A shinty team has broken a Grand Slam trophy less than 36 hours after winning a national tournament for the first time in the club’s 127 year history.

Glenurquhart beat Oban 6-0 on Saturday to win the MacAulay Cup.

Less than two days later pictures of the broken trophy emerged on social networking sites and the association which runs the tournament has said it is “profoundly disappointed” at the “excessive damage”.

Glenurquhart has since apologised for the damage.

A statement released by the club said: “This incident is deeply regrettable and GUSC have written a formal apology to The Macaulay Association and naturally offered to cover any costs in repair.

“The postings on Facebook were ill advised and to the best of our knowledge have all been removed - it is only others who are re-posting these images. They are causing understandable distress and we would appreciate the removal of these images.”

The club said it would deal with the matter internally.

In a separate statement the Macaulay Association said: “The Macaulay Association wish to express their profound disappointment at the extensive damage caused to the Macaulay Cup within 36 hours of being presented at Saturday’s Macaulay Cup Final.

“To compound the problem the Macaulay only became aware of the damage as a result of postings of photographs on a social networking site, which did little for the reputation of the persons responsible. The Macaulay Cup had recently undergone a total refurbishment at considerable cost and was in excellent condition when presented on Saturday.

“The Macaulay Association acknowledge communications from Glen Urquhart Camanachd where the Drumnadrochit club have accepted full responsibility for this regrettable incident, and have indicated they will recompense the Macaulay Association fully for all expense incurred in required repairs.

“The Macaulay Association will now review procedures pertaining to custody of the trophy by future winning teams and will not tolerate their trophy being abused in a manner which unfortunately seems to be acceptable in some quarters.”