Day one at the Junior Inter-County

A day of dramatic results ended with Orkney taking a 20-point lead over their rivals Shetland in the race for the Stewart Cup and Junior Inter-County glory.

From the moment Alfie Price dived in to the Stromness pool and set a new Junior Inter-County butterfly record in the very first race, the atmosphere was electric.

With Price and Eve Wood, two of the strongest swimmers in the north of Scotland, Orkney was always expected to pick up a clutch of first places.

But with two points for a win, 1.5 for a second, one for a third and 0.5 for fourth, teams need first, seconds or thirds to pull ahead of their rivals.

This is where Orkney excelled; Magnus Kirkpatrick, Craig Burton, Tamsin Blowfield and Erin Foubister played their part brilliantly and racked up the points for Orkney.

Credit also goes to Ella Poke, who at only 11 years old, put in hopefully the first of many strong performances for Orkney.

With six new Junior Inter-County records (four for Price and one each for Wood and Nathan Smith), the swimming was a fantastic start, and put Orkney in to a 17-point lead, with a 57-40 victory.

It may have been 55 years since the event was last held in Stromness, but the pool will now forever be etched into the memory of these young athletes and fans.

It was a different story when a talented and young Orkney side faced a slick and formidable Shetland one on the netball court at Picky in the afternoon.

In netball, Orkney are a team in transition; the likes of Rosa Leonard, Hollie Cromarty and Annie Ewing put in credible performances and will no doubt star for years to come, while older heads like Zara Macleod and Molly Tulloch led well.

However, the movement, passing and shooting accuracy of the Shetland players saw them run up the score.

A battling performance, with the home side never giving up, saw them fight to keep the score down.

It ended 29-46, which made the overall Junior Inter-County score 86-86.

This left it to Orkney’s footballers to produce a repeat of their memorable 4-0 victory in Shetland last year.

And that is exactly what they did.

A cagey start saw Shetland begin well, but Orkney grew into the match, dominating proceedings.

This resulted in Alfie Macnamara crossing for Zander Baillie to head home via a deflection.

The reds spurned more chances in the first half and were unlucky not to go in at half-time with a bigger lead.

Into the second half, Shetland struggled to create anything of note against a determined and resolute Orkney side.

Baillie added another with another header and then a fantastic mazy run from Macnamara saw him finish with aplomb.

Captain Baillie completed his hat-trick with the final kick of the match, sticking out a leg to divert the ball into the net to complete the 4-0 win.

The result means Orkney go into Sunday, with hockey and athletics to come, with a 20-point lead, 106-86.

The action begins at 11am on the hockey pitch, before athletics at 1.30pm.

After a day of twists and turns, there is sure to be a few more before the fate of the Stewart Cup is decided.