TROON TORNADOES" senior men"s game against Edinburgh Kings was cancelled, with less than 24 hours notice, due to unavailability of Portobello High School. This was a blow to Tornadoes not only as they had prepared hard during the week for the crunch game but also because they had arranged for centre Tom Pearson to fly up from London for the game. There is no guarantee that the club willl manage to have Pearson available when the fixture is re-arranged. With the junior team having no national league fixture the cadets then had centre stage at the weekend . They hosted Grampian Flyers on Saturday at Marr College hoping to make it six wins from six games, and qualify for the National League proper with a 100 per cent win record.

An excellent start for the home team playing full court, aggressive defence allowed an early 14-2 lead to be taken. Grampian called time out to try and cope with Troon"s pressure, however it was Troon who came firing out of the blocks again straight after the time out and went on to finish the quarter strong, leading 28 - 15, Sam Jack ending the quarter with 11 points.

During the second quarter, Troon coach Scott Robertson was able to utilise his bench players and get everyone in the game at an early stage. All players coming off the bench performed very well and allowed Troon to stretch their lead to 56 - 28 at the half.

A loss of focus and concentration in the third quarter saw Troon only putting 13 points on the board, where their opponents outscored them, scoring 15. The third period ending 69-43 in favour of Troon.

With the visiting team starting to run out of steam in the fourth quarter, Troon stepped up their transition offence, looking to run the floor as quickly as possible, and were rewarded with a string of fast break baskets one after another. An excellent final quarter for Troon saw them extend their lead and finish the game winners by a score of 104-55.

Coach Robertson was delighted with the effort from all his players, and in particular Chris Savage (under 15) and Joshua McGilvery (under 14) showing what a talent they are for the future.

Team: Mark Jenkins (2 points), Scott Armstrong (3 points), Josh Hunter (5 points), Steven Nicholson, Ross Conquer (3 points), Ross Cruickshanks (2 points), Sam Jack (32 points), Joshua McGilvery (15 points), Jordan McIlwraith (16 points), Connor McQuade (2 points), Harvie Baker Flanagan (11 points), Chris Savage (13 points). Next Saturday the Tornadoes juniors host Glasgow Rens in the Scottish Cup (1.30 pm tip off at Marr College) and the men are away to Glasgow Storm in the national league. This promises to be a cracker as Tornadoes were fortunate to come out with a 54-53 win when the teams met earlier in the season at the Citadel leisure centre in Ayr. Two local sides clash at Marr College next Saturday when Tornadoes mens Strathclyde team host Ayr Storm.