Volleyball: Troon men score their biggest win in 17 years

Oct 7 2011 by Mike WIlson, Ayrshire Post (main ed)

TROON volleyball men have started the season with the biggest win in their 17 year history.

They beat last year’s Scottish title runners-up Kilmarnock 3-2 in a Scottish First Division derby at Belmont Academy.

Included in the Troon six were a 15, 16 and two 17-year-olds led ably by the more experienced Gordon Cree and Graeme Houston. They were playing against six current or former Scottish internationals.

Troon started brilliantly, controlled passing was being turned into great attacking ball by Grant Gwynne which enabled the offence to be in the ascendancy.

Callum Gwynne and Graeme Houston hit winners almost at will as Troon took the first set 25-22.

A tight second set saw Troon win26-24 with the aid of good passing by Scott Wilson and fine middle hitting from Cree and Ross McKelvie.

The third set went point for point but a few errors crept in as Killie upped the ante with Stuart Edgar becoming more successful at the net and what could have been a 3-0 victory now became a2-1 match as Killie won 25-20.

It was all Killie now and the fourth set shot away from Troon by 25-14.

A readjustment of line up saw Troon get off to a flyer leading 5-0 but they managed only to turn at 8-7 ahead and were pegged back to 13-13. A hard fought 14th point was won by Troon and the Troon support went daft as Gwynne hit a fantastic winning smash to clinch the set 15-13 and with it the match.

A great start to the season but Troon will need to be at their best to beat newly promoted South Ayrshire at Prestwick Academy.

Troon women's top team beat their newly promoted second team 25-15,25-11, 25-18 in the Scottish First Division. The seconds fought hard with a mixture of well organised and inspired defence and good setting from Eilidh Cruse and Natalie Caldwell and some smart hitting from Katie Barbour, Alison Duncan, Kayleigh Flynn and Alyson Jones.

The first team was Elaine Krawczyk, Caroline Clayton, Jenny Jones, Jenny Krawczyk, Kay Wheatley, Hazel Gow, Gillian Lyall, Linsey Bunten and Steph McCall.

Troon one face South Ayrshire on Saturday with the seconds away to North Lanarkshire.

The men's second team lost 3-2 to Edinburgh Jets third team in the Scottish Third Division at Belmont.Although Troon had a very young team, they really should have won.

They lost the first set 25-13 and despite playing some nice volleyball, they lacked the drive to finish off their much more experienced rivals and lost the second and third sets both by26-24.

Eventually, they settled and Ross Duncan, Stuart Morrison and Ciaran Lapsley began to hit a lot of winners while Matt Russell's setting became more accurate to ensure that the fourth set ( 25-22) and the fifth (15-11) went to Troon. Too little too late though.

Lorn Shanks was Troon's best player as he was as solid as a rock throughout while Marcus Couling gave a very steady performance.

Mike Heaney, as Troon's most experienced player on court, did his best to lift the boys but they just fell short. The team travel to play Lenzie on Saturday.