Week 4 saw all five of our teams in action for the first time this season and the match of the week had to be the derby encounter between Teams 2 and 3 in Division 2.
Both teams had won all their games going into the match and something had to give. For Team 2, James Wighton, Krzysztof Laszkiewicz and Gary McDougal took to the table. They faced Team 3 of Kristian Skotzen, Bob Porteous and Charlie Brindley. In fairness, following re-organisation of the teams from last season, it was difficult to pick a favourite for the win. First up was Krzysztof v Charlie, teammates from last year. A rapid 3-0 win for Krzysztof was a little unexpected and advantage Team 2. Gary probably started as favourite against Kristian in Match 2, but this was tight – a fifth end deuce decider went to Kristian 12-10! The screams from Gary could apparently be heard in Penicuik Town Centre! Next up was James v Bob. Bob had been undefeated through two matches this season, but he came unstuck as James secured a comfortable 3-0 win. The match was levelled again when Charlie defeated Gary in three ends. 2-2 and it looked like this match would go the distance. Advantage to Team 2 again after Krzysztof produced some terrific play to record a comfortable 3-0 win v Bob and for the first time on the night a two game gap appeared after James recorded a 3-2 win v Kristian. As we often say, the doubles, in a close match, is always crucial – James and Krzysztof combined v Charlie and Bob – at 1-1 the third end went to multiple deuces and the players could sense how important a win was going to be – 7 deuces, numerous game points for Team 2 but it was Charlie and Bob who triumphed 18-16. They then took the fourth end to reduce the deficit to 4-3. James v Charlie and Gary v Bob were then played simultaneously – two 3-0 wins for Team 3 and the match was turned on its head – from 4-2 down Team 3 now led 5-4. Krzysztof faced Kristian in match 10 – Krzysztof had by far been the best player on the night and he salvaged a draw for Team 2 with another 3-0 win. So, in the end, a fair result? Both teams remain undefeated. Team 2 probably thought they had the match tied up at 4-2, Team 3 will probably be a little disappointed not to have hung on for the win having come back to lead 5-4.
Meanwhile in the other half of the hall Team 4 were in action against a strong looking ESC side in Division 3. Rachel Petrie, Patrick Shanks and Ben Miller were up against it from the outset – a team that competed in Div 4 last season against the Edinburgh outfit that had come down from Div 2 and the difference showed in the first few matches as ESC raced into a 4-0 lead. Things got better after that for the hosts – of the remaining six matches 3 went to five ends and two were decided in four. Unfortunately, only one of the close ones went the way of the hosts as Patrick picked up a win in the resulting 9-1 defeat.
Colin Green, Greig McDonell and Peter Aird combined for the first time this season as Team 1 visited Edinburgh University on Friday night. The first four matches of the night were close and could have gone either way. Peter came back from 9-5 down to win the first end of his match and sneaked over the line 13-11 in the fourth for a 3-1 win. Greig, Colin and Peter were then involved in three five end matches, the visitors winning all three of them and when Colin and Greig won their second matches the game was over, 6-0 to Penicuik. Greig lost his final match of the night but a terrific 9-1 victory was exactly what Team 1 needed.
Finally on Friday night, Team 5 made the long trip to one of the newest clubs in the league, Dunbar. Jay Jayalath, John Bald and Mat Dyluk made the trip conscious of having played Dunbar in Div 5 last season and come away with an 18-2 aggregate loss over the two matches played! Dunbar had won the Division 5 title last year at a canter and finished a massive 27 points ahead of the Penicuik side. It was probably no surprise then when the visitors found it hard going. Jay was our player of the night with two wins in an 8-2 defeat.
