On Wednesday the 3rd of June 10 small school teams from all over Scotland gathered at An Aird, Fort William for the 2026 Small Schools Finals. Dunvegan, Alvie, Spean Bridge, Applecross, Cannich, Teanassie, Ballachulish, Ardnamurchan, Carrbridge and Auchtertyre.

All teams were to play each other once in games that were 10 minutes one way, with the top two teams progressing to the final. Games were closely contested, of a high standard and the competition for a place in the final was within narrow margins. After a loss in the first game to Dunvegan, Alvie sored through the rest of the group stages with some fantastic play from their young team staking their place in the final. They would come up against Dunvegan who only dropped 1 point (a draw with Ardnamurchan) through the group and played some skilful shinty in each game.

The final started with a bang with a nice passage of play in the opening 2 minutes from Alvie linking together well resulting in the skilful Murray Mainland slotting the ball home to put his team 1-0 up. Alvie went again from the restart with Murray Mainland once again on the score sheet making it 2-0 with three minutes gone. Dunvegan regained their composure and dug in for the rest of the first half with a couple of long-range chances heading just wide it was 2-0 Alvie going into the break.

The second half was a closer affair with both teams working hard, playing some quality shinty and linking up well with their teammates. It was with 1 minute to go that Alvie struck again, this time through the impressive Cara MacLeod who rifled the ball into the back of the net following an excellent passage of play. Dunvegan never let their heads drop and continued to battle and it was seconds before the final whistle their perseverance paid off with a well taken goal from the hard-working Zander Gillies concluding the game.

The Small Schools Cup for 2026 was presented to Alvie captain by CA Youth Director Willie MacDonald.

The day would have not been possible without support from FWSC their pitch volunteers and ladies in the tea hut as well as Elaine for officiating, Connor and Dani for supporting and Willie for conducing the days presentations.

It was also great to have along the ladies from ‘Change Mental Health’ who were there to chat to the youngsters for the day.