It was far from an unlucky number as valiant veteran James Hutchinson collected a record 13th Macaulay Cup winners medal for Kingussie as they wrapped up the Artemis-sponsored national tournament for the 25th time.
Hutch, who is now 42 but still super-fit, won his first Macaulay medal in 1992 – a year before the birth of Ryan Borthwick, who won the man of the match award in Saturday’s 4-1 win over Kyles Athletic at Oban.
Ryan’s proud father, Andrew, latterly Kings’ goalkeeper, played alongside Hutch, and saw his son give an imperious midfield display to gain his first Macaulay medal.
Despite stubborn resistance from injury-hit Kyles, unbeaten Kings dominated in the drizzle without ever clicking into top gear and are now many people’s tip for a trophy treble.
But manager John Gibson said: “It’s a tough ask to keep winning cup ties and we’ll just focus on trying to make progress in the MacTavish and Camanachd Cups.
“When the game ended, we knew Ryan would get man of the match, which he thoroughly deserved. He was our only change from our 2019 Macaulay triumph.
“Hutch is an absolute inspiration to our younger lads and no one still in the game has 13 winners’ medals in this cup.
“But we had heroes all over the park, with Robert Mabon and Rory MacKeachan at the back and Savio Genini and James Falconer up front. It wasn’t our usual free-flowing performance, but it was a battling display to get the job done in difficult conditions.”
Ryan Borthwick, an internationalist in 2017 who then drifted out of the game, said: “Shinty’s been in cold storage for so long due to the pandemic, so it was brilliant to play in front of a big crowd and our win’s due to the hard work our entire squad has put in, even during lockdowns.”
Captain Rory MacKeachan said: “It’s the best day of my life. I’ve dreamed about this since I was a wee boy.
“We’re all close friends in this team and most of us have played together since primary school. Kyles gave us a hard game but there’s more to come from us.”
Kyles drafted in Aberdeen-based hospital doctor Donald Irvine to bolster their defence, in which goalkeeper John Whyte was outstanding.
They were rocked by a sixth minute James Falconer strike.
Kieran MacPherson grabbed a second from close range in 69 minutes then Falconer added another. Innes MacDonald pulled one back in 79 minutes but substitute Lee Bain scored a spectacular fourth to clinch Kingussie’s triumph.
Meanwhile, Lovat ended Oban Camanachd’s hopes of playing at home in next month’s Tulloch Homes Camanachd Cup final, beating them 3-1 at Taynuilt to face Kingussie in the semi final at Fort William on September 4.
“We’re looking forward to a crack at Kingussie,” said Lovat co-manager Jamie Matheson.
“Our front three all scored and they’ll be a real threat in the semi-final.
“All 14 players we used were unbelieveable and though Oban came back in the second half, they seldom looked like scoring. Fraser Heath set us on the way with a ‘worldie’ of a goal from fully 35 yards.”
Malcolm Clark levelled for Oban but Greg Matheson’s 32nd minute strike gave Lovat an interval lead and Mark MacLachlan thumped the clincher in 64 minutes.
Jack Macdonald and Ross Forbes had Beauly two up in their Cottages.com MacTavish Cup second round tie only for visitors Caberfeidh to roar back for a 5-2 win.
Craig Morrison did the damage with four goals with Kevin Bartlett also on target for the Strathpeffer men.
New recruit Stuart Callison scored twice for Kilmallie in their 3-1 Mowi Senior League home win over Skye while Ben Delaney and Jack Dignan hit doubles in Lochaber’s 5-3 home victory over Glen Urquhart.
