SATURDAY saw the start of the 2017 season with Ayr away to Stirling County to play for the Iffla Trophy.

The match was originally scheduled to be played at Cambusdoon, but was moved to Stirling after the heavy midweek rain.

In cold and blustery conditions Ayr won the toss and elected to field and made an early breakthrough with captain Shujja Khan removing his opposite number Matthew Tweedie for 10. Pushkar Bhandari then struck with his first ball to remove Graeme Taylor (34) before Johnny Baines induced an edge from Gavin Anderson to give 14-year-old debutant Richie Simpson his first victim behind the stumps. A stand of 141 between Jones (112) and Rowal (54) took the game away from Ayr, before a flurry of wickets towards the end of the innings saw Stirling close on 276-7. Bhandari finishing with 4-61 and Baines 2-39.

In reply, Ayr were always struggling with wickets falling at regular intervals. Richie Simpson continued his impressive debut top scoring with a patient 31 opening the innings. The other batsmen mostly made a start but were unable to produce a big innings required to reach their target as they eventually were bowled out for 172.

This weekend sees the final pre-season friendlies with Uddingston visiting Cambusdoon on Saturday and Shawholm on Sunday.

This Friday also sees the juniors resuming at 6.30pm with a warm welcome to anyone interested in coming along to give it a try.