Ayr v Cartha Queen's Park

Ayr v Cartha Queen's Park Friday 1st April2022.

The match was played under floodlights. Earlier in the season CQP had won at Dumbreck 37-31. It was reasonable to assume that Ayr would be seeking revenge.

The CQP team was severely under strength with at least five first choice forwards absent in addition to the two front row players who have accepted super six contracts. In these circumstances it was not therefore surprising to find that Ayr had the upper hand in the set piece. It took Ayr only two minutes to open the scoring with a converted try. By the end of the game Ayr had added a further nine tries. Seven of Ayr’s tries were converted to leave them with a total of sixty four points. CQP for their part could only manage one try scored by Graeme Docherty ,converted by Wayne Burrows. In the second half CQP were denied further tries when the referee adjudged that the ball had been held up over the line on a number of occasions. Ayr were very impressive with ball in hand running with great pace and demonstrating an excellent ability to pass the ball. From a CQP point of view this was a hard watch but it has to be said that on the night Ayr played some really first class attractive running rugby. CQP never gave up and the score could have been greater had the CQP backs not put in a number of recovery tackles. CQP had travelled to Ayr hoping that they could pick up some points to narrow the league gap with Watson’s. Unfortunately from
a CQP perspective they they found themselves playing a side on top form. CQP found themselves reduced to fourteen players when Zander Kelman was binned for repeated scrummage infringements as in previous games this lead to an immediate Ayr try.

Final score Ayr 64 CQP 7.