Ayr Cricket Club end Scottish Cup with home defeat by Forfarshire

Jul 20 2012 by Mike WIlson, Ayrshire Post (main ed)

AYR Cricket Club beat the weather at last – but not Forfarshire as they ended their Scottish Cup campaign with a 39 run defeat at home.

The visitors batted first and scored 225-7 in their 50 overs with Scotland international Matty Parker top scoring with 57.

Ayr’s reply was always up with the required run rate but the loss of wickets at regular intervals meant they fell 39 runs short with more than seven of their allocated overs remaining.

There were useful contributions from Mark Renny, Callum McLaughlin and Neil Logan who got into the 30s but were not able to go on and make the big score required to see Ayr over the winning line.

The Cambusdoon XI lost away to Prestwick in the Western Cup. Put into bat, they scored 186 with Luke Speirs leading with 75 and good support from Niall McCrossin (21) and Robbie Henderson (28). Mitchell Rao took four wickets.

In reply, Prestwick clinched victory at 187-8 with nine overs to spare. Top scores came from Gurapreet Singh (43) and Mikey Miller (50). There were two wickets each for Ross McKelvie, Robbie Henderson and Callum Gordon.

Ayrshire under 14s beat Dumfries and Galloway in the Area Championship at Prestwick on Sunday.

Ayrshire raced to 232-5 with Shujaa Khan top scoring with 71. He got excellent support for Callum Henderson (54), Harry Lynch (44 n.o.) and Jonathon Baines (27). In reply, Dumfries and Galloway were bowled out for 93 with Rory Parker taking 3-10.

After a superb effort by Rick McElnea and his groundstaff at Cambusdoon last Thursday, Scotland were able to play their World Cricket League match against Canada.

The Canadians were bowled out for 176, a total the Scots reached for the loss of six wickets. Callum McLeod top scored with 99 not out.

This weekend sees Local Life Ayr head to West of Scotland at Hamilton Crescent in the league while the Cambusdoon XI take on Partick.

MGM Prestwick were left idle again when their final Scottish Cup qualifying match away to SMRH was washed out the day before.

Earlier, Prestwick crashed out of the West League Cup when they lost at home to Hillhead.

Kevin Lawler hit 40 of Prestwick’s 99-7 but Hillhead, who were inspired by their pro, clinched a five wicket win with 14 deliveries to spare.

The under 18 Frank Smith Trophy match, which was due on Wednesday against Poloc at home, was postponed because Prestwick’s Mikey Miller, James Pettigrew, Mitchell Rao and Andrew Baillie were on inter district duty with Western Warriors.

Prestwick under 15s are only three games away from the UK finals. Their first test is against the winners from Cumbria at the Oval on Sunday.

The 18s beat Ferguslie by seven wickets on Monday. Ferguslie made 58-6 with Andrew Baillie and Samantha Haggo both taking two wicket. Prestwick replied at 59-3 (Ross {Patterson 21 not out, Chris Scott 20).

The 13s hit 103 against Stirling (David Miller 26, Rory Parker 25) and then held them to 77-7 with James Miller taking 2-4 off four overs.

Fixtures: Thursday: U13s ‘B’: v Ayr, eight-a-side friendly (h); Friday: U15s v Clydesdale (h), U11s v Clydesdale (a); Saturday: 1st X1 v Weirs (a), sponsored by Bryson’s Car Centre; St Ninians X1 v Albert Park (h), sponsored by Jim Boyce; Monday: U18s v Clydesdale (h), U13s v Ferguslie (a); Tuesday: 1st X1 v Poloc (a).