Strathendrick demolish visitors from Ayr

Strathendrick ........91 Millbrae .................. 0

Strathendrick climbed up to third in BT West League Two and boosted their points differential at the same time with an emphatic 91-0 win over Millbrae at Fintry on Saturday.

The visitors from Ayr had a noticeable weight advantage over Endrick and the conditions - soft ground and a swirling wind - did not suit them.

Endrick got off to a flying start, Rory McLaughlin racing in for the opening try with less than a minute played. Kyle Campbell kicked the conversion as he did seven minutes later when Ruaraidh Doyle beat the visiting cover to gather a neat kick into space from full back Luke Pretorius.

Play continued in Millbrae territory but the score remained unchanged until 20 minutes had gone. Then the floodgates opened with five more Endrick tries before the interval from Angus North (20 minutes), Ruaraidh Doyle (22), McLaughlin (25), Conor Gibson (34) and Neil Callander (37). Kyle Campbell made light of the tricky underfoot conditions and fluky wind to take his contribution up to five conversions so that for the second successive week Endrick had a 45-0 lead at the break.

The second half proved to be a repetition of the first half starting with another first minute try, the scorer being Fraser Graham. Scoring continued like clockwork, the second half total exceeding the first by one, the other second half scorers were Doug Beaumont (46), North (48), Mark Scott (52), Gibson (57), McLaughlin (61 and 77) and Duncan McEachern (68).

Kyle Campbell did not find the strong wind blowing diagonally in the second half much to his liking and he added only three conversions to his total.

Endrick gave their replacements a run in the second half and there was a special cheer for Sandy Cuthbertson when he went on for the last 20 minutes, Sandy made his Strathendrick first team debut on April 14, 1976 in a friendly match against Bellahouston 3rd XV - only the 16th game played by Endrick.

It was a quite remarkable result and will no doubt be remembered for the quality of the attacking play. It should be noted that when Millbrae had the ball they made little progress against a lighter side who hardly missed a tackle all afternoon.

Endrick: Pretorius; McLaughlin, Graham, North, McEachern; Campbell, Doyle; O’Connell, Gibson, Scott, E MacKay. Callander, Ogilvy, Kerr and Doug Beaumont. Replacements. R McKay, Cuthbertson, Black and Arnott.

Endrick can expect a more testing time on Saturday when they travel to third-placed Cumbernauld on league business. The kick-off is at 2pm. Endrick 2nds are also at Cumbernauld.