The summer has flown by and in a flash we’re back in action in the 2024/25 Edinburgh League. Firstly, a big thanks to our sponsors, Cullen Kilshaw and AMT Auto, who continue their support of the Club. On the table, we have a number of new look teams this season and have five teams competing in the League.
Team 1 remain unchanged from last year with Colin Green, Greig McDonell and Peter Aird combining. Their Week 1 fixture against Murrayfield 2 was dealt a blow with the absence of Greig from the team (apparently his energetic summer sport of bowls took priority over the TT – now there’s our first controversy of the new season and we’re only on our second paragraph)! At the end of the day, it’s unlikely his attendance would have made any difference as the Edinburgh outfit ran out 7-3 winners, Peter and Colin winning 1 each and combining for the doubles victory.
With a free Week in Week 2, it was further Murrayfield opposition for Team 1 in Week 3 as they took on Murrayfield 3. The controversy keeps on coming as on this occasion it was Peter who had “better things to do”! A phone call from Colin to remind Peter of the fixture was met by the response “I can’t hear you – I’m in the Middle East”. Of Fife asked Colin? Apparently not! 2 wins each for Greig & Colin wasn’t enough as they fell to a 6-4 defeat. A bad start to Team 1’s Premier division campaign. Maybe if they can get a full side out they might stand a chance of a win. Thanks to James, however, for answering the call twice to step in as a third player.
Team 2 were relegated from Div 1 last season and had a new look about them as they started out with two matches against Edinburgh University and a trip to Haddington in their first three weeks. James Wighton, Hannah McDonell and Ian Hislop are back this year (although Hannah and Ian will be playing only part time). The squad was bulked up by the addition of Krzysztof Laszkiewicz and Gary McDougal. A tight 6-4 win against University 3 for Ian, Krzysztof and Gary was followed by another tight 6-4 win against Haddington for James, Ian and Krzysztof. Bringing Week 3 to a close, Hannah entered the fray as she combined with James & Ian in a visit to Edinburgh Uni 4. A good three weeks for Team 2 as they recorded a 7-3 win.
Also, in Div 2 this year, are Team 3 – three players who won promotion from Div 3, Craig Linton, Kristian Skotzen and Richard Millar have joined up with two from last season’s Team 3, Bob Porteous and Charlie Brindley. They started out in terrific form as Craig, Charlie and Bob secured a 10-0 win v Corstorphine. Bob, Craig and Kristian then faced a trip to North Merchiston 4 and came away with a 7-3 victory. An undefeated start for Team 3 – something’s got to give in Week 4 as Teams 2 and 3 meet!
Following us dropping a team from last year, what was our old Team 5 became Team 4 and stepped up a Division into Div 3. Rachel Petrie, Patrick Shanks and Chamika Diyunugalge are joined this season by Ben Miller, a new player to the Club. First up for Team 4 was a visit to Corstorphine. The first two matches were lost in five tight ends by Chamika and then Patrick and that set the tone for the night. An 8- 2 loss suffered by the visitors. North Merchiston were the visitors to Ladywood in Week 2. Two wins for Patrick and one each for Rachel and Chamika as the hosts fell just short with a 6-4 loss. On to Week 3 and it was a visit to the Gyle for Rachel and Ben. With neither Patrick nor Chamika available, John Bald played up from Div 4. Defeats in 5 for Rachel and John proved decisive and despite a terrific night for Ben winning his 3, the best the visitors could achieve was a 5-5 draw.
Team 5 (Team 6 last year) also welcomed a new player to the fold in Jay Jayalath as they also stepped up a division as a result of us dropping a team from the League. It was with trepidation that the team took to the table in Week 1 worried that having finished second bottom of Div 5 this would be a step too far. Roscoe, Sian and Jay faced Corstorphine at home for their first taste of Division 4 action – Jay showed promise with two wins and Sian added 1 in a 7-3 loss. Sian and Jay were joined by John Bald in their Week 2 visit to Edinburgh University and a cracking night was had by all as the visitors recorded a 7-3 victory. In Week 3, Roscoe was back in action with Sian and Jay as they hosted Murrayfield. The tone for the night was set in matches 1 and 2 as Jay came back from the dead for an 11-9 fifth end win and Sian once again proved that she likes getting her money’s worth – a four end victory but the fourth end was won 23-21! Three of the four five end matches went the way of the hosts as they recorded an excellent 9-1 victory. Who said Div 4 would be too difficult – it took them all season last year to record 4 points – they’ve done it this year in 3 weeks!!
