Week 9 of the League was a quiet one for the club with only 3 teams in action.
The week started with Team 1’s Premier Division fixture at North Merchiston 1 on Monday 11th November. Greig McDonell, Colin Green and Peter Aird took on what looked on paper to be an understrength Merchiston side, with Willie Mabon absent and Jack Murray playing up from the division below. The Edinburgh side have found a good replacement for last season’s top gun Gavin Yuan, with Shounak Kelkar slotting in as the side’s number 1. The first match saw Peter take on the stylish Quentin Renau – a battle of styles was won by Quentin in four ends. When Greig then lost to Jack, the visitors knew they were in trouble. Colin then somehow managed to get himself into a winning position against Shounak – 2-1 up and 10-8 up in the fourth, the match was there for the taking – the way the Merchiston player saved those match points was outstanding – one of the best backhands off the bounce that the spectators had ever seen was followed by an unbelievable forehand winner – Colin battled away but lost 11-8 in the fifth. 3-0 down before Peter managed to get the visitors on the board – Jack could not cope with his “funny rubber”. Colin then comfortably defeated Quentin to bring the scores back to 3-2, but Greig was no match for Shounak as the hosts restored a 2 game advantage. A point was then secured as the hosts won the doubles. Match 8 saw Colin take on Jack – the first two ends went Colin’s way 11-2, 11-2 – Greig watching on was wondering how on earth he had lost out to the Merchiston player – but hold on, a tight 13-11 third end win was followed by an 11-5 fourth end win as Jack came back to level the game – the decider went down to the wire – sometimes the luck just isn’t with you – Colin had two match points, the first saved by an outrageous edge from Jack, the second followed by a rally where he hit the net cord three times! At 12-12, Jack got another edge before finishing the match off with a terrific forehand winner! Colin couldn’t believe it. 6-2 became 7-2 when Shounak eventually worked out how to play Peter, and when Greig was thumped in the first two ends of the last match v Quentin it looked like being 8-2. From somewhere, however, Greig found some motivation and a bit of form and turned the match round for a 3-2 win – a second consecutive 7-3 defeat for Team 1.
Team 4 had Ladywood to themselves on Thursday night as Team 2 had a week off. It was really quiet at Ladywood by the time the boxing had finished – Haddington 4 didn’t show up! More on this match later!
The week came to an end on Friday evening as Team 3 visited Edinburgh University 3 in Division 2. Bob Porteous, Craig Linton and Kristian Skotzen made the visit to St Leonards Land in the knowledge that another win would bring them within two points of top of the table Penicuik 2, but with a much better game difference. The students had other ideas – Bob lost match 1 before Kristian squeezed through in five ends. The Uni lead was restored after Craig lost out in five ends. We were level again after Bob won match 4 but another five ender went the way of the students as Craig lost his second tight contest of the night. A two game gap was opened up for the first time after Kristian lost match 6 – 4-2 down going into the doubles – a win for the students secured them at least a point and the pressure was on Team 3 to try and salvage something from the match. Wins for Craig and Bob kept the match alive, but Kristian couldn’t quite get the draw as he lost out to the Uni’s best player on the night Yinjun He. 2 wins for Bob and 1 each for Craig and Kristian saw team 3 taste defeat for the first time this season as they fell to a 6-4 defeat.
And so, to our Player of the Week Award. Not much to choose from this week with only two matches actually played! Colin, Greig, Peter, Craig and Kristian all won 1 singles match and none of them won a doubles!! Bob was the only player with a better result, winning two out of three. Surely the award is his – apparently according to Team captain Craig, the crucial doubles was lost because of Bob’s contribution – Craig seemingly played brilliantly! Internal turmoil in Team 3 and if your own team can’t support you Bob, the selection committee can’t either. So, this week we’re really struggling for a winner! Who did our opponents vote for as player of the match this week – Bob got it for Team 3, but we know he’s out of the running! So, we turn to Team 1 – whoever got the Player of the Night Award will be this week’s winner – Colin lost two five enders and won his match 3-0. Peter won 3-0 and lost in four and five ends in the matches he lost. Greig was never at the races in his two losses and his win was in five ends. Yip you guessed it, Greig won the POTM award – it’s not about the quality of TT he played - it’s about how nice he’s become this season, or maybe how unlikeable his teammates are! Well done to this week’s winner!
