IS SHINTY GETTING SOFT?

HOW seriously do you take the risk of injury in shinty?

SHINTY RETURNS TO CORNWALL

The Falmouth Packet newspaper in Cornwall has a report on the return of shinty to Cornwall for the first time since the sport died out in the 1920s.

Who knows - we might one day see a Scotland-England international, or even a World Cup of shinty?? You never know.

The report can be found by clicking here

NEW PITCH FOR KYLES?

Never mind your manicured, drained and level pitches. ​This is the way shinty should be played.

DRAW MADE FOR CAMANACHD CUP

The draw for the preliminary and first rounds of the 2012 Scottish Hydro Camanachd Cup took place this morning at Scottish Hydro’s headquarters in Perth.

HYDRO POWER FOR CAMANACHD CUP

Jonny Petrie, Ronald Ross and Donald Stewart

The Camanachd Association has announced that Scottish Hydro has signed a three year extension to its sponsorship of the Scottish Hydro Camanachd Cup along with various youth activities.
 
The renewal represents an investment of more than £150,000 over the next three years.

FANCY DANS AND FAIRYTALES - post script

This was just about my first posting on this site, around three weeks ago. It seems longer, for some reason, and this is not because I ain't enjoying it - because it is tremendous crack.
At the time I wrote "I'm new to this blogging lark" - and I'm still learning a great deal every day. One of the things I am picking up is to use the old journalists' trick and revisit stories covered some time before.

With this in mind, I am aware that I didn't follow up my posting on Frank Bruno's comments on Scottish boxer Ricky Burns, to whom I referred in early March.

SPICY LEAGUE AND CUP ACTION AHEAD

Photo by John MacTavish

We are in for another feast of shinty on Saturday - this time with league and cup action mixed together for added spice.
Amazingly, the weather forecasters are predicting that it's going to stay dry through Saturday. That's two good weeks on the trot, and when was the last time people in many parts of Scotland could say that?
Northern California Camanachd Club eat your heart out.

Well, maybe not.

SPECIAL DELIVERY FOR CELTIC CUP

(l-r) Society secretary Iain Cameron, AJG Parcels' Argyll area manager Stephen Cameron and Duncan Cameron, society president

The Glasgow Celtic Society today announced a new sponsor for the oldest competition in shinty.

The Highlands and Islands' leading collection and delivery company AJG Parcels is to sponsor the Glasgow Celtic Society Cup - a competition that began in 1879, seventeen years before the Camanachd Cup was instituted.

The competition will be rebranded as the AJG Parcels Celtic Society Cup.

VIDEO STARS - KYLES/KINGUSSIE IN MOTION

I have uploaded a brief, and shaky, video clip from the Orion Premiership match between Kyles and Kingussie yesterday at the temporary pitch at Ormidale.

Click on the link to the right hand side of this page to view.

This is a pretty rough first attempt, but I hope to do this more regularly as time goes on. If you have shinty videos you want to share with Shintyfan, please get in touch.

There is also a link to the Camanachd Association's video channel, again to the right of this page.

WHO DESERVES A STATUE?

I was listening to John Beattie's Sport Nation on Radio Scotland yesterday, and there was a discussion on the programme about statues for sporting heroes.
The light hearted item discussed who in the sporting world should have a statue erected to them.

It got me thinking - who from the world of shinty should have a statue erected in their honour?

CHAMPS STAY TOP AS KYLES BEAT KINGS

Photo by www.john-mactavish.com

In a fantastic day of shinty in conditions the summer season was made for, Newtonmore held on to top spot in the Orion Premiership with an emphatic win over Inveraray, while Kyles battered Kingussie in a game on the sea (well, almost).

BUTTERFLIES BEFORE THE GAME

As this blog develops, I find myself going on and on about the weather.
But it plays such an important role in Scottish outdoor sport - particularly amateur sport.

It looks like a cracker of a day for today's matches.

CAMERAS GO OVER THE SEA TO SKYE

Shinty fans the world over got the chance earlier this week to vote for which game should be filmed. As the deadline passed at 9am yesterday (Thursday), the votes were counted and the winning match announced.