And so, to our Player of the Week Awards! Shockingly, our Reporter has been AWOL in Weeks 1 and 2 so we have a bumper 3 awards to deal with. Only our Team 3 players were undefeated in Week 1. Difficult to split them but having missed most of last season, it was good to see Charlie back and his 3 wins were secured in rapid fashion. Well done to Charlie, our first weekly winner.
Week 2 saw undefeated nights for Bob, Krzysztof, and Jay. Jay lost four ends on the night so a great week for him but he’s out of the running. Bob won 9 ends and lost 3 as did Mr Scrabble Man! How do we split them? Bob won in the doubles whilst Krzysztof lost – he says though that was all down to the fault of his partner, Gary – harsh! Statistically, Krzysztof’s win was more important to the team – a 6-4 win for Team 2 opposed to a 7-3 win for Team 3. But hey we can’t split them, so in a change from tradition, we’re going to come back to the Week 2 award and give it to whichever one of them wins the derby encounter in Week 4!
Onto Week 3 and it gets even more difficult – undefeated nights for Hannah, Ben, Jay and Roscoe. In terms of ends dropped it was Hannah who topped the pile with the loss of only 1 end. In any other week she’d be a certainty for the award – she also managed to keep James calm in the team’s match against University (more on that later)! Ben’s 3 was clearly the most important to the overall results in Week 3 – a 5-5 draw for Team 4 and without that undefeated night and a win in the doubles, Team 4 would have suffered a loss. Jay’s three included a comeback from 5-1 down in the fifth end and set the tone for Team 5’s victory. But, the award this week has to go to Team 5 Captain, Roscoe – he started to play in the League in the 22/23 season and in his previous two seasons he’s been close on a number of occasions to having an unbeaten night. But on his 29th appearance for the club he did it – and in some style in a division he didn’t want to play in! Well done Roscoe.
Finally, our controversy of the week section. Let’s start with the most recent controversy and a shout out to our University opponents in Team 2’s match last Friday. We were delighted to hear from Hannah that the Uni boys had mentioned to her how disappointed they were not to have read any PTTC Reports yet this season – they were missing them. Jings our following has increased by 2 or 3 players it seems! Just for them they take centre stage this week with an issue that arose when James was warming up against his first opponent. James noticed some “funny rubber” on his opponent’s bat and asked what was being used. “I don’t need to tell you that”, came the response. James, somewhat surprised, then asked to see the bat – absolutely no problem with that. He then asked upon examining the bat whether what he was looking at was short or long pimples – the same response to the initial question came back at him. And despite James perhaps being a little irritated by the replies, his young opponent was of course entirely correct. Rule 2.4.8 of the ITTF Laws of Table Tennis states that at the beginning of a match…. a player shall show his opponent and the umpire the racket he is about to use and shall allow them to examine it. That’s all a player has to do. It’s then up to the other player to try and work out what he/she is looking at! If you still don’t know by the time the first end is over get one of your teammates to google it!
There was also an incident later in the night when James was warned about throwing the ball up properly at service – he lost focus and had a bit of an argument – not sure if he realised his opponent is the new League Match Secretary! Don’t have fall outs with him James! According to Hannah, however, there was no real animosity in anything that happened, and her view of the Uni opponents was that all three of them, Richard, Joel and Enrique, were “lovely guys” who she got on really well with. Maybe she was just hoping that her team members were more like the students, rather than Ian and James with a combined age of 127!
There was, however, some real tension apparently in Team 4’s visit to the Gyle last Friday. Ben had a terrific night winning his three in a 5-5 draw. After he had won his first match 3-0, the Murrayfield umpire proceeded to tell Ben how some of his serves were illegal and were giving him “free points” every game! Really? Why wait until after the match was over? What good does that do anyone? He then complained about the serves again, after he had lost his match to Ben! Again, if you are going to raise an issue don’t wait until there is nothing that can be done about it. The alleged service problem is one of our favourites – not throwing the ball up straight enough! The rule says the server shall project the ball “near vertically upwards”, without imparting spin, so that it rises at least 16cm after leaving the palm of the free hand…”
What does “near vertically upwards” actually mean? Amazon have digital Angle finders for purchase these days – maybe they should be added to an umpire’s toolkit! Like all matches, there are always two sides to every story but according to our team, the player who was complaining certainly did not have “legal serves” all the time. Apparently the ball wasn’t thrown up the desired 16cm. So, protractors and rulers need added to players’ Xmas lists!
It was a complete coincidence that John then packed away in his bag one of the Murrayfield players bats! Fortunately, Team 4 couldn’t escape from the Gyle late on a Friday night and had to come back for help to get out and the missing bat was discovered at that stage!!
