Penicuik table tennis reports

Iain Johnstone, who was again undefeated in Penicuik 3's win against Edinburgh International.

In the Premier Division, Penicuik 1 of Greig McDonell, Colin Green and Stuart Gow faced an away tie against second placed Edinburgh Sports Club in confident mood following an excellent win against the fourth placed team the previous week.

That confidence quickly evaporated as the first six matches of the night all went the way of the home side. Colin and Greig who have an excellent doubles record secured another doubles victory but by then the match was well and truly over. Only one further win on the night resulted in a disappointing 8-2 defeat.

Penicuik 2 also faced Edinburgh Sports Club opposition in Division 1. The teams couldn’t be any further apart in the division with the Penicuik trio of James Wighton, Gary Mcdougal and Abby Wighton rooted to the bottom of the league some 11 places and 24 points behind ESC who lead the division.

It was no surprise therefore that the contest was a fairly one sided one as Gary produced the only win for the visitors in their 9-1 loss.

Meanwhile in Division 1, Penicuik’s third team of Clive Liddiard, Iain Johnstone and Brian Bailey faced a home match against Edinburgh International 3 who were disadvantaged from the outset by only being able to field a two man team.

The home side took advantage as both Iain and Clive were undefeated in their 7-3 victory, a result which leaves the Penicuik side in fifth place in the division, their highest position of the season.

Penicuik 4 continue to push for promotion via the playoffs and they maintained their second place in Division 2 following an excellent 8-2 victory against Corstorphine 3.

After a somewhat indifferent performance in Week 22, Chris Markey returned to form as he was undefeated in singles play and combined with Tony Brentnall for a win in the doubles. Krzysztof Laszkiewicz and Tony both added two singles wins in a solid team performance.

The Team face two crucial matches next week, one of which is against their closest rivals for second spot in the Division, Fife 2.

In Division 3, in the continued absence of their number one, Gregory Leplatre, Penicuik 5, called on the services of Craig Johnson from Division 4 to join regulars John Bald and Phil Daly in their away match against North Merchiston 4. Only John troubled the scorers as the visitors went down to a 9-1 defeat..

In Division 4, Penicuik 6’s great run of form stalled against North Merchiston 5. Still missing their regular third player, Louis McLeod through injury, the two youngsters, Luke Hennessy and Louis Myatt have been in excellent form in recent weeks but their luck ran out in Week 23 as Louis suffered a dip in form only winning one singles match. Luke was undefeated on the night but the duo fell short of at least point as they lost the crucial doubles resulting in an unfortunate 6-4 defeat.

Finally in a busy week for the Club Penicuik 8 took on West Lothian 9 at Ladywood. Martyn Levy, Sean Lennon and Kathryn McKenzie were never in the match and their 10-0 defeat, coupled with three wins in a row for bottom placed Haddington results in the Penicuik team finding themselves at the foot of the table with three matches remaining.