WITH the Marine Harvest Premiership action on hold in the North for a week, Saturday’s shinty for the top clubs was to be found in the opening round of the MacTavish Cup.
For more than a century this trophy has been the sport’s main testing ground for shinty clubs north of Drumochter and as such has enjoyed a fairly high profile in the Highland sporting calendar.
This year, however, the Camanachd Association have found themselves without a sponsor for the competition after the sudden withdrawal of RBS at the start of the year.
“We thought we had an agreement in place with RBS that they would be our sponsors for a three-year period,” said association president Jim Barr. “However, the deal required ratification at the start of each season and they informed us that they would not be able to continue with the arrangement.
“It’s disappointing particularly because part of their input had always been earmarked for the development of youth shinty, but all we can do is thank them for their involvement and move on”
Moving on is exactly what Barr’s home club Glenurquhart did with their first round 3-1 MacTavish Cup tie victory at home to last year’s beaten finalists Lochaber.
The Spean Bridge side have had a somewhat indifferent start to their Premiership season but in a tight first half at Drumnadrochit it was the Lochaber front men who looked the more dangerous, although the two best chances of the half fell to – and were missed by – Glenurquhart.
The home side finally hit the target just after the restart when half-forward Neale Reid broke through a challenge on the left, turned inside and fired a low, hard drive into the bottom corner past Lochaber keeper Bryn Whittaker.
Lochaber fought back immediately and but for two excellent saves by Glen keeper Garry Mackintosh, the home side might have been in trouble. As can often happen, however, the close calls served only to galvanise Glenurquhart and after 51 minutes they went further ahead. A neat ball inside by winger Daniel Mackintosh was played on by Reid to full-forward Callum Smith who smashed his shot past Whittaker to make it 2-0.
Reid added a third almost immediately when he found himself in space away from his marker. Whittaker managed to get a club to the ball but all he could do was deflect it higher into his own net.
Lochaber got themselves back in the match with a goal after 61 minutes from international striker Shaun Nicholson but although they went on to dominate play for a spell they were completely unable to break down the Glenurquhart back-line where defenders Lachie Smith and John Barr were in resolute form.
In the end, the Glen were worth their win but they will have to defend more determinedly from the front if they want to emulate their MacTavish victory of 2015.
And in a match which was never dirty, neither manager can be happy that six of the players on display – three on each side – rightly found their way into referee Innes Wood’s book.
Glenurquhart will face local rivals Lovat in the next round after the Kiltarlity side recorded a 9-2 win against Strathglass at Cannich.
In the other all-Premier cup tie, Kinlochshiel defeated Kingussie 3-2 at Balmacara. Goals from Kingussie’s Roddy Young and Martin Dallas cancelled out strikes by Shiel’s Jordan Fraser and Scott Maclean before Keith Macrae’s 90th-minute strike settled the tie in favour of the Wester Ross side who will meet Beauly in the next round.
National League side Caberfeidh beat Skye 3-2 at Strathpeffer in a match which saw a player from each side red-carded. Caberfeidh will meet the winner of the Newtonmore v Fort William tie scheduled for next weekend.
In the south the action in the opening round of the Gregor Cameron Celtic Society Cup was confined to lower league sides, with Bute, Tayforth, Glenorchy and Kilmory each progressing.
In the Premiership, Glasgow Mid Argyll won 2-1 away at Kilmallie while a late goal from Gordon Whyte saw Kyles Athletic inflict a 4-3 home defeat on Oban Camanachd at Mossfield.
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