Westray and Shapinsay travelled to Kirkwall last Saturday to play the first round of their Parish Cup match. Westray had the same team out as last year whilst Shapinsay had Fraser Leslie and John Dunnett in the team to replace the experienced trio of Gordon Rendall, Billy Eunson and Colin Leslie.

The first two doubles matches were shared with Kevin Gray and Ian Eunson winning two straight for Shapinsay and Simon Parry and Trevor Rendall winning by the same margin for Westray before the Shapinsay debutants Fraser Leslie and John Dunnett had a very impressive 2-0 win to give Shapinsay a 2-1 lead after the first series of doubles.

Onto the singles and Simon Parry had a dart at the double to win the first singles match but the very experienced Kevin Gray hung in to win 2-1 with his doubles partner Ian Eunson beating Westray skipper Alan Drever 2-0 to put Shapinsay 4-1 in front. Westray dug deep though and Trevor Rendall, Colin Kirkness, Billy Brown and Jim Brown all won their singles matches to give Westray a healthy 5-4 lead at half time.

Into the second half and Shapinsay once again got the better of the doubles to draw the tie level at 6-6. Westray's Jim Brown won the first singles of the second half before Kevin Gray replied for Shapinsay to keep the score level at 7-7. Westray once again took the lead again through Colin Kirkness before Callum Miller leveled the scores at 8-8 with a superb 149 checkout in his 2-0 win over Billy Brown. Parish newboy John Dunnett sealed a great first parish appearance for Shapinsay when he beat Alan Drever 2-0 in the pnultimate singles match to ensure Shapinsay had at least a play-off before Westray's Simon Parry won the last singles match 2-0 against Graham Rendall to make the final score 9-9 and take the tie into a play-off for only the third time in the ODA's short Parish Cup history.

The play-off, a team game played over 1001 by six players from each team, saw Westray lead from the start but they couldn't take their chances at the double before Shapinsay skipper Kevin Gray stepped up to checkout 55 on double top to put his side through to the quarter finals. They will now face the winner of the Eday v St.Ola tie.