Pool: Ayr Premier Taxis League

Nov 27 2009 by Mike WIlson, Ayrshire Post (main ed)

PLAYERS from the Ayr Premier Taxis League battled to the semi-finals of the Scottish League Championships Super 15s at Craig Tara when 48 teams from all over Scotland took part.

In the round robin group stages, the Ayr team did well to finish second in their group behind Arbroath but ahead of teams from Livingston, Central Ayrshire, Doon Valley, Falkirk, Edinburgh and Dumfries.

In the knockout stages on Sunday morning, Ayr were up against Kilsyth in the last 16. Ayr edged a close match 8-6 with Donald Brown taking out a great finish to win the match. This put Ayr into the quarter-finals against one of the pre-tournament favourites, Paisley.

Another close match ensued and with the scores tied at 6-6, Gordon Murray took away a clinical finish and then team captain Stuart Boyd kept his cool to clinch an 8-6 victory.

In the semi-final, Ayr came up against the Glasgow team, who were the tournament favourites due a high number of professional and international standard players playing for them. The Ayr team came up short against them, losing 8-3.

Glasgow went on to win the event, beating Uddingston 8-3 in the final. However, well done to the Ayr Premier Taxis Pool League select team for an excellent tournament, and a special mention to young Stuart McCulloch, who won six games out of seven and Hugh Thomson, who won eight out of 10 for Ayr.

Vulcan Tavern beat Toll Bar 5-4 in an exciting final of the ‘B’ League Cup in the Ship Inn last Friday night.

Ship Inn Cup, first round: Ship ‘B’ 6, Flloyds ‘B’ 3; High Society 4, Corner Pocket 5; Vulcan 6, Ship ‘A’ 3; Glenburn 5, White Horse 4; Tumilty's 4, Flloyds ‘A’ 5; Drouthy ‘A’ 3, Drouthy ‘B’ 6; Millers 1, Cassillis 8; Horse Shoe 7, Toll Bar 2.

Quarter-finals tonight (Thursday) are: Cassillis v Vulcan, Ship ‘B’ v Corner Pocket, Flloyds ‘A’ v Glenburn, Drouthy ‘B’ v Horse Shoe.

The ‘A’ League Cup final takes place in the Ship Inn from 8pm on Friday between Ship ‘A’ and the Cassillis.