SANJAY Patel may only be a few weeks into his reign as captain of Grange but already the former Scotland A batsman has experienced a roller-coaster of emotions. A regulation win against Watsonians on the opening day may have suggested Patel faced a simple task in restoring the Portgower Place outfit to their place at the summit of Scottish cricket.

That, though, was followed by an extraordinary defeat at home to Ayr which meant the pressure was firmly on Patel and his team as they travelled to meet champions Greenock at Glenpark on Saturday.

The new captain responded by tinkering slightly with his batting order and was rewarded when his side dominated proceedings almost from the start.

Pinch-hitter Stuart Davidson was promoted to open the batting with Gregor Maiden and the pair took the attack to their old rivals in impressive style.

Both may have been back in the pavilion with 46 on the board but the runs had come at such a rate that a platform had been set for Saltires star Neil McCallum and New Zealand professional Warren McSkimming to build a sizeable total.

McSkimming survived one scare when the home fielders appealed confidently for a catch in the slips to go on and make a nicely compiled 46.

However, McCallum dominated with a superb 80 from 134 balls in an innings which included one six and seven boundaries. Giles Holmes propelled Grange's total to 219-5 with a rapid unbeaten 32.

Greenock's reply quickly hit the skids as the excellent Davidson accounted for Tim McIntosh and Sean Weeraratna. Indeed, the champions were never at the races even when Dewald Nel and Ryan Begley added 61 for the seventh wicket but Andy Wilson's 5-32 clinched the points for Grange.

A delighted Patel declared: "This helps consign last week to the history books.

"It was important that we bounced back straight away and I'm delighted with the control we had all the way through.

"Promoting Stuey to open the batting was a positive move which paid off because I felt we were tentative at the start against Ayr and I didn't want their bowlers to dominate us.

Elsewhere, shock troops Ayr were at it again with their second last-over win in as many weeks. Having disposed of Grange, the Cambusdoon side claimed another significant scalp with a thrilling last-ball win over Uddingston.

Chasing the visitors' 189, of which Ed Cowan hit 66, former Kiwi Test star Matt Horne led the response with a superb unbeaten 104. However, it was left to skipper Phil Wilson to add to his earlier three wickets with the winning hit when two runs were required off the last ball of the match.

Aussie Peter Wooden was another centurion as Carlton made it three wins in a row with a derby success over Heriot's at Grange Loan. Wooden put on 159 for the second wicket with skipper Cedric English who made 70 as Carlton posted 244-3. Heriot's were 87-2 - 20 runs behind the asking rate - when bad light called a halt.

Ferguslie kick-started their campaign with an eight-wicket win over Poloc while the Watsonians-Clydesdale clash was a victim of the weather.