U-16 Boys Scottish Shield

The Nicolson Institute 5-3 Culloden Academy

The scoring went as follows - 1.0 Luke Mackay, HT, 2.0 Alex John Morrison, 2.1, 2.2, FT, 3.2 Angus Macdonald, 4.2 Luke Mackay, 5.2 Lewis Macdonald, 5.3, FT AET.

The Nicolson gave their all against a very good opposition from Culloden. The spirit of the Nicolson team was shown when they lost their 2 goal advantage near the end of regulation time but came out with all guns blazing during extra time. The effort the boys put in was proven by the fact that so many of them were struggling with muscle cramps towards the end of the match.

It was a great team effort by every member of the squad and a well earned victory.

The Nicolson Institute team : Rory Morrison, Kenneth Macleod, Lewis Macalpine, Lewis Macdonald, Euan Shirkie, James Muir, Ruaraidh Macmillan, Niall Houston (Captain), Angus Macdonald, Alex John Morrison, John A Maciver, Ruaraidh Graham, Andrew Mackay, Finlay Macsween, Colin Morrison, Luke Mackay.

Sports Blog - up and running again for 2014-15

Inside the dressing room: friction, fights, characters & assassins - click on the text for the link

Scottish Schools Track and Field Athletics Championships

Scottish Schools Track and Field Championships (Saturday 7^th June)

(C & D age group qualifying rounds)

On Saturday 6^th June, a team of six selected athletes travelled to Grangemouth Stadium to compete in the qualifying rounds of the U14 and U15 age groups for the Scottish School Track and Field Championships. Ellie Maclean represented the school in U14 whilst Haran Rabe, Andrew Horne, Ross Budge, Caitlin Mackenzie and Catriona Rigby competed in the U15 events. Athletes who made it through the heats and semi-finals in these events were given the opportunity to go on and compete in the Hampden Park finals later in the month.

The weekend saw several fantastic performances from the team as they faced tough competition against the top ranking young athletes in Scotland. Ellie Maclean ran a fantastic heat in the 800m and managed to pull through to 5^th place in the final 200m of the race. Catriona Rigby just missed out on a place in the semi-finals in both the 100m and 200m after two strong runs. Later in the day, Ross Budge ran an impressive 400m and overtook two athletes on the home straight to bag 6^th place. The throwers also did well with Caitlin Mackenzie just missing out on a place in the Hampden final by coming 9^th place overall in the Shot Put. Haran Rabe, who only took up throws training two months ago, was also a strong contender for a place in the final but just missed out. Andrew Horne had a fantastic day and qualified for the final of the U15 Long Jump, 100m and 200m which was an incredible achievement!

The competition provided all athletes with valuable experience and gave them a taster of what competing at the ‘next level up’ is actually like.

Scottish Schools Track and Field Championships – Hampden Park (Friday 20^th & Saturday 21^st June)

(A & B age Groups and C & D Finals)

Last weekend, another group of U17 and U20 athletes travelled down to Glasgow to compete in the Commonwealth Games Stadium at Hampden Park. Over the two day event, athletes were given the full professional treatment from Glasgow 2014 officials who were doing a practice run for The Games which will begin soon. The team for this event was made up of Connor Maclean, Michael Macmillan, Alasdair Rigby, Jonathan Morrison, Andrew Horne, Abbie Mackay and Eilidh Macleod who were all competing in the U17 age group and Jenny Mactaggart who was in U20. Ross Mactaggart was also selected for the team but unfortunately couldn’t make it due to illness the week before.

The ladies did well in their sprints heats with Abbie Mackay running a strong race in both the 100m on Friday and 200m on Saturday. Eilidh Macloed also had a great run in the 200m and made it through to the semi-final which was fantastic. Jenny Mactaggart made it through to the final in her 200m race and Alasdair Rigby just missed out on a place in both the 100m and 200m semi-final. Jonathan Morrison also ran a strong 100m in his heat.

Connor Maclean performed extremely well in both his events and claimed a Silver medal in the 1500m and Bronze in the 800m which is an unbelievable achievement at this level of competition. Training partner, Michael Macmillan, also achieved a new PB of 1.58 in the 800m (after breaking two minutes for the first time only weeks before) and also made it through to the final. In addition to this, Michael ran in the 400m final and achieved a new PB in this event as well.

