Stewarts Melville 13 Ayr 31

In the history of Edinburgh, there are many characters considered by the great and the good to be of an unsavoury nature and prominent among them are the infamous robbers Burke and Hare. Their names can now be joined in the pantheon of thieves by those of Burke and Climo, Paul and Frazier of that ilk, who between them were responsible for another act of grand larceny perpetrated in the capital.

It is becoming a habit that on their vists to Edinburgh Ayr nick the game from under their hosts noses having done something similar at Raeburn Place against Accies a few weeks ago but to come from 13-10 down going into the final minutes to finish up 31-13 ahead is the stuff almost of fantasy.

As was predicted before this season got under way, teams will raise their game considerably against the current champions and so it again proved. Stewarts Melville are currently buried so far into the basement they have almost assumed mole like qualities but on Saturday for long spells they looked like the title challengers and Ayr the strugglers.

To describe Ayr's start as sluggish is frankly an insult to the humble gastropod as again they contrived to let the opposition dominate the game. Stew-Mel looked hungrier, threw themselves into everything and got in Ayr's faces in grand style.

After eleven minutes Stuart Ker got the home side on the board with a penalty and it came as no surprise when they added to that lead after a penalty to deep inside Ayr's twenty two saw the ball end up with center Jamie Allan who brushed aside some woeful tackling to complete a beautifully angled run with a touchdown under the posts. Ker slotted the conversion and it looked as though the form book was about to be shredded and slung out of the window as Ayr could only reply lamely with a Climo penalty late in the half which saw the home side deservedly turn 10-3 ahead and looking good.

Early in the second half relief showed on Ayr faces as Ker missed fairly kickable penalty then three minutes later, Andy Dunlop broke from the back of the scrum then reverse passed into the hole with Jamie Hunter coming up at pace and the scrum-half's touchdown with Climo's conversion pulled Ayr level. Not for all that long though, a Ker penalty regaining the lead and when a Climo strike to level the scores went askew, things looked bleak for Kenny Murray' s troops.

Into the final ten minutes and suddenly realisation dawned that, unless the digit was extracted from the rear end with some alacrity, then the only bonus point Ayr would achieve would not be of the anticipated four try variety but of the losing kind.

Climo had had a mixed day with his kicks but with eight minutes to go scorched through the Stew-Mel defence and found Mark Stewart on his elbow for the try to take the lead then after converting that one the Ayr No10 did the same with Burke's lung bursting effort a minute later before having a hand in the final score as the dynamic Ayr flanker notched up two tries in two minutes to clinch the invaluable bonus.

"It can get frustrating" was the massive understatement from coach Kenny Murray. "Last week we play well against Melrose for seventy five minutes then shade off in the final five and miss out on a bonus - this week we are rubbish for seventy five them turn it on to win with a bonus point. Who would be a coach!"

"All credit to Stewarts Melville, they did play well and they admitted that it was their best performance of the season so far. Both sides defended well but there were aspects of our game which were disappointing. Our work rate was not as good as it should have been, we were far too loose at times and we tried to score tries too early in the game from too far out rather than getting our build up right. We made a lot of unforced errors at crucial times and we lacked urgency at the breakdown and it was only when we realised that we were going to lose that we cranked our game up."

Like your correspondent, Murray had been at Malleny Park on Friday night to watch Scottish Hydro Premier 1 leaders Currie beat Edinburgh Accies and we agreed that they look like a side on a roll. "We will have to be on top of our game against them on November 7th" he said "but first of all we have to deal with Selkirk who are coming off a good win against West so we will have to hit the sort of form we showed against Melrose if we are going to get the right result."

Selkirk are second bottom with two wins from eight starts but the pressure is now on Ayr to collect win bonus points in order that Currie do not extend their four point lead any further. Premier 1 is already appearing to split with four front runners and the rest left looking over their shoulder in the race to avoid the two bottom slots and over the next two weeks with Selkirk at Millbrae on Saturday then West at Burnbrae, Ayr have to keep the wins coming prior to what promises to be a monumental clash against Currie on November 7th

Team

D Steele; S Manning, R Curle, M Stewart, C Taylor; F Climo, J Hunter; G Reid, S Adair, H Mitchell, D Kelly, S Sutherland, J Crossan, P Burke, G Tippett

Subs A Dunlop, S Fenwick, S Nimmo, G Anderson, A Wilson

In West League Division 1, Millbrae ran out comfortable winners by 48-12 over Oban with Gordon Tulloch, David Courtney and Graeme Ferguson all grabbing two tries and Phil Manning and Robin Dale one each with Courtney adding three conversions and Andy Houston one.