Caol primary make final in national shinty tournament
Shinty players from Caol Primary School flew the flag for Lochaber at last weekend’s Camanachd Association National Primary Schools Shinty Festival Finals held in Fort William.
The competition was back after a lengthy lay-off and gave teams from across Scotland a chance to compete against each other.
Primary six and seven teams all headed to the Nevis Centre while at Primary 4-5s played their matches at Lochaber High School.
Les Kinvig, development officer for the West region, said he was delighted to see teams from his area competing at this level and that it was a great experience for the slightly inexperienced players who would hopefully benefit from it going forward.
After a great day of highly competitive shinty in the younger age group, the four teams through to the semi-finals were Lochcarron who went unbeaten and Alvie who only lost to Lochcarron in group A.
In group B it was a similar story with Caol going unbeaten and Inverness Gaelic school, who only lost to Caol, going through.
In the semi-finals Inverness Gaelic came out winners against Lochcarron while Caol won against Alvie setting up a final between Caol and Inverness Gaelic school.
With Caol already having defeated Inverness in the group stages and being the top scorers on the day they were perhaps slight favourites to lift the trophy, but Inverness Gaelic school (BSGI) managed to see out a high-quality tense and thrilling final with a narrow win to lift the trophy.
Lochaber High School shinty ambassadors James Munro and Archie MacKinnon, played an active role in the P4/5 shinty tournament by putting their recently acquired qualifications to good use by sharing the on-pitch action with a third referee.
Inverness Muirtown Primary took the P6-7 title. No report was available at the time of going to print.
The Camanachd Association would like to thank Ferguson Transport and Shipping for their sponsorship of the festival and the referees and young shinty ambassadors in helping make the day a success.