Youth shinty round-up . . . youth shinty round-up . . . youth shinty round-up . . .
MacMaster Cup final Kingussie U14 0 Skye Camanachd U14 7 Skye Camanachd Under 14s lifted the MacMaster Cup, beating Kingussie 7- 0 at An Aird, Fort William, last Saturday.
The sides had met a week earlier in Marine Harvest North Division 1 at the Dell. Skye were 5- 0 winners in that game but the opening exchanges were relatively even in this 11am throw up.
Kingussie had the wind advantage in the first half but Skye made a crucial breakthrough with two goals in the closing couple of minutes of the half. First, Kingussie were unable to clear a Dan MacDonald ball from the left, which deflected into the D off Ross Gordon’s stick, and Holly MacLean scored with 34 minutes played. Then, just a minute later, Ross Gordon took down a shy from the left before thumping the ball over the keeper to make it 2- 0 at the break.
Ross Gordon got his second on 39 minutes when he sent a powerful back-hand shot from wide on the right across the keeper and into the far to corner of the net to make it 3- 0. It was a superb finish and Gordon went on to complete his hat-trick a minute later with a bullet-shot from distance.
A bouncing Mark MacQueen strike on the hour mark made it 5- 0 and Dan MacDonald added a sixth when he beat his marker before cutting in from the right and sending the ball low into the net just five minutes later.
Ross Gordon got his fourth goal of the game to wrap up the 7- 0 win when he was afforded too much space in a central position with just a couple of minutes remaining.
Skye were MacMaster Cup runners up last year and their captain and full centre Jamie Gillies, who has shared the captaincy with Christina MacDonald this season, was presented with the MacMaster Cup by Dave MacMaster to the delight of his team’s support.
London Shield semi-finals
Fort William U-17 0 Skye Camanachd U-17 5 Skye Camanachd U17 are through to the London Shield final after they beat Fort William U17 5- 0 at Blairbeg.
Skye’s Ruaraidh MacLeod scored the only goal of the first half but be netted three more times after the restart. James Pringle got Skye’s other goal. Oban Camanachd U17 P Beauly U17 P The London Shield semi-final between Oban Camanachd U-17 and Beauly U-17 was postponed with Oban youngsters Daniel MacVicar and Ross MacMillan involved in the senior team’s Camanachd Cup final squad. The match will be rescheduled for a later date.
South Under-14 League play-off
Oban Camanachd 1 Kyles Athletic 3 Oban Camanachd and Kyles Athletic faced each other at Inveraray to decide the winners of the South Under-14 League last Wednesday evening. With both teams having lost only to each other in the league it was this game that would decide who would be crowned league champions 2016.
Kyles started the match the brighter playing the ball quicker up front and started creating chances from the start. From one such move Scott Harvey finished off from close range after 10 minutes to put Kyles in front.
Oban were finding it hard to get into the game and Kyles continued to put pressure on but Camanachd’s Euan Logan, who had a fine game helping to keep the eager Kyles attack at bay.
The Tighnabruaich side though got a deserved second when Neilly MacNaughton finished of a fine passing move on 22 minutes.
The Oban side managed to get into the game with some competitive tackling throughout the middle of the park, in particular the battle between Connor Kennedy and Daniel Sloss was a joy to watch.
Half-time came with no further scoring.
A few tactical changes at half-time soon paid dividends for Camanachd and Lenon MacKechnie ran through the Kyles defence before astutely slipping the ball to Jamie MacGillivray who finished from the edge of the D three minutes after the restart.
Camanachd found more attacking threat and started playing the ball quicker. Kyles though grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck and Scott Harvey hit home from 20 yards to make the final score 3-1.
This was a fine exhibition of junior shinty by both teams who can be satisfied they gave it their all on the night.
The league medals were presented to the Kyles team by regional development officer, west, Euan McMurdo with Connor Kennedy lifting the league winners shield for Kyles.
Under-14 Development Trophy
Ballachulish 11 Glengarry 1 A strong Ballachulish side won the 2016 nine-a-side Development Trophy with a commanding performance against an inexperienced but talented Glengarry side.
Ballachulish got off to the perfect start with a goal after four minutes from full centre David Wilson, followed by a quick-fire double from full forward Marcus Spence.
Glengarry at this stage were far from out of the game and created a few half chances of their own only for Ballachulish to go up the other end to make it 4- 0 with a goal from Lewis Moran.
This goal seemed to take the wind out of the sails of the young Glengarry team and further goals from Marcus Spence (2), David Wilson (2) and Robbie Middleton with the classy Mungo Blakey scoring for Glengarry to bring the half-time score, Ballachulish 9 Glengarry 1.
Far from downbeat, Glengarry started the second half strongly and went close to scoring early on.
The rest of the half was closely contested with chances at both end, but two goals in a minute from Ballachulish’s Logan Thompson put the gloss on a commanding 11-1 victory.