Orkney Image Library

Aye, those lads usually mastered Shetland (as had "the suits").
Changed days.

The year was 1973. The final game of the North Atlantic Cup. The score - Orkney 2 Faroes 1. The team that started I think was M Harcus; R Stanger, B Wood;E Kemp, N Couper, C Slater;J Johnston, G Johnston, A Hutchison, K Hutchison, E Hutchison. Subs used - J Gildea and D Keldie. Scorers for Orkney A Hutchison and G Johnston.
Other players in the pool were D Leonard, N Drever, H Spence, P Findlater
Any corrections or other information welcome

Your right Bobby! At first I thought you were wrong as I was convinced I was in the team picture the year the cup was won. Having looked at my picture now, I see it was taken in 1972 before the 3-1 win against Shetland. The caption in the Orcadian said, "Orkney won the North Atlantic Cup for this year". I don’t remember it being played on an annual or bi-annual basis. Was the team at the top of the league each season deemed the winner?

Orkney beat Shetland twice in 1972 after the match was cancelled in 1971. I imagine both matches had to be played as the scores counted towards the NAC. Geordie Leonard is a surprise absentee from the 1973 picture. I know he broke his jaw that year but it was a month later in the Milne Cup match. Davie Keldie of Stromness is missing from the list of players. He is on the right of the front row. Does anyone know who the person next to ‘Dook’ Donaldson is?

I can't give you the full address as URL's are not allowed in this forum, but if you Google 'roonba' and click on the NON_FIFA tab you will find a list of all Orkney's inter county matches. Interesting site for us geeks!

Apologies, Davie Keldie was mentioned.

[Rae, if you put the address from the www... bit onwards, I can turn it into a link when I approve the post- Steven]

It's this link.

The person next to 'Dook' Donaldson was a coach who came up from Hearts and he did coaching with the County team. Can't remember his name but he was a friend of 'Dook' and Jackie Miller.

That was uppermost in my mind as well Morgan but I didn't think the guy in the picture looked like him. His name was R Wishart and I remember him coming up to coach us before the games v Heart of Midlothian. I guess he was invited back to continue his coaching for the decisive North Atlantic Cup a month later.

Just came across this photo again. Bobby Wishart of Hearts who had been coaching the Orkney team was asked to present the NA Cup to the winning team captain Morgan Harcus. I think Doctor Gordon was to do this duty. Can anyone clarify this.

Bobby Wishart is the man next to Jimmy Donaldson, he was the guy who was in charge of the teams for the matches against Hearts in 1973 he not only coached us, he also picked the team, and was a great coach and a very nice guy.
Cannot actually remember if he presented the cup though after this match though.