KYLES AND KINGUSSIE READY FOR BATTLE

The atmospheric field of battle - Ruel close by

The hills of Glendaruel will echo once more to the sounds of battle as Kyles Athletic lock horns with Kingussie in an Orion Premiership shinty tie tomorrow beside the river of red blood - at a place redolent with tales of battles long ago.

SPORT RELIEF - SHINTY FUNDRAISING IDEAS

Just an idea - Sport Relief is taking place just now, and there are plenty of ways to raise cash for this charity through shinty clubs and supporters.

What are you doing this weekend?

WEEKEND WEATHER LOOKS PROMISING...

Whisper it...but it looks like being a decent week of weather, including a dry Saturday for the whole country.

If you have a squint - quick, before it changes - at the met office weather map to the right hand side of this page, you will see a rain-free map of Scotland. I thought at first that it was faulty, but on further examination, the forecast was, amazingly, dry for the next few days.

So, perhaps spring has sprung.

But as always, there could be a sting in the tail. I hear that cold, wintery weather may return in the next week or so.

Let's just enjoy a great weekend of sport while we can. Take a jacket though...just in case.

Whatever the weather, keep up to speed by using our handy weather map when you visit Shintyfan.

DOES YOUR CANDIDATE SUPPORT SHINTY?

With Scottish local authority elections coming up in May, do you know what  your candidates' views are on shinty, and what are their aspirations for the future of the sport in your area?

NOW IT'S GETTING INTERESTING

It feels like the season is really beginning now.
All the teams that have been winning things in recent seasons have had a fright, and that's what keeps things interesting.

SWINGING IN THE RAIN

Mud, glorious mud

Approaching a month into the summer shinty season, there hasn't yet been a Saturday without the odd pitch being unplayable due, in one way or another, to our Scottish climate.

Some fields have been used in a bid to get games played when, arguably and in hindsight, perhaps they shouldn't.

TELLY PRESENTERS TRY SHINTY

The Strathspey and Badenoch Herald newspaper reports that an intrepid pair of BBC childrens' television presenters will show their shinty skills in a programme called All Over The Place to be aired next week.
CBBC celebrities Ed Petrie and Johnny Pitts visited Kingussie for a coaching session with club president Ali Brown and his helpers.

What's the programme all about? The CBBC programme website describes it as follows: "Ed Petrie and friends go on a bizarre quest to find the most unusual, strange and amazing places to visit in the UK."

Read more at the newspaper website by clicking here.

INTERNATIONAL PLAYER NOMINATIONS OPEN

The Camanachd Association has asked clubs to nominate players for this year's shinty/hurling international.

WHAT ARE YOUR CLUB'S COACHING NEEDS?

The Camanachd Association is offering to visit all shinty clubs to discuss their current coaching provision and identify what support and opportunities are available to assist them.

REFS PROPOSE TECHNICAL AREAS

Shinty refs have tabled a proposal aimed at making shinty more appealing to television viewers and improving the match view for the paying public at big games. It will also clear the touchlines for television crews.

SHINTY TITLE FAVOURITE SHOCK

The results are in. Now we know who will win this year's shinty title.

SHINTY VIDEOS AVAILABLE HERE

View your favourite shinty videos right here on shintyfan - links on the right hand column - it couldn't be simpler.
And don't forget to vote for the cameras to come to your match this Saturday (March 24) - e-mail the Camanachd Association by 9am Thursday.

GET YOUR SHINTY MATCH FILMED

The team that films shinty matches for the Camanachd Association's YouTube channel is offering YOU the chance to decide where they go this weekend.

WHAT'S THE CRAIC?

After a lifetime in shinty, this Shintyfan site was started just a week or two ago, and the results so far are very encouraging.

RUGBY, SHINTY...AND FUN

I know this is all about shinty and shinty people...but I can't help commenting on today's Scotland rugby performance. Beaten miserably by Italy to secure a well deserved wooden spoon.

But what conclusions can shinty draw from the whole six nations pantomime - if any?

