Shetland move ahead in overall Stuart Cup table after emphatic home victory

Shetland won the overall junior-intercounty sports competition on Monday by a resounding 214 points to Orkney’s 163.

In doing so they retained the Stuart Cup for the third successive year and edged ahead 32-31 in the overall table for previous winners. The joint Shetland captains were footballer Allan Johnston and hockey player Rhiannon Inkster.

The action began on Sunday morning with the swimming at the Clickimin pool, and Shetland scored an emphatic victory by 63 points to 31, with all but two inter-county records broken.

The home side’s dominance was such that Orkney only recorded one individual victory, by Morna Brown in the girls’ 50 metres butterfly.

Shetland record breakers were Callum MacGregor in the boys’ 50m butterfly and 100m freestyle, Amy Harper in the girls’ 50m backstroke and 50m freestyle, Felix Gifford in the boys’ 50m backstroke and Andrea Strachan in the girls’ 50m breaststroke.

Moving on to the athletics competition on the Clickimin track, Shetland were victorious by 107-87, which meant a virtually unassailable 52-point lead with only two of the sports completed.

The football match, played at Gilbertson Park in front of a large home support, saw Shetland win 2-0 when the overall dominance of play possibly would have merited more.

The first 40 minutes saw some good football with the home side just shading the exchanges. The second half, however, belonged to the blues. James Aitken put them ahead in the 55th minute and they didn’t take a backward glance from there.

Daniel Johnston added the second seven minutes later to put to rest any doubt. Scott Wilson between the Orkney sticks pulled his team out of trouble on many occasions as the home side pressed for more.

It was worthy win for the home side and a third straight event success for the young Shetlanders in pursuit of the overall prize.

The final two sports both went the way of the visitors, the Orkney girls winning the netball 40-34 and an Emma Kirkpatrick strike enough to see off Shetland in the hockey.

• See The Shetland Times on Friday for full reports and more photographs.