Lovat claim first league victory of the season
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LOVAT ended a run of four consecutive draws in fine style with a 1-0 victory at Kingussie to move them into the top four of shinty’s top flight.
Lewis Tawse was the hero for Lovat, his 33rd minute effort proving to be a winner and enough to give his club their first Orion Premiership success in five attempts this season.
The result moves Lovat up to fourth in the table, just three points behind leaders Inveraray, who maintained their unbeaten record with a narrow 1-0 triumph over bottom of the table Lochaber, Peter MacIntyre scoring the games only goal in the 69th minute.
Glenurquhart are in seventh — one of three teams on the four-point mark — after they battled out an entertaining 2-2 with Fort William at Blairbeg.
It was the visitors who forged in front, Arran MacPhee scoring in the 12th minute, but Neale Reid restored parity a minute before the interval.
David Smart’s 57th minute goal looked to be taking the Glen to only their second success in the league before Daniel Stewart equalised after 72 minutes to ensure the points would be shared.
Elsewhere, Kinlochshiel recovered from the loss of goals to Roberto Zavaroni and Roddy MacDonald to overcome Kyles Athletic 3-2.
Two efforts from Gordie MacDonald and a John MacRae strike inflicted a second defeat of the campaign upon title hopefuls Kyles.
Newtonmore are the third Premiership team without a lose to their name so far and they took that run to four games with a 2-0 victory at Oban Camanachd, Chris Sellar and Calum Stewart scoring their goals in the second half.
In North Division, all three home teams — Inverness, Skye and Strathglass — were all beaten without so much as scoring a goal.
The Highland Capital club succumbed 3-0 to Caberfeidh with Craig Morrison (two) and Colin MacLennan on target for the visitors.
David MacLean’s fifth minute goal settled the points in Beauly’s favour at Skye, while Liam MacDonald was Kilmallie’s hat-trick hero away to Straglass. Sebi MacMillan, Liam Cameron and Martin Munro also struck in the 6-0 rout.
Meanwhile, the first round of the Aberdein Considine Sutherland Cup produced wins in contrasting fortunes for both Lovat and Glenurquhart.
Lovat thumped Inverness 12-1, despite Scott Watson having given the city club a third minute lead. Iain Nicolson and Fraser Gallagher both scored hat-tricks for Lovat.
The Glen required extra-time and then penalties before prevailing at Tayforth. Iain MacLeod cancelled out Brendan Duggan’s opener for the hosts, before taking the shootout 2-1.
Beauly were one of three teams to receive a walkover after their scheduled opponents Bute could not put together a team. Ardnamurchan and Caberfeidh also won through in this manner against Strathglass and Kyles Athletic respectively.