Unfortunately, Andrew Horne injured his back in the Long Jump event on the first day so had to withdraw from his race finals. Jonathan Morrison managed a new PB in the Long Jump (over 10m) and Abbie and Eilidh also gave good performances in the Long Jump and High Jump.

This was a fantastic weekend for all athletes and they dealt with the intense pressure of the competition extremely well.

Girls 100 Metre Run A Heat:  Jenny Mactaggart (3rd) 13.36Q Final: 4 Jenny Mactaggart (4th)  13.16   Girls 200 Metre Run A Heat: Jenny Mactaggart  (3rd) 27.57Q Final: 6 Jenny Mactaggart (6th) 27.43   Girls Triple Jump A Jenny Mactaggart 4.56m +0.0   Girls 100 Metre Run B Heat: Abbie Mackay (4th) 13.38q Semi-final: Abbie Mackay (8th) 13.34   Girls 200 Metre Run B Heats: Eilidh Macleod (3rd)  27.62  - Qualified for semi-finals Abbie Mackay (4th) 27.66 Semi-final: Eilidh Macleod (6th) 28.08   Girls High Jump B Eilidh Macleod  1.40m   Girls Long Jump B Abbie Mackay  4.62m 1.8

Boys 100 Metre Run B Heats: Jonathan Morrison (7th)  13.29 Alasdair Rigby (4th) 12.31   Boys 200 Metre Run B Heats: Alasdair Rigby (3rd) 24.57   Boys 400 Metre Run B Heat: Michael Macmillan (3rd)  52.21q Final: Michael Macmillan (6th)  52.78   Boys 800 Metre Run B Heats: Michael Macmillan (2nd) 1:58.19q Conner Maclean(2nd)1:57.59q Final: Conner Maclean (3rd) 1:58.01 – BRONZE MEDAL Michael Macmillan(6th) 2:00.36   Boys 1500 Metre Run B Heat: 1 Conner Maclean (1st) 4:16.49Q Final: Conner Maclean (2nd)  4:02.17 – SILVER MEDAL   Boys Triple Jump B Jonathan Morrison  10.29m   Boys Long Jump C - FINAL Andrew Horne (6th) 5.43m -0.2

Scottish cup finalists 2014. Well done girls!

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North of Scotland Athletics Championships

Huge congratulations should go to the team which travelled to Inverness to compete in the North of Scotland Schools Athletics Championships. The team managed to get 12 medals, with the Nicolson team shining through in the sprints.

Jenny McTaggart took double gold in the 100m and 200m and so did Andrew Horne with two very exciting close finishes.

Abbie Mackay gained an impressive 3 medals in all of her events getting silver in the 100m and long jump and a bronze for the 200m. Both Jenny and Abbie were in the same 100m and 200m so we gained many of the medals in the sprints.

Eilidh Macleod performed very well in the high jump gaining a bronze medal. Ross McTaggart stormed through in the 200m to get the silver medal as did Michael Macmillan in the 400m. Ross Budge gained silver in the 80m Hurdles and Rory Mighton took a silver in the high jump.

The pupils were a credit to the school , they behaved and performed very well. It was an excellent day at the competition and we only got rained on once, result! I also got asked if I was competing in the Under 14s long jump along with Annabel Mackay in S1!

Thanks to Mr Rowlands and Mr Campbell for driving the minibus and cheering on the kids at the competition.

Miss Arthur

Scottish Schools Track and Field Championships

Connor Maclean, Alasdair Rigby and Jonathan Morrison travelled to Grangemouth last weekend to represent The Nicolson in the Scottish Schools Track and Field Championships. The boys faced tough competition against the highest ranking young athletes in Scotland over the two day event.
Connor ran a strong race in the U17 3000m, finishing in 5th place and achieving a new PB time of  9m16.
Alasdair and Jonathan both competed in the U15 100m and 200m events. Alasdair ran an impressive semi-final in the 100m and secured himself a place in the final. He finished 8th place in a tight race. For Jonathan, this was one his first experiences competing at national level and he handled his races extremely well.
A huge well done to all three boys who represented the school fantastically in this competition.

More athletics updates to follow from the North of Scotland Schools Competition which takes place today in Inverness...

Nicolson lads suffer cruel defeat

 

The Nicolson Institute senior boys team learned first hand how cruel a game football can be as they lost 4 1 to Ellon Academy in Dingwall on Wednesday (5/6/13). The result was particularly harsh on the Lewis lads who had been the team pressing for the whole second half, whilst trailing 1 2, only to be further undone by a couple of breakaways in the last few minutes.

