Tennent’s West League, Division Two
Helensburgh 34 Cumnock 42

Another breathless, harum-scarum match at Ardencaple, another case of Good Cop, Bad Cop for the Burgh, who left the pitch with only a try-bonus point to show for their efforts.
Good Cop will point out that Burgh’s indefatigable spirit was there in spades… that never-say-die attitude that’s been a hallmark of Helensburgh RFC for many a year now. No further questioning.
Bad Cop, however, might show the jury different evidence… a notable lack of aggression, some shoddy tackling, a lack of competition generally at the breakdown. It's a fair cop, m’lud?
Sean Alton fielded the opening kick-off, and Burgh were off: a scorching Alex Macauley thrust through the middle should have been better rewarded, then play broke left and Ben Farrar scampered up the touchline before being stopped just short of the line.
After five minutes, Michael Welch broke clear forcing the Cumnock defence to infringe and Calum O’Brien kicked Burgh into a 3-0 lead.
Cumnock had a chance for an immediate riposte but with the line at his mercy, their winger dropped the ball; to add insult to injury, their full-back then missed an easy penalty to tie the scores.
Three minutes later, a bizarre scenario. Taking advantage of poor positional play by Burgh, Cumnock put in a long grubber. Watching the ball trundle over the dead ball, Ali Rogers picked it up only for the referee to award the visitors a scrum-five, claiming the full-back had carried it over. He then cemented his unpopularity by awarding Cumnock a penalty try from the ensuing scrum.
Burgh stormed back with a splendid try, Welch taking crash ball 35 metres out and bursting through despairing tackles for a try, converted by O’Brien for 10-7. Cumnock worked their way back into the Burgh 22, and with Sean Alton in the sin-bin, capitalised on that with a converted try for 14-10. This galvanised the Ayrshire side who spurned several chances to pull clear before a penalty and further try saw them lead 22-10 at half-time.
A tight first half gave no indication of the bonkers-ness that was about to break out and see Burgh win the second period 24-20.
Sam King’s industry and power on the resumption should have earned a try but his support lacked numbers and Cumnock cleared. Then, despite a big hit from Arras Mathieson, Cumnock took advantage of generally poor Burgh tackling for an unconverted try, 27-10. Again, Burgh responded immediately… Ali Rogers harassed meaningfully at O’Brien’s re-start forcing the turnover and Corrie Fletcher put Craig Calderwood over untouched. O’Brien failed with the extras so Burgh trailed by 12 points.
It was end-to-end stuff, Sam King’s smothering hit denying the Cumnock winger at hat-trick but it delayed the inevitable, and the visitors scored in the corner from a short-range scrum 32-15.
Twelve minutes into the half this curious match got curiouser. As Burgh’s midfield were sucked in time and again to the breakdown, poor Ben Farrar was left with a five-on-one… inexplicably, Cumnock spilled the overlap allowing the flame-haired Ben to scoop up the ball and tear 60 metres for an astonishing try. O’Brien’s conversion shaved the wrong side of the posts for 32-20.
Unfortunately, Burgh were the architects of their own downfall next, when a wild pass sailed over O’Brien’s head in-goal and from the resultant scrum-five, Cumnock scored a pushover try. After 65 minutes the visitors surged ahead with another unconverted try for 42-20 and that – you might have thought – was that!
Oh no, not this madcap young Burgh side. Despite by this time being literally the walking wounded, they somehow managed to conjure up two magnificent scores. The first fell to the ever-willing Macauley who capitalised on another Cumnock dropped ball and showed his pursuit a clean set of heels, O’Brien converting. From the re-start, Craig Calderwood fielded and set off on a blitzkrieg run, then Sam King broke umpteen tackles to take the ball to within a metre of the line and had the presence of mind to flick up a pass for the grateful Dan Sellars to score.
O’Brien’s conversion wrapped up the scoring despite another last-gasp burst from King, Farrar, King again and Ali Rogers, while at the death, Cumnock were denied a try when Mathieson and Mark Kinsman held firm on the goal-line.
Best for Burgh were man-of-the-match Calderwood, Sam King, Macauley, Rogers and Farrar.
Burgh: Rogers, Kinsman, Welch, O’Brien, Fletcher, Farrar, Macauley, Jamieson, Ashdown, Girvan, Calderwood, Alton, Sellars, Kerr, Sam King. Subs: Ard, Mathieson, Fish, Stuart King, Flanagan.

Everyone at Helensburgh RFC wishes big Michael ‘Raq’ Welch a speedy recovery… the big centre is out for the season after sustaining a serious shoulder injury in this game. By full-time on Saturday, Burgh had lost Ashdown (back), Kerr (heel), Flanagan (shoulder) and Fish (facial injury) … let’s hope they’re all quick healers!