Highland Pupils Compete For Sports Trophy

The finals of the MacRobert Cup 2008 will take place at Inverness Royal Academy on Thursday (12 June) with over 230 pupils from across the Highlands battling it out on football pitches and on basketball courts to win the hotly contested annual trophy.

Thirty two teams will compete in boys and girls basketball and football representing secondary schools from Thurso, Wick, Dornoch, Ross-shire, Inverness, Plockton, Kingussie and Lochaber.

Organised by The Highland Council’s schools sports coordinators, the Macrobert Cup brings together secondary school aged pupils offering them an opportunity to experience competitive sport.  The Cup was first instigated by the Highland Sport Development Association.

Chairman of The Highland Council’s Education, Culture and Sport Committee, Councillor Bill Fernie wished all the teams well.  He said:  “It is good to see such a wide geographical spread of young people get the chance to meet up and compete against other teams.  They have already all done well in qualifiying for the hotly contested final.  Although their goal is to pick up the trophy, the emphasis of the whole competition is to encourage participation and promote sportsmanship.  I’m sure the level of play will be very high and it will be a quality competition on the day.”

Competitions will start at 4.00 pm and are expected to all be completed by 6.30pm. The football games will be 12 minutes long in the leagues and 15 minutes for the semis and the final. The basketball tournament will take place in the games hall, gym and dance studio