Ah it’s good to be back – was it too early to mention Xmas? Surely not – only 78 days left!
Team 1 remain unchanged from last year with Colin Green, Greig McDonell and Peter Aird combining. Their Week 1 fixture against Murrayfield 2 was dealt a blow with the absence of Greig from the team (apparently his energetic summer sport of bowls took priority over the TT – now there’s our first controversy of the new season and we’re only on our second paragraph)! At the end of the day, it’s unlikely his attendance would have made any difference as the Edinburgh outfit ran out 7-3 winners, Peter and Colin winning 1 each and combining for the doubles victory.
With a free Week in Week 2, it was further Murrayfield opposition for Team 1 in Week 3 as they took on Murrayfield 3. The controversy keeps on coming as on this occasion it was Peter who had “better things to do”! A phone call from Colin to remind Peter of the fixture was met by the response “I can’t hear you – I’m in the Middle East”. Of Fife asked Colin? Apparently not! 2 wins each for Greig & Colin wasn’t enough as they fell to a 6-4 defeat. A bad start to Team 1’s Premier division campaign. Maybe if they can get a full side out they might stand a chance of a win. Thanks to James, however, for answering the call twice to step in as a third player.
Team 2 were relegated from Div 1 last season and had a new look about them as they started out with two matches against Edinburgh University and a trip to Haddington in their first three weeks. James Wighton, Hannah McDonell and Ian Hislop are back this year (although Hannah and Ian will be playing only part time). The squad was bulked up by the addition of Krzysztof Laszkiewicz and Gary McDougal. A tight 6-4 win against University 3 for Ian, Krzysztof and Gary was followed by another tight 6-4 win against Haddington for James, Ian and Krzysztof. Bringing Week 3 to a close, Hannah entered the fray as she combined with James & Ian in a visit to Edinburgh Uni 4. A good three weeks for Team 2 as they recorded a 7-3 win.
Also, in Div 2 this year, are Team 3 – three players who won promotion from Div 3, Craig Linton, Kristian Skotzen and Richard Millar have joined up with two from last season’s Team 3, Bob Porteous and Charlie Brindley. They started out in terrific form as Craig, Charlie and Bob secured a 10-0 win v Corstorphine. Bob, Craig and Kristian then faced a trip to North Merchiston 4 and came away with a 7-3 victory. An undefeated start for Team 3 – something’s got to give in Week 4 as Teams 2 and 3 meet!
Following us dropping a team from last year, what was our old Team 5 became Team 4 and stepped up a Division into Div 3. Rachel Petrie, Patrick Shanks and Chamika Diyunugalge are joined this season by Ben Miller, a new player to the Club. First up for Team 4 was a visit to Corstorphine. The first two matches were lost in five tight ends by Chamika and then Patrick and that set the tone for the night. An 8- 2 loss suffered by the visitors. North Merchiston were the visitors to Ladywood in Week 2. Two wins for Patrick and one each for Rachel and Chamika as the hosts fell just short with a 6-4 loss. On to Week 3 and it was a visit to the Gyle for Rachel and Ben. With neither Patrick nor Chamika available, John Bald played up from Div 4. Defeats in 5 for Rachel and John proved decisive and despite a terrific night for Ben winning his 3, the best the visitors could achieve was a 5-5 draw.
Team 5 (Team 6 last year) also welcomed a new player to the fold in Jay Jayalath as they also stepped up a division as a result of us dropping a team from the League. It was with trepidation that the team took to the table in Week 1 worried that having finished second bottom of Div 5 this would be a step too far. Roscoe, Sian and Jay faced Corstorphine at home for their first taste of Division 4 action – Jay showed promise with two wins and Sian added 1 in a 7-3 loss. Sian and Jay were joined by John Bald in their Week 2 visit to Edinburgh University and a cracking night was had by all as the visitors recorded a 7-3 victory. In Week 3, Roscoe was back in action with Sian and Jay as they hosted Murrayfield. The tone for the night was set in matches 1 and 2 as Jay came back from the dead for an 11-9 fifth end win and Sian once again proved that she likes getting her money’s worth – a four end victory but the fourth end was won 23-21! Three of the four five end matches went the way of the hosts as they recorded an excellent 9-1 victory. Who said Div 4 would be too difficult – it took them all season last year to record 4 points – they’ve done it this year in 3 weeks!!
And so, to our Player of the Week Awards! Shockingly, our Reporter has been AWOL in Weeks 1 and 2 so we have a bumper 3 awards to deal with. Only our Team 3 players were undefeated in Week 1. Difficult to split them but having missed most of last season, it was good to see Charlie back and his 3 wins were secured in rapid fashion. Well done to Charlie, our first weekly winner.