As for controversies, Team 4 are in the spotlight again this week. They were due to play Haddington 4 on Thursday night at Ladywood. With Team 2 not playing, they were the only match on at Penicuik. They were set up by just after 6.30 for their 6.45 start. By 7pm no one from Haddington had arrived. By 7.15pm they were on the phone to Club President Greig asking what the rules were about teams turning up late. Greig suggested they contact their opponents to find out what was happening. Roger Thomas was listed as the relevant team captain but only an email address was available for him – email sent just after 7.15. By 7.45 there was still no sign of the Haddington side and no response from Roger. It was clear to the Penicuik trio that by that point, even if Haddington did show up they wouldn’t have time to get the match played. Rachel sent another email to Roger advising they were packing up and were going to claim the match. Just after 9pm Roger emailed Rachel to advise that one of the team had apparently emailed Rachel the previous day seeking a postponement. Rachel pointed out that the email hadn’t been received by her. Team 4 have submitted a card claiming a walkover. Without wanting to be unkind to our East Lothian friends, surely if you have sought a last minute postponement by email the day before a match and you’ve not had any response, you would try and make contact again with the same person or someone else in the team / club. Clearly there was no agreement to a postponement and simply to leave things on that basis was not helpful. We ended up paying for the hire of the hall when such was not necessary. Our team ended up having a wasted night hanging around anticipating a match which was never going to happen. It appears Haddington could have sent at least a team of two but decided that would be pointless.
The Rules are fairly clear:
“A team may not postpone a fixture except with the prior written confirmed consent of the other team, such consents and confirmations to be obtained no later than three days prior to the scheduled date of the fixture. Agreed postponements must be notified to the Match Secretary to be reflected in the ELTTL System.”
Clearly, none of the above was complied with. Whilst there will always be a need for late postponements and we don’t think many teams actually pay too much attention to the above rule in its entirety, the element which has to surely be taken on board is that you cannot proceed on the basis of a request for a postponement having not had any agreement from the other side – that’s just crazy. Going forward, one issue which perhaps needs to be addressed, and this appears to be the case for quite a few teams / clubs, is that there are very few phone numbers available for other players on the website – maybe there should be a rule that, at the very least, each team captain / secretary should have their phone number available – we have 4 email addresses for the four players in Team 4. Four of the five players registered for the Haddington side including their Team secretary only have email addresses listed. Emails are perhaps not the best when trying to reach someone urgently! The scorecard has been submitted but not yet approved and it appears that the Match Secretary is now involved - Haddington appear to be looking to reschedule. Update no doubt on this next week!
Double figures already – Week 10 is upon us.
The week started with Team 1’s Premier Division fixture at North Merchiston 1 on Monday 11th November. Greig McDonell, Colin Green and Peter Aird took on what looked on paper to be an understrength Merchiston side, with Willie Mabon absent and Jack Murray playing up from the division below. The Edinburgh side have found a good replacement for last season’s top gun Gavin Yuan, with Shounak Kelkar slotting in as the side’s number 1. The first match saw Peter take on the stylish Quentin Renau – a battle of styles was won by Quentin in four ends. When Greig then lost to Jack, the visitors knew they were in trouble. Colin then somehow managed to get himself into a winning position against Shounak – 2-1 up and 10-8 up in the fourth, the match was there for the taking – the way the Merchiston player saved those match points was outstanding – one of the best backhands off the bounce that the spectators had ever seen was followed by an unbelievable forehand winner – Colin battled away but lost 11-8 in the fifth. 3-0 down before Peter managed to get the visitors on the board – Jack could not cope with his “funny rubber”. Colin then comfortably defeated Quentin to bring the scores back to 3-2, but Greig was no match for Shounak as the hosts restored a 2 game advantage. A point was then secured as the hosts won the doubles. Match 8 saw Colin take on Jack – the first two ends went Colin’s way 11-2, 11-2 – Greig watching on was wondering how on earth he had lost out to the Merchiston player – but hold on, a tight 13-11 third end win was followed by an 11-5 fourth end win as Jack came back to level the game – the decider went down to the wire – sometimes the luck just isn’t with you – Colin had two match points, the first saved by an outrageous edge from Jack, the second followed by a rally where he hit the net cord three times! At 12-12, Jack got another edge before finishing the match off with a terrific forehand winner! Colin couldn’t believe it. 6-2 became 7-2 when Shounak eventually worked out how to play Peter, and when Greig was thumped in the first two ends of the last match v Quentin it looked like being 8-2. From somewhere, however, Greig found some motivation and a bit of form and turned the match round for a 3-2 win – a second consecutive 7-3 defeat for Team 1.
Team 4 had Ladywood to themselves on Thursday night as Team 2 had a week off. It was really quiet at Ladywood by the time the boxing had finished – Haddington 4 didn’t show up! More on this match later!