CHAMPIONS CLAIM TOP SPOT

After stuttering opening day, Newtonmore , champions for the last two seasons, find themselves top of the Orion Premiership.
But the team that pushed them hardest last season, the redoubtable Kyles Athletic, fired out something of an early season warning themselves.

'WE HAVEN'T EVEN STARTED YET'

They are ageing, grizzled, battle-scarred veterans of many a mud-spattered boorach up and down the country. Oh, and male. 
Shinty presidents, that is.*

We all know this to be true. It has to be.

Lassies don't know about shinty, surely?

WOMEN'S SHINTY NEWS

You can keep up to speed with all the women's shinty news and views right here.

PITCHING IN TO GET SHINTY PLAYED

With some west coast pitches still unfit for play, two of shinty's top-tier matches have been switched to the away teams' home grounds.

MARINE HARVEST SPONSORSHIP ANNOUNCED

The Women’s Camanachd Association (WCA) is delighted to announce the biggest sponsorship women’s shinty has seen with the world’s leading seafood company, Marine Harvest, pledging nearly £10,000 of funding over the next three years.

NEWTONMORE, KYLES, KINGUSSIE FANS - WHERE ARE YOU?

Inveraray will win shinty's premiership this season, according to the early indications of our strictly scientific poll.

Early days, perhaps...but what do you think?

Can Newtonmore stop Aray from winning the title?

The poll is on the right hand side of this page, so vote now before polls close on Monday March 19.

WEEK THREE - HOW WILL RESULTS GO?

So, that's us heading into week three of the league season - and how many people out there would have predicted that Lovat and new boys Kinlochshiel would top the league after two matches?

The fixtures this weekend have an intriguing air about them.

ARGYLL AND BUTE SHINTY DEVELOPMENT OFFICER

The Camanachd Association has confirmed the appointment of Euan McMurdo as Argyll and Bute Shinty Development Officer.

YOUR SHINTY NEWS - TELL US...

Do we have budding shinty correspondents out there?

YOUR SHINTY

Look out for special features coming up on shintyfan.

And if you have an idea for a shinty-related story, whether it relates to the present, past or future of the game, let me know by commenting below. Leave contact details and I'll get back to you.

OLD BADENOCH FIRM STILL TRAILS

I see the wee teams in shinty have managed to gain some ground this weekend.
Newtonmore are now up to third, and Kingussie fifth.
I posed the question whether Lovat and Kinlochshiel would still be on top of shinty's Orion Premiership come tea-time today.
By Jove, they are.
Good on them, and Inveraray opened their campaign with an away victory against Glenurquhart - no mean feat.
Biggest composite score (11 goals in one game) of the day came at Ganavan, near Oban, where Lochside Rovers overcame Inveraray juniors 7-4. A word must go to the unfortunate Russell MacKinlay, the well-known hit man for the Fyne-siders, who scored all of Inveraray's four goals in the game - yet still ended up on the losing side.
He was not alone in scoring a big number of goals in this weekend's matches, and worth a mention is the hat-trick scored by two different players in Col Glen's win versus Glasgow Mid Argyll in the same Marine Harvest South Division Two as that contested at Ganavan. Ewan Morley and Steven MacKellar were the triple-hit marksmen in an 8-1 win at Glendaruel.

JUST DESERTS

Will Kinlochshiel and Lovat still be top of the premiership come 5pm today?
Will Dalmally, Ballachulish and Rothesay ever get a dry enough spell to allow a game of shinty?
The highlands is definitely split weather-wise. A monsoon at least has a season. In Argyll, Lochaber and up the west coast, every day's a monsoon day. East of Loch Laggan, compare and contrast the deserts of Badenoch and the Inverness area.

FANCY DANS AND FAIRYTALES

I'm a newcomer to this blogging lark, so where do you start?

In the absence of any other ideas at this moment, I'll write about what I'm doing right now - and that is listening to John Beattie's Sport Nation on BBC Radio Scotland.
(Stick with it - I'll get back to shinty in a minute...)

IS PREMIER LEAGUE UPSIDE DOWN?

Heading into the second week of the 2012 shinty season, the premier league has a kinda upside down, topsy-turvy look to it.