Week 2 saw undefeated nights for Bob, Krzysztof, and Jay. Jay lost four ends on the night so a great week for him but he’s out of the running. Bob won 9 ends and lost 3 as did Mr Scrabble Man! How do we split them? Bob won in the doubles whilst Krzysztof lost – he says though that was all down to the fault of his partner, Gary – harsh! Statistically, Krzysztof’s win was more important to the team – a 6-4 win for Team 2 opposed to a 7-3 win for Team 3. But hey we can’t split them, so in a change from tradition, we’re going to come back to the Week 2 award and give it to whichever one of them wins the derby encounter in Week 4!
Onto Week 3 and it gets even more difficult – undefeated nights for Hannah, Ben, Jay and Roscoe. In terms of ends dropped it was Hannah who topped the pile with the loss of only 1 end. In any other week she’d be a certainty for the award – she also managed to keep James calm in the team’s match against University (more on that later)! Ben’s 3 was clearly the most important to the overall results in Week 3 – a 5-5 draw for Team 4 and without that undefeated night and a win in the doubles, Team 4 would have suffered a loss. Jay’s three included a comeback from 5-1 down in the fifth end and set the tone for Team 5’s victory. But, the award this week has to go to Team 5 Captain, Roscoe – he started to play in the League in the 22/23 season and in his previous two seasons he’s been close on a number of occasions to having an unbeaten night. But on his 29th appearance for the club he did it – and in some style in a division he didn’t want to play in! Well done Roscoe.
Finally, our controversy of the week section. Let’s start with the most recent controversy and a shout out to our University opponents in Team 2’s match last Friday. We were delighted to hear from Hannah that the Uni boys had mentioned to her how disappointed they were not to have read any PTTC Reports yet this season – they were missing them. Jings our following has increased by 2 or 3 players it seems! Just for them they take centre stage this week with an issue that arose when James was warming up against his first opponent. James noticed some “funny rubber” on his opponent’s bat and asked what was being used. “I don’t need to tell you that”, came the response. James, somewhat surprised, then asked to see the bat – absolutely no problem with that. He then asked upon examining the bat whether what he was looking at was short or long pimples – the same response to the initial question came back at him. And despite James perhaps being a little irritated by the replies, his young opponent was of course entirely correct. Rule 2.4.8 of the ITTF Laws of Table Tennis states that at the beginning of a match…. a player shall show his opponent and the umpire the racket he is about to use and shall allow them to examine it. That’s all a player has to do. It’s then up to the other player to try and work out what he/she is looking at! If you still don’t know by the time the first end is over get one of your teammates to google it!
There was also an incident later in the night when James was warned about throwing the ball up properly at service – he lost focus and had a bit of an argument – not sure if he realised his opponent is the new League Match Secretary! Don’t have fall outs with him James! According to Hannah, however, there was no real animosity in anything that happened, and her view of the Uni opponents was that all three of them, Richard, Joel and Enrique, were “lovely guys” who she got on really well with. Maybe she was just hoping that her team members were more like the students, rather than Ian and James with a combined age of 127!
There was, however, some real tension apparently in Team 4’s visit to the Gyle last Friday. Ben had a terrific night winning his three in a 5-5 draw. After he had won his first match 3-0, the Murrayfield umpire proceeded to tell Ben how some of his serves were illegal and were giving him “free points” every game! Really? Why wait until after the match was over? What good does that do anyone? He then complained about the serves again, after he had lost his match to Ben! Again, if you are going to raise an issue don’t wait until there is nothing that can be done about it. The alleged service problem is one of our favourites – not throwing the ball up straight enough! The rule says the server shall project the ball “near vertically upwards”, without imparting spin, so that it rises at least 16cm after leaving the palm of the free hand…”
What does “near vertically upwards” actually mean? Amazon have digital Angle finders for purchase these days – maybe they should be added to an umpire’s toolkit! Like all matches, there are always two sides to every story but according to our team, the player who was complaining certainly did not have “legal serves” all the time. Apparently the ball wasn’t thrown up the desired 16cm. So, protractors and rulers need added to players’ Xmas lists!
It was a complete coincidence that John then packed away in his bag one of the Murrayfield players bats! Fortunately, Team 4 couldn’t escape from the Gyle late on a Friday night and had to come back for help to get out and the missing bat was discovered at that stage!!
Ah it’s good to be back – was it too early to mention Xmas? Surely not – only 78 days left!
RSS Feed