Prior to the match the two teams observed a minutes silence in memory of an Ellon student who had tragically lost his life the previous weekend. The Nicolson started the game brightly and went ahead after 4 minutes: Colin Maclean received the ball at the left edge of the box, cut inside on his right foot and arrowed the ball in to the far corner. It was a fantastic goal by Colin and came at the end of a good passing move involving Jake Rivett and Innes Iain Morrison. 2 minutes later Colin turned his man, straight from a throw, and hit the underside of the cross bar with a lobbed volley-if only! After 10 minutes Innes Iain had his right foot shot tipped round the post by the impressive Ellon keeper.

As the half progressed, Ellon came in to the game more, particularly down the left where their number 5 and number 9 were looking very dangerous. Prior to the game the Nicolson team were warned to try and avoid giving away too many set-pieces, given we were without two of our better header's of the ball in Calum Dola and Gordon Maclennan. Unfortunately the warning went unheeded as Ellon equalised from a header following a disputed free kick (20 mins) before taking the lead after 25 minutes from a header following a flicked on long throw. In truth this was Ellon's best spell of the game and the Nicolson were grateful to Ali Macleod in goal who made a couple of great saves to keep us in it.

After 36 minutes Innes Iain went on a run from near halfway and was only thwarted by a last ditch tackle. 3 minutes later centre back Craig Macleod came off injured following a late tackle, Cameron Macarthur came on in his place. After 44 minutes, good interplay between Micheil and Colin led to Micheil crossing to the back post where Colin saw his goal-bound shot deflected wide.

The message at half time was to relax on the ball and if we could get at the back 4 we would certainly create chances for Wally and Colin. The boys were reminded what a great chance they had to win the cup!

Unfortunately I didn't take many notes in the second half as I got too 'in to the game'. Suffice to say the boys were brilliant: Chris Dempster and Micheil Smith drove the boys on as the yellow's attacked in wave after wave. Ellon were camped in their own half for 30 minutes, but weirdly, whether by luck or Ellon's tactical design, the Nicolson couldn't get through the packed defence (think Barca v Chelsea). The Nicolson got close to breaking through a couple of times but the final pass or shot wasn't good enough. The Ellon keeper was very good at catching/punching crosses which made it tough to get anything from set pieces.

The Nicolson continued to press;Jason Guilmartin bombed on from right back whilst Jake was nutmegging Ellon players from left back-we just weren't getting a break up front! After 75 minutes disaster struck; as tiredness crept in, a ball was lost in midfield, one pass over the top and number 5 tore away to slip the ball under Ali - heartbreak! The Nicolson kept plugging away but in 88 minutes a slack pass in defence was intercepted and Ellon were able to compound the Nicolson's misery with a 4th goal.

Soon after, the full-time whistle went; there were tears, cheers, congratulating and commiserating. No matter how many times you hear "Really unlucky", "You didn't deserve that", "You guys gave us a good game", "You did well to reach the final", it just makes you more upset and angry. Football sucks sometimes. Getting to a final and getting gubbed (on paper) sucks!

Or does it? Maybe school/junior/amateur football is more about the moments; maybe it's about making the team, training in the snow, practising penalties, missing open goals and the slagging that follows. Maybe it's about trips away, great comebacks (coming from 4-0 down at Perth Grammer), improving your game and working as a team. Maybe it's about Mr Macphee singing "Angels" by Robbie Williams, Colin catching the ball instead of heading it in from an inch, Andrew Macmillan missing from a yard, never giving up in games and dominating the second half of the final. Maybe, just maybe, it's not such a cruel game after all. Well done boys.

Ali Macleod:Jason Guilmartin, Chris Dempster, Craig Macleod Jake Rivett: Kevin Flower, Micheil-Russell Smith, Calum Vann, Innes Iain Morrison: Ally Maciver, Colin Maclean. Subs: Peter Macaskill, Cameron Macarthur, Josh Harris, James "Jambo" Morrison.

Unlucky girls, sounded like a tough game! Hugs and kisses from Miss Mackenzie's higher class. We are gutted for you.xxx

Good luck to the senior girls football team who play Boroughmuir in the final of the Senior Girls Scottsih Cup. Game kicks off at 12.30 and there will be tweet updates throughout.

Come on girls do us proud!