At a star-studded Scottish Rugby Awards Ceremony at Murrayfield on Friday, Ayr's Gordon Reid collected the award as Scottish Hydro Premier 1 Player of the Year.

It was the culmination of a great year for the hugely popular Ayr prop who was not only an ever present in the Ayr side which lifted the Scottish Hydro Cup and were runners up in Premier 1 but represented Scotland in the club internationals against France and Ireland.

His contribution to the success of the side cannot be overstated and, in the manner of the modern day prop, it was not only in the dark arts of the front row union that he achieved prominence but with ball in hand as well. No one who saw his try against Birmingham in the British and Irish Cup will have any doubts about the big man's ability around the park but the score which will live in the memory for a long long time was in the thirty fifth minute of the cup final when his try gave Ayr the lead over Melrose, a lead they were not to relinquish.

"There is no doubt that the cup final was the outstanding memory of the season" he admitted, taking time of from anxiously baby, or cat sitting a moggie about to give birth "and although I played for Scotland at U19, U20 and club international level, it was never at Murrayfield and to play there for your club is an awesome feeling."

" To play in that sort of game with your mates with whom you have been through so much is really special and the support we had on the day was unbelievable. It was something I will never forget, that sea of pink and black in the Murrayfield stand and I would like to say how much we appreciate the support we get at Millbrae and we hope that everyone will be back next season because it is wonderful to have the sort of support which has to be the best in the country."

"It was a really proud moment to receive the award as Player of the Year but i would like to think that in a way it was a recognition of the teams achievements over the past nine months because I would not have been collecting that award if it had not been for the guys in the squad who worked so hard to make it such a fantastic season."