COUNTY TEAM MATCHES - Mixed fortunes for Ayrshire teams in season openers

The Ayrshire team at Portpatrick

Two Ayrshire county teams had mixed fortunes on Sunday 25th March when they competed in the opening fixtures of the 2018 season for the county sides.


A combined boys and youths side traveled to Portpartick golf club to take on the South of Scotland in the annual match for the Centenary Trophy, looking to extend their winning run, but lost out narrowly in a close and exciting encounter.

In the morning foursomes, Ayrshire forged a 3.5 - 2.5 lead but went down by 7 - 5 in the afternoon singles, winning just one of the three singles ties which went to the final hole, which allowed the South of Scotland team to regain the trophy with an overall win by 9.5 - 8.5.

Match details (South of Scotland names first):-

MORNING FOURSOMES

The winning South of Scotland team

Sam Mitchell & Ciaran Howat halved with Ben Watson & Ross McDonald
Kaleb Johnston & David Sharp beat Jack Allan & John McCracken by 2&1
Mitchell Cowie & Finlay Copland beat Alyx Murray & Sean Addie by 5&4
Taylor Kerr & Callum McMillan lost to Ewan Milligan & Kieran Beauchamp by 3&2
Alex Long & Dylan Cairnie lost to Shaun Hedger & Robbie Muir by 2&1
Iain Rae & Nathan Watson lost to Greg Telfer & Sandy Walker by 6&5

AFTERNOON SINGLES

Sam Mitchell beat Ross McDonald by 3&2
Kaleb Johnston lost to Ben watson by 271
Ciaran Howat lost to John McCracken by 5&3
David Sharp beat Jack Allan by 1 hole
Mitchell Cowie beat Alyx Murray by 3&2
Taylor Kerr beat Ewan Milligan by 1 hole
Finlay Copland beat Kieran Beauchamp by 3&2
Callum McMillan lost to Sean Addie by 3&2
Dylan Cairnie beat Robbie Muir by 2&1
Alex Long beat Sandy Walker by 2&1
Iain Rae lost to Shaun Hedger by 1 hole
Nathan Watson lost to Greg Telfer by 2&1

SOUTH OF SCOTLAND       9.5         AYRSHIRE         8.5


The A team played a foursomes match against Royal Troon on Sunday, with the county side running out narrow winners by 2.5 - 1.5.

Match details (Royal Troon names first):-

Michael Smyth and Peter McEvoy  lost to Euan Walker and Jim Johnston by 7 & 6

Paul Moultrie and John Finnigan lost to Stuart Robin and Steven Wallace by 1 hole

Robert Jenkins and Stephen Spence halved with Tommy McInally and Craig Hamilton

John Rushbury and Stephen Machin beat Scott Brown and John Shanks by 4 & 3

ROYAL TROON      1.5        AYRSHIRE         2.5

The match between the Scratch League Division 1 winners, Prestwick St Cuthbert, and the county A team which was schedukled to be played on Sunday 18th March was postponed due to frosty conditions and has been rescheduled for Sunday 22nd April.