Glenurquhart are Mowi London Shield Winners

The 2024 Mowi London Shield final between Glenurquhart and Newtonmore took place on 2nd November at Blairbeg Park.

It didn’t take long for the final to spring into life with Glenurquhart opening the scoring inside 60 seconds, a drilled pass from Glenn MacDonald allowed Daniel MacLean to use his body well, turning his man before firing hard into the roof of the net from close range. Fears that the Glen would run away with the game having taken such an early lead were unfounded though and it wasn’t long before Newtonmore levelled the score, Joe Coyle taking the ball down delightfully from a free hit and moving into space out wide, his lofted ball looked like it might evade brother James, however the U14 Player of the Year killed it expertly and fired a great drive in at the near post.

The end-to-end game continued at a frantic pace, and it seemed inevitable that another goal was coming – and that it did. Glen’s Alfie MacLeod starting the move from 25 yards inside his own half receiving the ball and beating 3 men before laying the ball off to a teammate, the ball then broke to Daniel Van Loon whose sweeping pass found MacLean on the left wing, his shimmy was enough to make half a yard and that’s all he needed, cracking a shot in off the inside of the post. The final 18 minutes of the half saw Glenurquhart have the majority of the territory, but Newtonmore continued to look deadly on the break.

Twelve minutes after Stevie MacLachlan restarted the game and the scores were level once again, Joe Coyle being played in down the left-hand side, his first attempt was well blocked, but he showed the determination to win it back, drive into the centre of the park and drill a shot into the bottom left corner. Perhaps understandably given the game state, the match begun to become a little more tense and chances were at a premium for the next 20 minutes at least. It would be the eventual winners who broke that lull ten minutes from time as MacLean came short to pick up a pass in the half-forward position, outmuscled two men before spinning in behind and slotting the ball beyond the keeper to complete his hat-trick.  The Scotland U17 cap would add the cherry to the icing and complete the scoring 2 minutes from time, meeting a Van Loon pass a split second before the Newtonmore keeper and pushing it into an empty net.

With that the game was won and Glenurquhart were crowned Mowi London Shield winners after what was a great exhibition of shinty from both sides. Newtonmore’s Jacob Bain was awarded the Douglas MacKintosh Memorial Medal for Man of the Match after a great display upon moving into the backline, however, the ultimate prize was lifted by four-goal-hero and Captain Daniel MacLean who raised the London Shield high into the air.

Images courtesy of Neil G Paterson.