Week 2 of the League saw 5 of the Club's 7 Teams in action.
In the Premier Division, following the 1st Team's 5-5 draw with West Lothian 1 in Week 1 Greig McDonell, Colin Green and Stuart Gow were looking to build on that positive start as they faced West Lothian’s 2nd Team at Ladywood. The Bathgate side were always up against it as they were only able to field a two man team in Barrie Hills and Dave Fletcher and when Colin and Greig won the first two games of the night effectively the match was over. Barrie pushed Stuart to five ends but other than that it was a straightforward 10-0 win for the home side which even included a win for a Greig / Stuart doubles combination (there's a first time for everything!!)
In Division 1, Team 2 welcomed back to the fold Clive Liddiard to join regulars Iain Johnstone and Brian Bailey but his return wasn't enough to change the team’s fortunes as they fell to their second defeat of the season. In fairness the 8-2 defeat at the hands of Murrayfield 4 does not do justice to how close the match was and in particular doesn't tell the story of Clive's night. Match 1 v Lynn Somerville a deuce in the fifth loss. His second match against young Jake sees him fight back from 2-0 down to level the game only to lose in the fifth. Final match v Gary McIntyre sees him lose a 2-0 lead to fall to his third 5th end loss of the night. Had those matches gone differently..... In the end of the day Iain Johnstone was the only winner for Team 2 with 2 singles wins against Jake and Lynn.
In Division 2, after a draw in Week 1, Team 3 played their first home match of the season against North Merchiston 3. There was a family feel about the match as Abby Wighton and dad James called up Tony Brentnall from Team 4. They faced husband and wife duo Simon and Stella Hughes who combined with Mike Letchford for the visitors. (Surely North Merchiston 3's team this year must be a first for the league - a 4 player team made up of two couples, Mike's partner Anna being the fourth member). The match in the end was decided by the family doubles as father and daughter beat husband and wife on the way to a narrow 6-4 victory. Tony and Abby both won 2 singles whilst James won 1.
Team 5 of John Bald, Phil Daly and Louis Myatt also faced North Merchiston opposition in Division 3 as they faced North Merchiston 5 at home. This was another match which could have swung either way as three of the first four matches of the night went to five ends - all of them went the way of the visitors and that made it virtually impossible for the home side to come back. Louis won his first singles match at this level and was unlucky to lose both his others in the the fifth end. Phil added a victory and Louis combined with John for a win in the doubles in Team 5's 7-3 defeat. We think North Merchiston must have read our controversy of the week piece last week and to prove a point having won player of the night award last week with no wins, young Louis this week won 1, won the doubles and lost two 5 enders - so the award goes to winless on the night John!! Who knows why??
Finally in Week 2, Team 6 rang the changes as another father and daughter duo of Stuart and Millie Bennett had their first outing of the season joining Sean Lennon as they travelled to North Merchiston 6 in Division 4. After a good 8-2 win in Week 1 it was back down to earth for the Penicuik side this week. Once again the five end games proved the difference - 3 of the first 6 matches all went the distance and each one of them was won by North Merchiston. Sean continued his good form but he was the only winner as the Penicuik trio lost by an 8-2 scoreline.
Here's a new section for our weekly reports - maybe a regular addition for this season - "Stat of the Week" - well probably for one week only actually. In our matches this week there were 13 games that went to five ends. ELEVEN of those deciders were won by our opponents - what does that stat mean? More fitness training needed on Club night I think!!
And now to our Player of the Week Award - only Team 1 were undefeated in singles play this week but given they played against a team of 2 we're going to overlook them. The most important two wins out of three came from Team 3 and both Abby and Tony managed that - but for the importance of his second win, taking out the up to that point unbeaten Stella in match 9 of the night, and with it securing the win, the award this week goes to Tony Brentnall - well done Tony.
Who thought it would take this long for a major controversy to rear it's head - jings about 7 days into the season before the great old "postponement" issue burst into life!! Team 4 last week were due to play LBPTT (surely they need to change their name now that L&B Police no longer exists). Anyway, with Mr Scrabble man away on holiday (another one who seems to think holidays are more important than TT) Team 4 were going to call up someone from team 5 until Chris had a fall resulting in a trip to A&E (we're told drink wasn't involved but the jury's still out on that). Postponement duly sought. LBPTT agree to postponement - there's no controversy there is there?? Ah hold on - what they would like is that the rearranged fixture should not include any player not available to Team 4 last week. Eh??? What?? Don't they understand that the concept of postponements is to enable players unavailable for the original fixture to play in the rearranged one!! I feel we've not heard the end of this one.......
That's more like it. Something meaty and potentially long running to keep our weekly reports going! Roll on Week 3.
