Murrayfield VI

• Charlie Ellis  3
• Alex Asyunkin 3
  
• Ian Robertson 0
  

 West Lothian III

• Kevin Milne 1
• Keith Mackay 1
• Zbigniew Strzyewski 1
  

A good win against a strong West Lothian team who have been leading the Division since the start of the season.

Firstly Charlie played solidly to beat Kevin Milne in three ends (Kevin was Div 2 champion on Sunday and had only lost 1 of his 27 matches this season but was out of rhythm with his dangerous forehand). Then, after losing the first end, Alex got his looping going and overcame Keith’s blocking game.
Ian was off form and feeling unwell and wasn’t able to cope with Zbigniew’s varying spins (nor the lights in the ceiling). This made it clear that the overall result would depend on the results achieved by Alex and Charlie.

Alex did well to beat Kevin; taking the 4th 14-12 just as Kevin was threatening a comeback. Charlie then struggled against Zbigniew and was a bit fortunate that his opponent’s play dropped off in the 3rd and 4th ends.
Charlie and Alex then had the chance to secure at least a draw- in the doubles- but were unable to maintain a decent level.  In a close deciding end, Charlie played some loose forehands and the Murrayfield pair lost out to the determined play of Kevin and Keith.

In the two final matches (played concurrently due to time constraints), Alex maintained his 100 per cent record in Div 2 matches with victory in a tense 5 -setter with Zbigniew; at the same time Charlie was consistent enough with his BH to beat Keith in 3.
Team VI will hope to maintain their recent form in another key match-next Thurs away to Corstorphine 2.
 

  Match played on Dec 10th at Bathgate Academy (despite being a Murrayfield 'home' match: the game was moved to thew Thursday at short notice-the reverse fixture will probably be at Murrayfield).