Kingussie triumphed over Caberfeidh at a windy Bught Park on 11th June to take home the cottages.com MacTavish Cup for the first time since 2011.

The senior final was the third in a hat-trick of games to take place that day at Bught Park, following on from the Mackay and MacTavish Juvenile Finals. Ahead of the game many were predicting a comfotable victory for the league leaders Kingussie against Caeberfeidh who found themselves in the relegation zone ahead of throw up.

What transpired was a far from comfortable start for the Badenoch side, the ball was worked to returning Full-Forward Ali MacLennan who unleashed a tremendous strike that sailed beyond Bob McGregor in the Kingussie nets.

Kingussie, to their credit, didn’t shrink away from the task and soon forced a great save from Cabers keeper Iain McColl – Ruaridh Anderson knocking down a good shy into the path of Roddy Young who drilled it low towards goal only to be denied by McColl’s feet.

It was then Caberfeidh’s turn to threaten, in the space of 3 seconds they had made it from their defence to beyond the backline of Kingussie and Ali MacLennan turned Calum Grant nicely to give himself a half yard, but he was unable to hit the target, firing narrowly wide of McGregor’s left hand post.

That spurned chance did not dampen Caberfeidh’s spirits and on the 33 minute mark they made it 2-0 after a well struck shy dropped at the feet of hitman Craig Morrison who caught it sweet as a nut on the half volley powering the ball in at McGregor’s near post.

Caberfeidh’s 2 goal lead would last 8 minutes though, James Falconer hit a shot from 25 yards that was comfortably saved by McColl – however, as he was about to clear the ball Savio Genini ghosted in and pushed the ball into the Cabers net.

Two minutes later and Kingussie bagged another, undoing all of Caberfeidh’s hard work in the first half. James Falconer stole the ball from the Cabers defence well and while his strike was saved, Genini was on hand to sweep in the rebound making it 2-2 at half-time.

The second half started relatively eventless with Caberfeidh battling against the wind and Kingussie battling to keep the ball in play because of the wind. Kings did crash a shot off the bar just before the hour mark after Genini slipped the ball to Falconer from a free hit, however, it came to nothing in the end.

Soon after, McColl made a great save with his feet from a Genini strike leading to Hugh Dan MacLennan in commentary suggesting he could be a shoe in for man of the match due to a number of exceptional stops throughout the day.

Eventually however, Kingussie’s pressure paid off – another free hit, although this time it was slid to the back post where Roddy Young was on hand to deliver a delightfully deft back hand finish to put Kingussie 3-2 up for the first time in the match on the 77th minute mark.

Kingussie doubled their lead a minute later as Dylan Borthwick picked up a loose clearance from the Cabers defence and made no mistake from 18 yards out powering the ball high over the head of McColl.

Ruaridh Anderson put the cherry on the icing on the cake with a well struck shot 4 minutes from time. He found Genini on the right hand side of the D who held the ball up before making the return pass to Anderson who cracked a shot past McColl at the far post sending the Kingussie fans and players into raptures.

All in all it was a great day of shinty both teams put on a spectacle and a final with 7 goals certainly can’t be sniffed at, Willie MacDonald kept the game flowing and no one overstepped the competitive boundaries meaning the final saw no bookings. The Tom MacKenzie Man of the Match medal was presented to Caberfeidh Captain, Blair Morrison who played an integral role at Half-Back for Caberfeidh and was outstanding on the day. Following the match Kingussie Captain, Savio Genini was presented with a silver mounted caman and the cottages.com MacTavish Cup trophy by Tom Bell from sponsors cottages.com.