PRESTWICK ended a twenty-six year wait for a major trophy on Saturday when they were crowned Western Premier champions.

There may have been a slight sense of anti-climax when their clash with East Kilbride at Torrance House was rained-off but Andy Tennant, the Prestwick coach, was in celebratory mood when he reflected on the club’s success.

Tennant was a playing member of the Prestwick side who, as Ayrshire, won the old County Championship in 1991 but derives as much satisfaction from this triumph.

He said: “This team have now made their own bit of history – they were probably sick of hearing about the team of 1991 so they have every right to celebrate.

“Obviously we’d have preferred to have done the job on the park on Saturday but we can’t control the weather and it’s still very pleasing to have achieved what we have.

“The guys have worked really hard for this and the fact that we won ten out of our twelve games is testament to that.”

Prestwick ended the season with the two leading wicket takers in the division in Scotland prospect Mitchell Rao who had 31 victims and Sachin Chaudhary who had four fewer while Chaudhary’s 485 runs were also instrumental in the team’s success.

Tennant added: “It really has been a team effort but I’m especially pleased to see a local boy like Mitchell play such a big part.

“He is one of several youngsters we have coming through who give me a lot of optimism for the future.

“We see winning the Premier title not as an end point but as part of a journey. We are very much a work in progress and now we want to focus on winning the Grand Final and then on defending our title next season.”

Prestwick will get the chance to become the first team from the west to win the Grand Final when they take on Eastern Premier champions Heriot’s at Meikleriggs, Paisley, on Saturday.

Meanwhile Saturday’s cancellation also saw East Kilbride relegated from the top flight while in the only game to beat the rain Dumfries had a three-wicket win over Poloc at Shawholm.

The weather was also the winner yesterday when finals day of the Murgitroyd National T20 Cup was abandoned at Titwood.