County select will provide tough test for Wick Academy in Farquhar testimonial game
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Castletown will be the setting for an all-day festival of football this weekend as part of the delayed testimonial season for Wick Academy's club captain Alan Farquhar.
The main event at Back Park on Saturday is a match between Academy and a Caithness AFA select, kicking off at 4pm. It will be preceded by a tournament for under-eights, from 10am to 11.30am, and an Academy versus Caithness veterans' match starting at 12.30pm.
Food and drink will be available throughout the day.
Farquhar (34), who comes from Castletown, was awarded a testimonial more than two years ago but the plans had to be shelved because of the pandemic.
The long-serving defender has made 347 appearances for Academy but missed almost the whole of last season after damaging his right knee during a 2-1 defeat at Lossiemouth – the same ground where he made his debut for the club in 2009.
After a wait of nearly three months for a scan, it emerged that he had suffered a grade two tear of the cruciate ligament.
Farquhar, an assistant project manager at Dounreay, began his testimonial programme with a golf day in May and a horse-racing night will be arranged in the autumn. He hopes the events will culminate next year in a showpiece match against a visiting team of legends.
“We were looking at doing the 2020/21 season and obviously then Covid knocked all that, so we just started it again this year,” Farquhar explained.
“The whole idea of these events is to raise money to try and take a legends team up to play on the first or second weekend in May next year. We'll try and keep it as close to the end of the season as we can.”
Saturday's match forms part of Academy's preparations for the 2022/23 Highland League campaign and they will face a tough test against a strong-looking county XI co-managed by Wick Thistle's Owen Harrold and Colin Sinclair of Staxigoe United.
Farquhar is looking forward to being part of Gary Manson's Wick squad in the coming campaign.
“I played my first 70 minutes the other day but I'm trying to be sensible," he said. "It's about looking after myself.
“I'll definitely be available for Gary. He has been really good."
Manson admitted at the end of last season that the recurring problems with injuries and lack of availability had been unprecedented in his time at the club. Nevertheless the Scorries finished in the top half of the table, in ninth place.
Farquhar said: “There was a bit of naivety at times, giving the ball away too easily and then we were chasing. They definitely came on better in the second half of the season.
“I was involved for the first four games and the games were so frustrating.
“We'll just work as much as we can and see how we can progress. Obviously the aim is to win things – try to get a cup run or get yourself in a respectable position."
Steven Anderson is set to face his former Wick Academy team-mates in Alan Farquhar's testimonial game at Castletown on Saturday.
The striker, who signed for Wick Groats recently, is in the Caithness AFA squad being co-managed by Owen Harrold and Colin Sinclair.
Players confirmed so far for the county select are Asa Sinclair (Swifts), Greg Shearer, Jonah Martens, Steven Anderson, Korbyn Cameron, Alan Mathieson (Wick Groats), James McLean, Innes Mackintosh (Pentland United), Danny Coghill, Sam Barclay, Owen Harrold (Wick Thistle), Martin Banks, Marc Coghill (Staxigoe United), Aaron Wilson, Ryan Sutherland (High Ormlie Hotspur) and Grant Budge (John O'Groats).