The week came to an end on Friday evening as Team 3 visited Edinburgh University 3 in Division 2. Bob Porteous, Craig Linton and Kristian Skotzen made the visit to St Leonards Land in the knowledge that another win would bring them within two points of top of the table Penicuik 2, but with a much better game difference. The students had other ideas – Bob lost match 1 before Kristian squeezed through in five ends. The Uni lead was restored after Craig lost out in five ends. We were level again after Bob won match 4 but another five ender went the way of the students as Craig lost his second tight contest of the night. A two game gap was opened up for the first time after Kristian lost match 6 – 4-2 down going into the doubles – a win for the students secured them at least a point and the pressure was on Team 3 to try and salvage something from the match. Wins for Craig and Bob kept the match alive, but Kristian couldn’t quite get the draw as he lost out to the Uni’s best player on the night Yinjun He. 2 wins for Bob and 1 each for Craig and Kristian saw team 3 taste defeat for the first time this season as they fell to a 6-4 defeat.
And so, to our Player of the Week Award. Not much to choose from this week with only two matches actually played! Colin, Greig, Peter, Craig and Kristian all won 1 singles match and none of them won a doubles!! Bob was the only player with a better result, winning two out of three. Surely the award is his – apparently according to Team captain Craig, the crucial doubles was lost because of Bob’s contribution – Craig seemingly played brilliantly! Internal turmoil in Team 3 and if your own team can’t support you Bob, the selection committee can’t either. So, this week we’re really struggling for a winner! Who did our opponents vote for as player of the match this week – Bob got it for Team 3, but we know he’s out of the running! So, we turn to Team 1 – whoever got the Player of the Night Award will be this week’s winner – Colin lost two five enders and won his match 3-0. Peter won 3-0 and lost in four and five ends in the matches he lost. Greig was never at the races in his two losses and his win was in five ends. Yip you guessed it, Greig won the POTM award – it’s not about the quality of TT he played - it’s about how nice he’s become this season, or maybe how unlikeable his teammates are! Well done to this week’s winner!
As for controversies, Team 4 are in the spotlight again this week. They were due to play Haddington 4 on Thursday night at Ladywood. With Team 2 not playing, they were the only match on at Penicuik. They were set up by just after 6.30 for their 6.45 start. By 7pm no one from Haddington had arrived. By 7.15pm they were on the phone to Club President Greig asking what the rules were about teams turning up late. Greig suggested they contact their opponents to find out what was happening. Roger Thomas was listed as the relevant team captain but only an email address was available for him – email sent just after 7.15. By 7.45 there was still no sign of the Haddington side and no response from Roger. It was clear to the Penicuik trio that by that point, even if Haddington did show up they wouldn’t have time to get the match played. Rachel sent another email to Roger advising they were packing up and were going to claim the match. Just after 9pm Roger emailed Rachel to advise that one of the team had apparently emailed Rachel the previous day seeking a postponement. Rachel pointed out that the email hadn’t been received by her. Team 4 have submitted a card claiming a walkover. Without wanting to be unkind to our East Lothian friends, surely if you have sought a last minute postponement by email the day before a match and you’ve not had any response, you would try and make contact again with the same person or someone else in the team / club. Clearly there was no agreement to a postponement and simply to leave things on that basis was not helpful. We ended up paying for the hire of the hall when such was not necessary. Our team ended up having a wasted night hanging around anticipating a match which was never going to happen. It appears Haddington could have sent at least a team of two but decided that would be pointless.
The Rules are fairly clear:
“A team may not postpone a fixture except with the prior written confirmed consent of the other team, such consents and confirmations to be obtained no later than three days prior to the scheduled date of the fixture. Agreed postponements must be notified to the Match Secretary to be reflected in the ELTTL System.”
Clearly, none of the above was complied with. Whilst there will always be a need for late postponements and we don’t think many teams actually pay too much attention to the above rule in its entirety, the element which has to surely be taken on board is that you cannot proceed on the basis of a request for a postponement having not had any agreement from the other side – that’s just crazy. Going forward, one issue which perhaps needs to be addressed, and this appears to be the case for quite a few teams / clubs, is that there are very few phone numbers available for other players on the website – maybe there should be a rule that, at the very least, each team captain / secretary should have their phone number available – we have 4 email addresses for the four players in Team 4. Four of the five players registered for the Haddington side including their Team secretary only have email addresses listed. Emails are perhaps not the best when trying to reach someone urgently! The scorecard has been submitted but not yet approved and it appears that the Match Secretary is now involved - Haddington appear to be looking to reschedule. Update no doubt on this next week!
Double figures already – Week 10 is upon us.
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