WITH an increase in membership of the men's section at Ayr Storm - some of the older players had planned to retire but were persuaded to form a Masters side boosted by a couple of players coming out of retirement, and play in the Strathclyde League Division Four.

The fixture list threw up an opening day derby - with the visitors for game one being Ayr Storm2.

Neither side settled well into the large open spaces the Belmont hall offers compare to their normal training venues - however it was the Masters that opened up a small lead in the first half and never looked back, through there was a nervous few moments in P4. Stephen Milroy was controlling the game for Masters from the guard spot as well as contributing to the points. However a mid court collision with Ross Duncan saw him struggle and then have to sit out the final 5minutes.

This was when Storm2 guard Sean Reilly came to life and hit three baskets in a row to cut the gap to 3pts. The experienced Masters turned to Jim Connor to close out the game with a couple of points from the line after forcing the visitors to foul trying to get possession back. The final whistle saw the low scoring game go to the oldies. Ayr Masters 46 Ayr Storm 38.

In a busy week for the club there were two other games played. The U16 men had a break from SBC league action and were hosting one of the top U16men sides in the Scottish Cup - Stirling Knights. the Ayr side competed well in the first period and only trailed 15:20. Knights upped the tempo their Scotland caps started to dominate the game. Ayr's normal point scorers of Keegan, Gibbons and Morrison still found chances to score - but not at their normal rate. At the other end the Ayr defence struggled with the Knights options and at the final whistle the result reflected the gap between Scottish Basketball Championship Div 2 and Div 1 sides. Full-time: Ayr Storm 45 Stirling Knights 118.

In the Strathclyde Cup, two of the men's teams had similar challenges: Division 4 sides up against top rated Division 2 sides. The Masters faired better than the 2nd team but as expected both went crashing out the Anderson up and drop into the Consolation Cup. Renfrew1 101 Ayr Masters 31, St Mirren 144 Ayr Storm 2nd 33.

The first team though are through to the next round after a solid performance against Glasgow City. On paper Storm were favourites as this was a Div 1 v Div 4 match up - however City are only in the basement league as they have restarted their men's program after a short absence. FT Ayr Storm 75 Glasgow City 62 with Dan Bajwoluk and Sam Wallace top scoring for the Ayr side.