KINGUSSIE remain in pole position at the top of shinty’s Mowi Premiership after sharing the points with present title-holders Newtonmore in a 2-2 draw at the Dell. While that makes it three points out of four that Kingussie have taken off their Badenoch rivals this season, King’s manager John Gibson was frustrated at the loss of a valuable point to a last-minute goal from on Friday from substitute Conor Jones.

“To tell the truth I am gutted to lose a goal at that stage of the game,” he said. “The only thing is that it does not bring Newtonmore any closer to us. I have to look on the bright side though, and everything is in our own hands.

“We still have six games to go before this league is over, so there’s a lot of tough shinty yet to be played, but then that is true for both sides.”

After a bright start from Kingussie in which winger James Falconer forced a corner, the Newtonmore centreline began to edge it and nice stick work from the experienced Jamie Robinson set up an early chance for David MacLean but the wing centre pulled his shot wide. Newtonmore were not to be denied for long however and shortly afterwards they opened the scoring after a speculative long-range effort from veteran full-centre Fraser Mackintosh deceived Kingussie keeper Rob MacGregor.

Beyond that the Kingussie defence, well marshalled by full-back Alexander Maben, had little difficulty in dealing with the ball coming through to the Newtonmore frontmen. Though MacGregor did have to look lively to keep out a snap shot from More captain Evan Menzies At the other end, Kingussie began to exert their own pressure with the pace of Ruaraidh Anderson in particular causing problem. Just on the half hour, Kings were unfortunate not to be level after Anderson had the ball in the net only for referee Calum Girvan to chalk it off for a foul committed earlier by defender Andy MacKintosh.

Anderson, who was awarded man of the match for his sparkling display, had to wait until the second half to level the match. He did so in 55 minutes after picking up a cross-field shy from wing centre Fraser Munro and smashing the ball past keeper Kenny Ross from a tight angle. Kingussie then looked to have clinched the game when Anderson set up winger James Falconer who beat Ross with another angled drive with only a quarter of an hour left on the clock.

Newtonmore, however, never know when they are beaten and substitute Conor Jones popped up to equalise with a neatly taken goal just before the final whistle to take the gloss off Kingussie’s evening. Despite this, Kingussie – who have played two more games than the holders – still have a one-point advantage over More.

Meanwhile, Kinlochshiel have now moved up into second spot alongside Lovat thanks to a 7-0 home win over Caberfeidh. A hat-trick from John MacRae plus goals from Mark MacDonald, Jordan Fraser and brothers Donald and Ali Nixon overwhelmed Cabers who were without Craig and Blair Morrison, as well as Kevin Bartlett – three internationalists.

Oban Camanachd also kept their hat in the ring with a 4-0 home win over Premiership strugglers Kilmallie who, after a reasonable start to their season, lie third from bottom just ahead of Lochaber. At the foot of the table are Inveraray who look destined to stay there having lost out 5-1 at home to Kyles Athletic.