And so, to our Player of the Week Award. Firstly, our Week 2 award was held back as we couldn’t split Krzysztof and Bob so decided that the winner of their derby match this week would determine that outcome. A comfortable 3-0 win for Krzysztof should mean that he wins the week 2 accolade. But hold on – apparently prior to losing on Thursday night (yeah right) a complaint was lodged by Bob who pointed out that in the past a doubles victory combined with undefeated nights has led to the award being given – as we reported Bob won his doubles match whilst Krzysztof lost – to show we’re always willing to listen, well done to Bob, our Week 2 winner by default!
As for Week 4, Krzysztof, Colin and Peter were all undefeated. Peter won 9 ends and lost 4, Colin won 9 and lost 2 whereas Krzysztof won 9 without losing an end. Having had his week 2 award stolen, there can be no doubt this week – 3 wins in a 5-5 draw and he truly deserves to be our Week 4 winner. Bob needed to have the last word though and points out that like week 2, Krzysztof lost the doubles again – this time with a different partner!
As for our controversy of the Week section, normally a derby match throws up a lot of controversial moments, but Penicuik is such a lovely club with such calm and thoughtful players that everyone was friendly at the start of the night, throughout the match, and at the end of the night! No fallouts at all and even James was on his best behaviour! How ridiculously boring!
Team 4 were slightly peeved that they came up against a top class player in Div 3. Keith Walker from ESC is a former premier league player (as recently as five years ago). He still showed he has good TT skills in not dropping an end and his standard was way above the rest of the players on show. He only dropped 36 points in 9 ends of table tennis, so an average of 4 points a game. He should never be playing in Div 3 came the comments from Team 4 – maybe not but that’s where his rating puts him. There are four players at ESC with higher ratings than him and given ESC only have two teams the place he fits into is Team 2. Nothing that can be done about that. Him playing certainly gives ESC a good chance in each match as we can’t see him losing many (if any) games in Division 3. With a squad of 8 players, however, if he doesn’t play every week we could have teams moaning about how unfair it is if he plays against them but not against other rivals! We remember a few seasons ago when our Club President dropped down to Division 2, Edinburgh International kicked up a real fuss about him playing against them. Their point was that that it was unfair that he was playing in the fixture against them because that could have a negative impact on their “fight for 2nd place” with Murrayfield in a season where he hadn’t played every match in Division 2 and in particular he hadn’t played in either match against Murrayfield 7. That gave them an unfair advantage. The difference, we suppose, was that our Club President was playing out of strength order as opposed to Keith who isn’t! The concept is the same though and in Edinburgh International’s eyes our situation even merited them trying to introduce some convoluted rule at the AGM to cover such a scenario – we don’t think it got voted in! Anyway, to avoid such issues arising again, and given that our Club President was still in pain by Saturday night having apparently moved a couple of times during his match on Friday, he’s trying to take a leaf out of the ESC playbook and has been desperately trying to get a player to join the Club with a higher rating than him so he can drop down and register for our second team!
Also, from Team 4’s match, there were a couple of occasions when Rachel’s opponent threw his bat after struggling to get on top. The bat was thrown during the ends, and deliberately thrown, we can only assume, in anger. That should, we think, result in a yellow card. Or should it? The Code of Conduct on the back of our ELTTL Scorecards indicates that one of the forbidden behaviours is “venting anger or frustration, including on items of equipment such as their bat, the ball, the table or surrounds”. Does that mean that it is automatically a yellow card? Answers on a postcard. Rachel apparently said under her breath that she thought the behaviour should have resulted in a warning or a yellow card – maybe she should have said it out loud! The ESC Umpire stayed quiet. Last season we believe the committee were only made aware of a couple of cards being shown throughout the season – maybe we just don’t hear about them? Given the number of “characters” in the league, we’re surprised they’re not used on a nightly basis – and that’s just for our own Club members!
And finally, this was the first home match for one of our new players, Ben. He experienced for the first time the incessant thud, thud, thud, bang, bang, bang of the boxing in the other half of the hall. Apparently it was a bit distracting – surely not Ben. You should have tried playing in the Hall with the 140 decibel Zumba class or the barking, yelping Dog Obedience classes!! The boxing is soothing in comparison!!
