the final match. A tight 11-9 first end win for Ian seemed to deflate his opponent, and Ian closed out the match in straight sets. Team 2 secured another vital two points with a hard-fought 6-4 victory—their seventh 6-4 win of the season!
Player of the Week
And so, the Club remains undefeated in 2025. Who would have thought that as we near the end of January? A terrific effort from all our players and teams so far. Our Week 17 Player of the Week Award has a smaller selection of players to choose from, but still some quality performances to mention. There were undefeated nights for Colin, Peter, James, Patrick and Chamika. Colin and Peter also performed well in the doubles to ease the pressure on Team 1 in the final three matches of the night. Patrick and Chamika won a couple of crucial tight five enders in their match to make their 7-3 victory sound comfortable. But this week, stepping up to the plate with three wins in a 6-4 victory was Birthday Boy, James. With the pressure on, having witnessed Krzysztof losing the “potential winning point”, he did brilliantly to keep calm under pressure and deliver an undefeated night in singles play. What a terrific birthday present that was for our newest member of the 70+ club (he’s not really that old, is he?). Well done James.
Controversy of the Week
This week’s controversy features none other than our Player of the Week! He just didn’t fancy coaching on Saturday morning – he made the call that after Friday’s red weather warning, the warning for snow on Saturday was sufficient to call off the sessions. Our other coaches woke up to glorious sunshine on Saturday morning but they’re travelling from what appears, at times, to be a different “climate” in the south. James would send us a picture of a snow covered Penicuik to merit the decision made. No picture, James? Eh it didn’t really come to much actually. Apparently the Penicuik residents were arranging barbeques for such a sunny, warm day!
During Team 4’s match against Murrayfield there was behaviour from one of our opponents which would absolutely have merited the use of yellow / red cards. Chamika is one of our most likeable members (obviously lots of us are!) - easy going, smiley, friendly, a less controversial player you’d be hard pushed to find – so when he feels it’s necessary to bring up bad behaviour, you know it must be bad! In the presence of a very young teammate, the player was repeatedly swearing throughout their match against Chamika. After losing an end, the player threw his bat which landed on Chamika’s side of the net. At one point he lashed out at the ball with his bat, after a point was over, causing the ball to strike Chamika on the body. Yellow card / red card – come on umpire – oh hold on the umpire was the youngster in question, a young girl who obviously wasn’t going to be in a position to deal with such conduct. And that’s where the system of controlling matches breaks down – even if it hadn’t been a very young girl, new to the league, umpiring, it takes a very strong umpire (on your own team or opposing team) to deal with issues such as this. This doesn’t seem to be a one off either – against Patrick the same player threw his bat into the net at the end of their match. Chamika was quite disturbed by the behaviour. Whilst never appropriate, the fact that a young girl was umpiring and witnessing this, caused Chamika significant concern. Always one to find a positive, though, he commented that the opponent was very friendly at the end of the match and clearly very emotional whilst playing the game. Being nice at the end, doesn’t excuse such behaviour though. Our Team 4 feels that someone needs to have a word with the player to stop such conduct continuing.
Another week over and another great week for the Club. Week 18 here we come.