The Donella Crawford 6s’ provides a platform for high school girls to come together and take part in shinty, while remembering Donella, who was a huge advocate of the girl’s game. Ardnamurchan High School, once again, offered to host the event which saw 14 teams sign up.
It was great to see all 14 teams (over 100 girls) participating, and excellent to welcome pupils from Kilchuimen who have never attended before. Squads were split into 2 groups and played across 3 pitches, fixtures were handed out and we got underway. A mini bus malfunction for some of the teams travelling together meant we were slightly late in starting but all was well in the end with the teams all playing their six group games.
In the group stages each team played each other once allowing for the top 2 school teams from each league to progress to the semi-finals. Ardnamurchan A and Glenurquhart both finished their respective groups unbeaten with Kingussie A coming second to Ardnamurchan and Inverness Royal Academy (IRA) following Glenurquhart closely take the last semi-final spot.
The semi-finals were played in unison, 5 minutes each way. Both semi-finals were extremely close. IRA took the lead early on in their game against Ardnamurchan and then defended fantastically closing down the Ard players and creating additional opportunities for their forwards. Ard fought until the end but couldn’t find the back of the net to take the game into extra time. In the other semi-final both teams were very evenly matched, Kingussie having the opening chances but Glenurquhart showing some strong defending and great individual skill to put more and more pressure of the Kingussie defence. Glenurquhart got their goal and then worked wonderfully as a team as to not let Kingussie back into the game. The one goal proved to be enough, sending them into the final to face the IRA.
The final showcased some electric shinty played by both teams, both very young teams with fantastic prospects for the future. IRA after losing to Glenurquhart in the group stages came out the blocks the stronger of the two teams scoring a brilliant goal from the midfield line in the first half. They doubled their lead in the second half and looked to be on the way to victory. Glenurquhart never gave up though and scored from the restart with a nicely taken rebound which bounced into the back of the net. They had the momentum then and scored again shortly after that creating a very entertaining final minute of the game. Right on full time Glenurquhart sealed their win with a fantastically taken individual goal to seal their victory.
The days referees Aine O’Rue and Freddie Paterson were on hand to conduct presentations, giving the medals and the trophy to the winning Glenurquhart Captain, Rebecca Van-Loon. Congratulations to everyone at Glenurquhart High School for their victory.
The Camanachd Association would like to thank Freddie, Michael and Aine for taking the time out their day to referee the event, Colm O’Rua and Ardnamurchan High School for hosting yet again. Already looking forward to next year.