Week 5 here we come.
Both teams had won all their games going into the match and something had to give. For Team 2, James Wighton, Krzysztof Laszkiewicz and Gary McDougal took to the table. They faced Team 3 of Kristian Skotzen, Bob Porteous and Charlie Brindley. In fairness, following re-organisation of the teams from last season, it was difficult to pick a favourite for the win. First up was Krzysztof v Charlie, teammates from last year. A rapid 3-0 win for Krzysztof was a little unexpected and advantage Team 2. Gary probably started as favourite against Kristian in Match 2, but this was tight – a fifth end deuce decider went to Kristian 12-10! The screams from Gary could apparently be heard in Penicuik Town Centre! Next up was James v Bob. Bob had been undefeated through two matches this season, but he came unstuck as James secured a comfortable 3-0 win. The match was levelled again when Charlie defeated Gary in three ends. 2-2 and it looked like this match would go the distance. Advantage to Team 2 again after Krzysztof produced some terrific play to record a comfortable 3-0 win v Bob and for the first time on the night a two game gap appeared after James recorded a 3-2 win v Kristian. As we often say, the doubles, in a close match, is always crucial – James and Krzysztof combined v Charlie and Bob – at 1-1 the third end went to multiple deuces and the players could sense how important a win was going to be – 7 deuces, numerous game points for Team 2 but it was Charlie and Bob who triumphed 18-16. They then took the fourth end to reduce the deficit to 4-3. James v Charlie and Gary v Bob were then played simultaneously – two 3-0 wins for Team 3 and the match was turned on its head – from 4-2 down Team 3 now led 5-4. Krzysztof faced Kristian in match 10 – Krzysztof had by far been the best player on the night and he salvaged a draw for Team 2 with another 3-0 win. So, in the end, a fair result? Both teams remain undefeated. Team 2 probably thought they had the match tied up at 4-2, Team 3 will probably be a little disappointed not to have hung on for the win having come back to lead 5-4.
Meanwhile in the other half of the hall Team 4 were in action against a strong looking ESC side in Division 3. Rachel Petrie, Patrick Shanks and Ben Miller were up against it from the outset – a team that competed in Div 4 last season against the Edinburgh outfit that had come down from Div 2 and the difference showed in the first few matches as ESC raced into a 4-0 lead. Things got better after that for the hosts – of the remaining six matches 3 went to five ends and two were decided in four. Unfortunately, only one of the close ones went the way of the hosts as Patrick picked up a win in the resulting 9-1 defeat.
Colin Green, Greig McDonell and Peter Aird combined for the first time this season as Team 1 visited Edinburgh University on Friday night. The first four matches of the night were close and could have gone either way. Peter came back from 9-5 down to win the first end of his match and sneaked over the line 13-11 in the fourth for a 3-1 win. Greig, Colin and Peter were then involved in three five end matches, the visitors winning all three of them and when Colin and Greig won their second matches the game was over, 6-0 to Penicuik. Greig lost his final match of the night but a terrific 9-1 victory was exactly what Team 1 needed.
Finally on Friday night, Team 5 made the long trip to one of the newest clubs in the league, Dunbar. Jay Jayalath, John Bald and Mat Dyluk made the trip conscious of having played Dunbar in Div 5 last season and come away with an 18-2 aggregate loss over the two matches played! Dunbar had won the Division 5 title last year at a canter and finished a massive 27 points ahead of the Penicuik side. It was probably no surprise then when the visitors found it hard going. Jay was our player of the night with two wins in an 8-2 defeat.
And so, to our Player of the Week Award. Firstly, our Week 2 award was held back as we couldn’t split Krzysztof and Bob so decided that the winner of their derby match this week would determine that outcome. A comfortable 3-0 win for Krzysztof should mean that he wins the week 2 accolade. But hold on – apparently prior to losing on Thursday night (yeah right) a complaint was lodged by Bob who pointed out that in the past a doubles victory combined with undefeated nights has led to the award being given – as we reported Bob won his doubles match whilst Krzysztof lost – to show we’re always willing to listen, well done to Bob, our Week 2 winner by default!