In the Premier Division, following the 1st Team's 5-5 draw with West Lothian 1 in Week 1 Greig McDonell, Colin Green and Stuart Gow were looking to build on that positive start as they faced West Lothian’s 2nd Team at Ladywood. The Bathgate side were always up against it as they were only able to field a two man team in Barrie Hills and Dave Fletcher and when Colin and Greig won the first two games of the night effectively the match was over. Barrie pushed Stuart to five ends but other than that it was a straightforward 10-0 win for the home side which even included a win for a Greig / Stuart doubles combination (there's a first time for everything!!)
In Division 1, Team 2 welcomed back to the fold Clive Liddiard to join regulars Iain Johnstone and Brian Bailey but his return wasn't enough to change the team’s fortunes as they fell to their second defeat of the season. In fairness the 8-2 defeat at the hands of Murrayfield 4 does not do justice to how close the match was and in particular doesn't tell the story of Clive's night. Match 1 v Lynn Somerville a deuce in the fifth loss. His second match against young Jake sees him fight back from 2-0 down to level the game only to lose in the fifth. Final match v Gary McIntyre sees him lose a 2-0 lead to fall to his third 5th end loss of the night. Had those matches gone differently..... In the end of the day Iain Johnstone was the only winner for Team 2 with 2 singles wins against Jake and Lynn.
In Division 2, after a draw in Week 1, Team 3 played their first home match of the season against North Merchiston 3. There was a family feel about the match as Abby Wighton and dad James called up Tony Brentnall from Team 4. They faced husband and wife duo Simon and Stella Hughes who combined with Mike Letchford for the visitors. (Surely North Merchiston 3's team this year must be a first for the league - a 4 player team made up of two couples, Mike's partner Anna being the fourth member). The match in the end was decided by the family doubles as father and daughter beat husband and wife on the way to a narrow 6-4 victory. Tony and Abby both won 2 singles whilst James won 1.
Team 5 of John Bald, Phil Daly and Louis Myatt also faced North Merchiston opposition in Division 3 as they faced North Merchiston 5 at home. This was another match which could have swung either way as three of the first four matches of the night went to five ends - all of them went the way of the visitors and that made it virtually impossible for the home side to come back. Louis won his first singles match at this level and was unlucky to lose both his others in the the fifth end. Phil added a victory and Louis combined with John for a win in the doubles in Team 5's 7-3 defeat. We think North Merchiston must have read our controversy of the week piece last week and to prove a point having won player of the night award last week with no wins, young Louis this week won 1, won the doubles and lost two 5 enders - so the award goes to winless on the night John!! Who knows why??
Finally in Week 2, Team 6 rang the changes as another father and daughter duo of Stuart and Millie Bennett had their first outing of the season joining Sean Lennon as they travelled to North Merchiston 6 in Division 4. After a good 8-2 win in Week 1 it was back down to earth for the Penicuik side this week. Once again the five end games proved the difference - 3 of the first 6 matches all went the distance and each one of them was won by North Merchiston. Sean continued his good form but he was the only winner as the Penicuik trio lost by an 8-2 scoreline.
Here's a new section for our weekly reports - maybe a regular addition for this season - "Stat of the Week" - well probably for one week only actually. In our matches this week there were 13 games that went to five ends. ELEVEN of those deciders were won by our opponents - what does that stat mean? More fitness training needed on Club night I think!!
And now to our Player of the Week Award - only Team 1 were undefeated in singles play this week but given they played against a team of 2 we're going to overlook them. The most important two wins out of three came from Team 3 and both Abby and Tony managed that - but for the importance of his second win, taking out the up to that point unbeaten Stella in match 9 of the night, and with it securing the win, the award this week goes to Tony Brentnall - well done Tony.
Who thought it would take this long for a major controversy to rear it's head - jings about 7 days into the season before the great old "postponement" issue burst into life!! Team 4 last week were due to play LBPTT (surely they need to change their name now that L&B Police no longer exists). Anyway, with Mr Scrabble man away on holiday (another one who seems to think holidays are more important than TT) Team 4 were going to call up someone from team 5 until Chris had a fall resulting in a trip to A&E (we're told drink wasn't involved but the jury's still out on that). Postponement duly sought. LBPTT agree to postponement - there's no controversy there is there?? Ah hold on - what they would like is that the rearranged fixture should not include any player not available to Team 4 last week. Eh??? What?? Don't they understand that the concept of postponements is to enable players unavailable for the original fixture to play in the rearranged one!! I feel we've not heard the end of this one.......
That's more like it. Something meaty and potentially long running to keep our weekly reports going! Roll on Week 3.
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