IT WAS a disappointing week for Ayr cricketers as they travelled twice to Paisley to take on Ferguslie and came away defeated on both occasions.

On Wednesday they were on quarter final action in the McCulloch Cup.

The home team batted first and got off to a flying start with Stafford and Ahmad putting on 69 for the first wicket until both were dismissed by Duanne Grobler. Another good stand between Moses and Ghaffar kept the momentum going for Ferguslie until they became two of Hamza Tahir’s three wickets, with the innings ending on 155-5.

The Ayr innings got off to a decent start but as has been happening in recent games they lost wickets in pairs, firstly English and Flack in the same over and the McElnea brothers both departing within the space of six balls to leave them on 59-4.

Michael Miller (32) and Duanne Grobler then started a slight recovery but once they departed and with the required run rate increasing the lower order batmen toiled and they were bowled out for 115.

On Saturday in the Western Union Ferguslie again prevailed. As with Wednesday the home team batted first and were restricted to 168-9 by some good accurate bowling with Robbie Walsh claiming 3-35 and two wickets apiece for Andi McElnea and Neil Flack.

When they came to bat Ayr did not make a great start losing four quick wickets with only 30 on the board. Micheal English (24) and Michael Miller (32) then produced a slight recovery only for English to fall with the total on 99 and then Miller was run out shortly after following a miscommunication with Scott McElnea, who himself was soon to follow as they were bowled out for 127 and lose by 41 runs.

The Cambusdoon XI continued their recent good run with a comfortable victory over Meiklriggs. The visitors won the batted but were soon in trouble as Cammy Forsyth removed the off stump of the experienced Preston-Jones with only five on the board. The visitors then recovered with the only meaningful stand of the innings between Tufail and Tahir only Qasim to dismiss Tahir and then the following over Malik to reduce them to 50-3. Mikey Maxwell who has the past few weeks been the star with the bat then showed his promise as a leg spinner as he claimed four wickets and help bowl them out for 112.

For the first time in a few weeks the Cambusdoon young guns who have been scoring runs for fun had an off day and it was left to the ‘oldies’ to see them over the line with Steve Baker and Ross Mitchell both scoring 21 and Richie Borland after a sedate start scoring 43 off 30 balls as they raced to victory with almost 17 overs to spare.

On Tuesday night the Cambusdoon XI travelled to Glasgow to take on Partick in the Quarter Final of the Western Cup. Partick batted first and posted a challenging total of 147-6. In reply Cambusdoon were always behind the required run rate and ended up 30 runs short of their target on 118-6 with useful contributions from Mikey Maxwell 30no and Richie Borland 29.

The Development XI travelled to Irvine on Sunday League duty and fell to a narrow four run defeat.

Chasing the home teams 188-5 the reply was centred around the innings of Bobby Walker-Lynch (69) and Mikey Maxwell (59no) who sadly ran out of partners as they were bowled out for 183.

This weekend sees Ayr take on West of Scotland in the Western Union and on Sunday the Cambusdoon XI play host to Partick.

On Monday and Saturday Cambusdoon XI plays host to Nepal and Namibia in the ICC Cricket World League 2. Both countries being involved in the Tri Angular series with Scotland.