Kinlochshiel eye more history but face sternest of Kingussie tests in MacTavish Cup final

Kinlochshiel have set their sights on completing an already historic season in style by beating Kingussie in Saturday’s cottages.com MacTavish Cup final at Bught Park in Inverness.

Kinlochshiel's Mark MacDonald (left) and Kingussie's Roddy Young battle for possession. Pic: Fiona Young.

Skipper Keith MacRae, who grabbed a hat-trick securing Kinlochshiel’s maiden Tulloch Homes Camanachd Cup success last month, said: “It’s obviously been a challenging season for shinty so it’s been great for us to return and have cup success. We haven’t won the MacTavish before and it would be a brilliant achievement to bring it back to Dornie – but Kingussie won’t make it easy for us.”

Kingussie are 27-time MacTavish Cup winners, albeit their last success was in 2011, ending a period of dominance during which they took the trophy 19 times over the previous 24 years.

Having already lifted the Artemis Macaulay Cup this term, Kings captain Rory MacKeachan said: “We were disappointed with our result in the Scottish this year but we have dusted ourselves down and are eager to win the MacTavish Cup.

"As a group it’s a trophy we have yet to win and it would be one more cup than we managed in 2019 so it would be a step in the right direction for us. The end goal is obviously a grand slam but I’d say two out of three cups and beating our local rivals Newtonmore four times would amount to a pretty successful year, especially considering the age of our squad.”

Shiel’s Paul MacRae is ruled out with a knee injury, whilst Ali Nixon is a major doubt with a hamstring problem. Fraser Munro and Ryan Borthwick both return for the Kings after missing the semi-final victory over Fort William.