Published: Tuesday, 30th December, 2008 4:00pm

Year of joy for Ayr RFC

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Looking back on the last column of 2007, exactly a year ago, makes interesting reading.

Then, Ayr were in third place in Premier 1, hoping for a top half finish and a decent cup run.

Boroughmuir were 21 points ahead at the top of the table, Currie were second and Ayr were one point behind them.

As it turned out, Boroughmuir did clinch the title, at Millbrae of all places.

Ayr ended up in the top half of the table and the cup run came to and end in the quarter finals in that well remembered clash with Heriots, again at Millbrae.

With practically the same squad, Ayr now sit 10 points clear of Heriots at the top of Scottish Hydro Electric Premier division 1 with a game in hand and fourteen points ahead of Selkirk in third place - so what has changed because it certainly has not been the squad in any significant way.?

The new laws have certainly helped, Kenny Murray has built on the foundations laid by Craig Redpath and has the team playing the style of rugby the former coach envisaged after the honeymoon pre-season trip to Clontarf only to have that ambition destroyed by long term injuries to key players while this season the team, with the exception of the injury to Scott Forrest, has managed to steer clear of serious harm.

There are three significant factors which have had a big influence on Ayr"s success this season though.

In the draft pick of pro players, Murray was very shrewd in his selection, picking quality players who were always going to be on the fringe of the Glasgow Warriors squad but would be readily available. Therefore Scott Forrest, Callum Forrester and on a couple of occasions Ruraidh Jackson have been included in the squad.

This season also saw the return from injury of Andy Dunlop, Paul Burke and from even longer term injury, Gordon Sykes.

In the match against Watsonians, just when Ayr were getting on top, off the bench came Glen Tippett, Burke and Sykes and with three such seasoned warriors replacing players who had already made their mark, you could almost see the Watsonians heads go down. The strength of the bench has been incalculable.

Thirdly, Ayr have uncovered a real gem in stand off Frazier Climo.

The young Taranaki No10 has scored over one hundred and seventy of Ayr"s 434 points, an invaluable contribution in itself but it doesn"t stop there.

With a quality player like Climo partnering the irrepressible AJ McFarlane at half back, players like Richard McCallum and Julian Montoro, another broken leg returnee, have blossomed, particularly McCallum, who must, along with McFarlane, consider himself desperately unlucky not to be included in the Scotland club international squad along with selected team mates Gordon Reid, Damien Kelly, Scott Sutherland, Paul Burke and Andy Dunlop.

Your correspondent wishes the team and the club every success and to those readers who can bear to peruse these scribblings each week, a happy, peaceful and healthy 2009.