Titwood turned up to Ayr to find a road waiting for them, after they got out of the traffic jam on the road. Given the pitch, Cambusdoon unsurprisingly chose to bat. (Titwood would have bowled first anyway – 1) to ensure they won or went down fighting, thus taking the draw out the equation and 2) because when at Ayr , always bat first so that the excellent tea can be enjoyed more!)
Titwood debutant Ryan Wilson bowled well and picked up the first wicket, with one that nipped back in to destroy middle stump. Johnny MacKay also started well and induced a rash drive and outside edge which was snaffled by Craig Smith. Then Renny and McCrossin (N) built a good partnership. Their considerable first team experience put Titwood under pressure and gave them their first real test of the season – not just one good batter, but two…and running well and aggressively too. Tim Hart nipped both out at key times, one clean bowled and the other thanks to a smart stumping from Smitt. Another wicket for Tim (chopped on) brought youngsters McLaughlin and Leck together for Cambusdoon, and provided Titwood with real test number 2. The youngsters batted well, and as the Titwood fielding threatened to become horrendously terrible, Tim started ranting at anyone that would listen. If in the Cambusdoon scorer’s eyes Tim “lost the plot” who knows what he thought of Neil Fulton , who was understandably slightly irritated, after his 3 overs were hacked, slogged, chipped anywhere but to fielders – 3 overs for 25, not really doing Neil any justice whatsoever. With Johnny MacKay re-introduced to the attack, the breakthrough came, thanks to Zulfiqar Shahid’s safe hands on the deep midwicket boundary. Ryan Wilson also returned to bowl a decent spell at the death as Cambusdoon scored 227/6 off their 50. At one point, Titwood fancied bundling them out for 175, but given the road anything under 250 was a good effort from the bowlers – Johnny’s 11-2-40-2 and Tim’s 15-1-52-3 being the pick.
After a typically enjoyable tea, Titwood settled down to watch Haroon Sher and Zulfi knock off the runs. A decent start was made until Zulfi, often the victim of some shockers, must have got a candidate for worst one of his career. It was “lbw”. It was so not! Only the bowler half appealed, and apart from the ball pitching outside leg, going further down, and all other 10 Cambusdoon players admitting it was never out, it was a good shout. The umpires…neutral! Well, life sucks! Haroon then hit a low full toss to cover’s hands and Craig Smith was “lbw” at the same end…we’re not even going to start on this one! 55/3 after 18 overs, and Sam Page was joined by Andrew Scobie . And how well they would bat. Sam was dropped caught and bowled 2nd ball and made Cambusdoon pay. Scobie wouldn’t even give a chance. Both reached 50, the hundred partnership came up and suddenly, it was down to 7 an over for the last 10, with 7 wickets in hand. The pair just kept batting and batting, and suddenly the only question was could one/both get to three figures? Not quite. As both ran out of runs. Sam finishing 88* and Scobie 91*. For Sam the highlight was his driving and for Scobie his cover and lofted on-driving. For Sam it was business as usual, continuing his great form which has seen him become such a crucial piece of Titwood’s make-up with the bat and for Scobie it was the continuation of his good week’s work in Guernsey, where you could really see him transform himself from a clean and effective hitter and worker of the ball into a genuine batsman. His excellent cover driving was the real proof of this. A 177 unbroken partnership, at arguably the most crucial moment of the season for Titwood…and from guys with a combined age of 34 – just a joy to watch. (If only Scobie could have turned up with Neil and Smitt before 1pm, maybe the game could have started on time. On that note, special thanks to Ayr for being so understanding about the terrible traffic jam, which saw a 45 minute journey turn into more like 1hr 15 mins.)…what might have been had the skipper remembered to bat Scobie at 11 for leaving Glasgow well after the 11am meet time!
Next up, is a trip to Anniesland.