As for Week 4, Krzysztof, Colin and Peter were all undefeated. Peter won 9 ends and lost 4, Colin won 9 and lost 2 whereas Krzysztof won 9 without losing an end. Having had his week 2 award stolen, there can be no doubt this week – 3 wins in a 5-5 draw and he truly deserves to be our Week 4 winner. Bob needed to have the last word though and points out that like week 2, Krzysztof lost the doubles again – this time with a different partner!
As for our controversy of the Week section, normally a derby match throws up a lot of controversial moments, but Penicuik is such a lovely club with such calm and thoughtful players that everyone was friendly at the start of the night, throughout the match, and at the end of the night! No fallouts at all and even James was on his best behaviour! How ridiculously boring!
Team 4 were slightly peeved that they came up against a top class player in Div 3. Keith Walker from ESC is a former premier league player (as recently as five years ago). He still showed he has good TT skills in not dropping an end and his standard was way above the rest of the players on show. He only dropped 36 points in 9 ends of table tennis, so an average of 4 points a game. He should never be playing in Div 3 came the comments from Team 4 – maybe not but that’s where his rating puts him. There are four players at ESC with higher ratings than him and given ESC only have two teams the place he fits into is Team 2. Nothing that can be done about that. Him playing certainly gives ESC a good chance in each match as we can’t see him losing many (if any) games in Division 3. With a squad of 8 players, however, if he doesn’t play every week we could have teams moaning about how unfair it is if he plays against them but not against other rivals! We remember a few seasons ago when our Club President dropped down to Division 2, Edinburgh International kicked up a real fuss about him playing against them. Their point was that that it was unfair that he was playing in the fixture against them because that could have a negative impact on their “fight for 2nd place” with Murrayfield in a season where he hadn’t played every match in Division 2 and in particular he hadn’t played in either match against Murrayfield 7. That gave them an unfair advantage. The difference, we suppose, was that our Club President was playing out of strength order as opposed to Keith who isn’t! The concept is the same though and in Edinburgh International’s eyes our situation even merited them trying to introduce some convoluted rule at the AGM to cover such a scenario – we don’t think it got voted in! Anyway, to avoid such issues arising again, and given that our Club President was still in pain by Saturday night having apparently moved a couple of times during his match on Friday, he’s trying to take a leaf out of the ESC playbook and has been desperately trying to get a player to join the Club with a higher rating than him so he can drop down and register for our second team!
Also, from Team 4’s match, there were a couple of occasions when Rachel’s opponent threw his bat after struggling to get on top. The bat was thrown during the ends, and deliberately thrown, we can only assume, in anger. That should, we think, result in a yellow card. Or should it? The Code of Conduct on the back of our ELTTL Scorecards indicates that one of the forbidden behaviours is “venting anger or frustration, including on items of equipment such as their bat, the ball, the table or surrounds”. Does that mean that it is automatically a yellow card? Answers on a postcard. Rachel apparently said under her breath that she thought the behaviour should have resulted in a warning or a yellow card – maybe she should have said it out loud! The ESC Umpire stayed quiet. Last season we believe the committee were only made aware of a couple of cards being shown throughout the season – maybe we just don’t hear about them? Given the number of “characters” in the league, we’re surprised they’re not used on a nightly basis – and that’s just for our own Club members!
And finally, this was the first home match for one of our new players, Ben. He experienced for the first time the incessant thud, thud, thud, bang, bang, bang of the boxing in the other half of the hall. Apparently it was a bit distracting – surely not Ben. You should have tried playing in the Hall with the 140 decibel Zumba class or the barking, yelping Dog Obedience classes!! The boxing is soothing in comparison!!
Week 5 here we come.
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