Ireland came out on top in the Senior and U21 matches but the Scottish Women were winners at the Marine Harvest Shinty / Hurling / Camogie internationals at the Bught Park on Saturday on Saturday 2 November 2013.

Scotland (3-4) 13-11 (2-5) Dublin

There was a debut win for Scotland Women’s Head Coach Stuart Reid as his side edged out Dublin by a couple of points. This 10.30am throw up was moved to the outside pitch as a Saturday morning pitch inspection ruled that the Bught Park was only able to take two games. Two early goals gave Scotland the edge and they led (2-1) 7-4 (0-4) at the interval. Dublin pushed hard it what was an entertaining tussle and they reduced the deficit to a couple of points late in the game but Scotland ran out victors. Goals from Katie Booth, Laura Gallacher and an own goal from Dublin keeper Stephanie Carthy counted for the Scots whilst points from Lorna MacRae (2) and Katie Smith (2) added to their tally. Erner Keenan scored both Dublin goals with Georgina Kelly (3), Cliona MacCulloch (1) and Rosin Collins (1) chipping in with additional points. Scotland captain Laura McCafferty was presented with the Marine Harvest Quaich by Marine Harvest Managing Director Alan Sutherland.   

Scotland U21 (2-4) 10-21 (4-9) Ireland U21  

Scotland U21 were over-powered in the second half by their Irish counter-parts at the Bught Park. Gary McKerracher and captain Greg Matheson each notched two points to leave the sides level at 4-4 at the interval. However the Irish pulled away in the second half. Mathew Donnelly, Robert McAfee, Bryan Murphy and Stephen Quirke found the back of the net for the Irish. McAfee, Murphy and Quirke also got single points as did Chris McGuinness and Brian Corcoran whilst Jason Flynn contributed with four points. Scotland never gave up though and they responded with a goal from Duncan “Ach” MacRae and a fine strike from Calum Stewart but it wasn’t enough.

Scotland (0-14) 14-18 (1-15) Ireland  

Ireland retained the Marine Harvest Quaich with a 5-1 series win following the second test at a wet Bught Park. Scotland manager Drew McNeil made just one change from the side which lost 24-18 at Croke Park a week earlier with Conor Cormack starting in place of Callum Cruden. The early stages were nip and tuck as Kevin Bartlett and Neil McManus traded points leave the sides level at 2-2. Richie Hogan put Ireland ahead for the first time when he fired over but Bartlett and McManus continued to score to leave the Scots 6-5 in front. Richie Hogan made it level pegging at 6-6. Bartlett bagged a couple more two-pointers, either side of a Cahir Healy point to give Scotland a 10-7 advantage with 26 minutes played. The Irish plugged away though and points from Richie Hogan, Gareth Johnston and Darragh O’Connell levelled the game once more at 10-10. The Scots almost got the first half goal they craved when Finlay MacRae ran at the Irish defence and the ball was played to Kevin Bartlett but he couldn’t get a shot at goal. Glen MacKintosh also had a chance but his effort rose over the bar and the Scots had to settle for an 11-10 half time lead. Ireland scored the only goal of the game 8 minutes into the second half when Patrick Maher got away from the Scotland defence and he fired low into the ground to beat Stuart MacDonald to make it 13-11 in the visitors favour. A dead ball over the bar from Kevin Bartlett, his twelfth point of the game, restored parity at 13-13 before Ireland pulled away as McManus, Johnston, McManus again and Hogan saw them lead 17-13. Scotland knew that they needed goals to win the series and they passed up the opportunity to snap up some single and double points but it was the superb Irish skipper Neil McManus who made it 18-13 with his seventh score of the afternoon. Conor Cormack got the final point of the game to make the final score 18-14 to Ireland.    

Picture courtesy of www.neilgpaterson.com