2019 Grand Masters Celtic Cup

Swansea, Wales 26-28 April 2019

The Celtic Cup on 26-28 April took place at the King George V Playing Fields, Swansea, Wales. Four teams competed for the Grand Masters (Over 60) trophy in a round robin competion over three days: France, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. All matches were played in four quarters of seventeen and a half minutes with a ten minute break at half time and an interval of two minutes between quarters. Ireland were defending the cup which they had retained the previous year in France.

a Scotland GM line up in the 2019 Celtic CupScotland Grand Masters Line Up in Swansea

In an amazing display of guts and determination from Scotland O60s in their first match, against Wales. Scotland took the lead through Gurdial Duhre, but 1-0 up turned into 2-1 down and stayed that way until the last 5 minutes when Gurdial Duhre added to his first half goal to level the score. Even that wasn’t good enough for this team though and they pressurised the Welsh until Arthur Robertson made the score 3-2 with less than a minute left. Great performance and very proud Coach Adam McInnes and Manager, George Guy. In the other match, Ireland had a comfortable 3-0 victory against France.

Scotland dominated their second match, against Ireland, but could not find the net and ended up losing 1-0 to a breakaway Irish goal. Wales beat France 2-0 to put Scotland into third place after two days, with Ireland looking set to retain the trophy unless Wales could beat them on the final day.

In their final match, Scotland had a comprehensive 6-0 victory over France, Gurdial Duhre netting four, while Ireland managed a 1-1 draw against Wales to finish the tournament in first place, with Scotland in second, regretting their inability to break down the Irish defence on the previous day.

Scotland Squad

John Bennett, Gurdial Duhre, ​​​​​Ben Gibson, ​​​​​​​​​Murray Graham (GK), Alistair Hay, John Hay​​​​, Derek Johnstone​​​​, Alan Kerr, ​​​​ Gordon Mackenzie (C), ​​​​Alasdair McArthur, ​​​ Glenn Paton, Arthur Robertson, ​​​​Davie Rowlands, ​​​​ Neil Sharp​​​​​, Ronnie Stott (GK), Billy Taylor. Coach Adam McInnes, Manager George Guy.

Table

Team P W D L F A GD Pts
Ireland 3 2 1 0 5 1 4 7
Scotland 3 2 0 1 9 3 6 6
Wales 3 1 1 1 5 4 1 4
France 3 0 0 3 0 11 -11 0