ELTTL Matches round up- Week 28th November 2022- 2nd December 2022

Last week was a busy week for West Lothian Team II with two league matches.

First up was an away trip to an experienced Edinburgh International II team and a hard fought 6-4 win with both Mark and Jamie winning their 3 single matches. Jamie benefitting from some good coaching from Callum in the final game to clinch the victory.

The following night the team faced a home match to the league leaders Corstorphine I and in a tight match they secured a 5-5 draw. Wociech was the star man for the team on the night with 3 single victories. Jamie and Woicech clinched a five  set victory in the doubles 12-10 in the final set which helped secure a draw against a team who had not dropped a point all season. The Videos below, show Jamie and Woicech play in the doubles and Jamie against Corstorphine’s Yantao. The West Lothian Team II currently sit 4th in Division 1 6 points behind league leaders Corstorphine I but are looking forward to the second half of the season.

Tommy , Club Member

Last week was also a busy week for West Lothian Team V

In a very tight match on Thursday evening 1st December 2022, West Lothian V maintained their unbeaten record of 10 matches in Division IV with a hard fought draw 5-5 against a Murrayfield team of 2 up and coming youngsters in Max Wall and Angus Halliday and a very competent attacking player in Douglas Kinloch.

The match was very close in the first 6 games with the score at 3-3 with Max Wall causing problems for Martin ( who hadn’t checked what rubbers Max was using on his bat) and Mei discovering part way through her match that it was pimples on the red rubber). Both of our top players were well beaten by young Max. Mei had a tense 5 setter with Angus who plays a heavy topspin game but got the better of the young player keeping the ball on the table countering the topspin with a combination of blocks and well placed attacking forehands in the fifth end. Martin and Lionel both came out on top in their matches against Douglas in matches which were a pleasure with open attacking play.

This meant we went into the doubles which could prove critical in the outcome of the match. Unfortunately Lionel and Martin lost out in the fifth end allowing the two younger players to get the better of them with their use of spin and topspin causing both players problems.

This left three matches with Mei taking on and beating Douglas and a tense 5 setter for Lionel against Max who was unbeaten on the night eventually winning well in the fifth end. West Lothian V needed a win in the last match of the evening with Martin taking on young Angus. Martin went into the game using his fast pendulum serve to the backhand and finding this to be the best option with varying serves, but all designed to stop the topspin game coming into play. On the night the fast serves proved vital in allowing  Martin to smash his forehands past his opponent and win 3-0.

Over the first half of this season West Lothian V have been able to maintain an unbeaten run of ten matches with one left against Haddington VII on Tuesday evening. The mainstay of the team has been the steady and calm influence of Mei taking pressure off Martin allowing him to relax and play his attacking style when allowed by his opponent, helped over the first half of the season by Neil, Lionel, Jim and Anais to keep us joint top of the table with Corstorphine IV. This sets up the beginning of the second half of the season as our first match on Tuesday 10th January is against joint leaders Corstorphine IV. There are also at least 3 other teams looking to upset the apple cart and give us a hard time.

Martin, Chair

WLCTTC TEAM V

Best of luck to all the West Lothian Teams playing next week!