Caithness Show

The weather held for the 2nd day of the Caithness County Show at Scrabster until the rain started at around 3.30pm.  Jojo Hunter won the overall champion horse (1st pic).  Emma Mackay was reserve light legged champion to Jojo (2nd pic). Ashley Miller was in-hand champion with Flossie (3rd pic)  The reserve in-hand champion is 4th pic.

Alasdair Matheson won the Highland Pony championship and Ashley was reserve with Ollie (5th pic).  Alasdair was overall horse reserve to Jojo. The champion Shetland is the black pony behind the coloured pony.

Caitlin Bissett won her ridden class on our pony Eddiston May-Bee (8th pic).

James Allan won the overall sheep championship and was reserve supreme champion to Andy Morris's white heifer.

Pentland Utd vs Kirkwall Thorfinn

The first semi-final of the Highland Amateur Cup was played at the Dammies in Thurso today.  Pentland Utd beat last year's champions Kirkwall Thorfinn 4-1 after extra time. 

I was at the County Show and caught the second half onwards.  Kirkwall were 1-0 up at half-time, but in the 2nd half it was all Pentland Utd with Kirkwall hardly getting near goalie Michael Gray.  The Kirwall right back was sent off for a tackle on substitute Ross Allan (2nd pic). After numerous missed chances, Tony Farquhar eqaulised with a powerful header - which I missd as I was wiping the rain off my lens! The 1st pic shows his celebrations.

The game moved into extra time in constant rain conditions.  Ross Allan missed a penalty (3rd pic), but made up for it with two goals in the 2nd half of extra time.  Garry Macleod got the 4th with the last kick of the ball.

The 2nd semi-final is next Saturday between Golspie Stafford and Lochs.  The final is on the 7th or 14th August.

Caithness County Show Working Hunter

Once again, constant rain marred the working hunter classes at the Caithness County Show today.  Entries were way down for the pony section with only one or two entrants per class.

Rachel Gunn took the pony championship with Flyer and the reserve champion with Henry (last pic).

Horse champion was Hayley Florence with Crackerjack and reserve was Alex Henderson with Primagh Dreamer (2nd bottom pic).

The ring was small and tight and quite a few did not make it round.

Wick vs Orkney Match Officials

I forgot to add this photo to the action pics of the Wick Academy vs Orkney game played last Saturday.  This photo was at the special request of Sol.  If it wasn't for the officials, there would be no games played.  Caithness seems to be well off for officials compared to other areas in the Highlands.

Swifts vs Halkirk

I caught the last 30 mins of the Swifts vs Halkirk game tonight at the Dammies and Swifts were winning 3-1 at that time.  Halkirk piled on the pressure, but found trialist goalkeeper Lee Kirk in tremendous form.  On two occasions he brilliantly saved shots when the Halkirk strikers were clean through (pics 1 and 2).  Lee MacDougall scored a cracking 4th goal against the run of play.

The second relegation spot looks as though it is between these two sides and it may go down to the last game of the season.

Latheron Show

I arrived late at the Latheron Show due to the football in Wick and only caught the showjumping.  Despite the bad forecast, the weather was fine.

Pic 1 shows the champion dog and pic 2 shows Caitlin Bissett and Daisy winning the exciting pairs jumping competition, where two riders race each other over 5 jumps.

Wick Academy vs Orkney

Wick Academy played Orkney in a friendly match today and won 5-2.  The last pic shows the 5th goal flying in.  Orkney took the lead in the first 5 mins and looked lively for the first half hour, but Wick gained control and went in at half time 3-1 up.  It was all Wick in the 2nd half and Orkney scored their 2nd with about the only chance they had.

I had two cameras at a game for the first time.  I set one up with a remote trigger behind the goal, but found it difficult to catch the action with this one.  I need two hands to operate the "normal" camera, so have to set it aside in order to press the remote trigger.  Should get better with more practice over the summer.