Attempts were made to switch Newtonmore's tie with Kilmallie to Canal Park, but standing water on the Kilmallie pitch caused them to call off the reversed fixture.

Subsequently, the weather cleared in Lochaber, the wind strengthened and dried up their pitch and the game might well have gone ahead.

The other ties did go ahead, however, and provided a feast of goal scoring.

Fort William, playing their first fixture at home this term on the newly re-turfed An Aird celebrated with a 7-0 thumping of Skye. Gordie MacKinnon was first off the mark in seven minutes, followed by a first half foursome from Jim Clark.

MacKinnon made it six in the 65th minute and Bryan Simpson made it seven just seven minutes later.

At Strathpeffer, Caberfeidh were Lochaber's victims in a 7-1 thrashing. Zander Ferguson got the visitors out of the starting blocks with a goal in the first minute.

Ian Love made it two in the 10th minute, then Ben Delaney notched up a first half hat-trick. Ben Delaney added another in the 58th minute and Danny Delaney made it seven. Michael Bartlett scored Caber's consolation.

Beauly had a more modest 4-2 victory at home to Inverness with Stephen MacLean scoring first in 17 minutes and Barrie MacDonald adding a second on the half hour mark.

Connor Ross added another on the hour mark then MacDonald got his second in the 70th minute.

Beauly's poor disciplinary record this term continued, however, with Roger Cormack sent off, allowing Inverness to claw a couple back from Malcolm Morrison and Fraser Heath.

The tie of the round, however, was at Kiltarlity, where Lovat took on Strathglass in what turned out to be a breathlessly entertaining encounter.

Robert Geddes got the visitors off to a flyer with a goal in the third minute, but Martin Bell equalised for Lovat three minutes later.

Then Raymond Rennie stepped up with a double to establish a 3-1 lead for Lovat. Greg Matheson added to Strathglass's woes with a double in the space of a minute on the half hour mark to extend the lead to 5-1 but Marc MacLachlan pulled one back in the 35th minute.

Then as the half came to a close, Strathglass reduced the margin to just one with goals from Robert Geddes in the Lee Bain.

After the interval, the score remained unchanged until the hour mark, when goals number two and three from Martin Bell made it 7-4 to Lovat.

Just as Lovat began to think of the tie as sealed, up popped MacLachlan with goals two and three to make it 7-6.

Matheson completed his own hat-trick for Lovat to establish clear water for them once again.

But Strathglass still had some fight left in them and Scott Douglas netted for the visitors, making the score 8-7. Despite frantic efforts from Srathglass to take the tie into extra time, Lovat held out to go through to the next round.

In the South, the Glasgow Celtic Society Cup first round saw Oban Celtic go through 5-2 after extra time against Ballachulish.

David MacPhee scored first for Ballachulish and added a second in the 36th minute, but Ballachulsih then had both Brian MacKinnon and Martin Duncan sent off as Oban pulled back to 2-2 in normal time with goals from Kenny Wotherspoon and David Duffy.

Numeric superiority then had the last laugh in extra time, with Keiron Gallagher scoring for Oban, Duffy adding his second and Alan Miller making it 5-2 with a couple of minutes of extra time to go.

Oban Camanachd had an easy passage to the next round when Tayforth pulled out, unable to raise a team.

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