Greenock look to do the double over Ayr

Greenock make the journey down the coast on Saturday to play Ayr at New Cambusdoon in a match in which the Glenparkers will be keen to do well. Earlier in the season, Greenock gained a fine, if perhaps somewhat unexpected, win over the Ayshire side when they met at Glenpark and a repeat performance would be very welcome.

Last Saturday, of course, saw Greenock lose to bottom of the table Kelburne at Glenpark and the result plunged the local side into a relegation battle with second bottom East Kilbride.

However, Greenock have played well against the top sides and earlier in July toppled the then league leaders Uddingston and so have shown that they have the ability within their side to put in match winning performances against the best in the Premier Division.

Key for Greenock on Saturday at Ayr will be their batting. Getting off to a sound start with the top order building good partnerships will be important as too frequently Greenock have found themselves several wickets down in the early part of their innings which then puts pressure on the remaining batsmen. Run-scoring has been an all too regular problem during the season and the lack of decent scores has cost the Glenpark side dearly on several occasions.

Having done well and scored a lot of runs in the first part of the season, Neil Flack has had a lean time in recent weeks and will be keen to get back into run scoring mode at Ayr, and the wicket at New Cambusdoon could well assist him in doing so. It is usually a good batting track and large scores are quite common.

Louis Ware and Harry Briggs, two of Greenock's brightest young teenage prospects, have also had a dip in form and need to work hard on Saturday to get their batting game back to where it was in May and early June. Briggs was the backbone of Greenock's win against Ayr at Glenpark when he batted deep into the innings and scored a very valuable 58 runs.

Others in the Glenparkers line-up must also show much more application and be willing to tough out time in the middle in order to build partnerships and so develop an innings total which will challenge their opponents or guide the side to the target which they are chasing.

Greenock's young Australian overseas player, Kyle Scrimegour, has had a number of good scores during the season without producing any major match-winning innings. New Cambusdoon will be one of the few wickets in the west of Scotland where he may find the ball coming on to the bat a bit more like he is used to 'Down Under', and so he too could find that a big score is on the cards on Saturday.

The experience of Shailesh Prabhu may also play an important role for Greenock. The former captain opened the batting for a number of years and it may be that he returns to that position to try and get the innings off to a sound start. Also, likely to move up the order is current team captain, Jonathan Hempsey, who came in at number six last Sunday in the cup match against Poloc and scored an impressive twenty five runs.

WDCU CSL Premier Division Table

Ayr are sitting on third top spot in the Premier Division just less than ten percent behind current leaders Prestwick and will be very keen to get a winning result themselves from Saturday's game. As always, they will rely to a large extent on the performance of New Zealand professional and former international Michael Papps. He is a regular 'run machine' and if Greenock can get his wicket early on then the chance of gaining a double over Ayr will be greatly increased.

But Ayr are not just a one man side. The McElnea brothers, Andy and Scott, are players with experience and ability with both bat and ball who Greenock must also keep in check along with opening bat Neil Smith who has had several fine innings this summer.

Greenock's bowling attack has been the side's strong point for much of the season with Kyle Scrimegour and Julien Hulbert leading the way with 23 and 22 wickets respectively. They are both among the top wicket-takers in the Premier Division and if they can continue their form against Ayr then Greenock could well gain a much needed winning result.

Greenock's team on Saturday will be at full strength. The match at New Cambusdoon will start at 12 noon.

The Glenpark XI are at home to Kingholm (St Michael's 2nd XI) at Glenpark on Saturday. Having had no game for the last two weeks because of wet weather, the 2nd XI players will be keen to get their game on and get a winning result which would consolidate a mid table position. The match will start at 12noon.

*** Junior cricketers at Glenpark have a very busy weekend ahead. On Friday evening, Greenock's Under-11 team play a joint Hillhead/Renfrew Under-11 side away, while the Under-15s are at home to Poloc. On Monday evening the Under-13 side play Helensburgh at Glenpark while the Under-18s, combined with Helensburgh, are away to a joint East Renfrewshire/Renfrew side.

Greenock Cricket Club is sponsored this season by Cleaning Supplies 4U.