Iconic Shinty Photo- Two guys, the ladder and the goalie

Absolutely a favourite and taken by my perceptive friend Brian: he has always had an eye for the iconic. Here we see Scottie MacNeill playing on his own at Strachur in the next to last season of old fashioned winter shinty. Two spectators, some trees ,a step ladder to take the nets down and some gutters. Where are the rest of the guys? Who can say? Scotty was Oban Camanachd goalie at the time and perhaps his team-mates were so good they were up the other end all the game. I don’t know but the picture says a lot to me : the winter scene in which I am glad we no longer play; the loneliness of the goalie; the goal judge and the single spectator; the dullness of the light on a winter afternoon-the Celts at play.
Something tells me Camanachd would have won.

A Snap to Share

For many years I have kept a collection of shinty pictures though I have to say that recently I have been a little less than thorough in noting them down , printing them out and sticking in the old album. Doubtless many other shinty aficionados have similar piles of snaps secreted away in the dark recesses of their wardrobes, under their beds or stacked in corners of their “dens”. If only all vices were so innocent.
I have decided share the one above with you:
It is the very first picture I ever had when playing with the Glen- A cold winter day in December of 1975 at Ferry Park Beauly. We would have beaten Beauly seconds that day- I can’t imagine losing to Beauly- but the photo is interesting because it is the last photo in a Glen shirt of Sandy “The Yank” MacDonald who emigrated to New Zealand more or less the next week. In the picture also is a player who never appeared very much more for the Glen yet who had been a stalwart for some years before namely John Stark. I also see at the top right hand side my old pal the late Russ Cameron- it will not be the first morning that I woke up early from a noise , a heavy crushing noise in the grass and peeped out the window in St Drostan’s to see Russ dragging home a roe buck that he had nabbed in Balmacaan wood- now the empty field he shot the beast on contains the new Primary School and the even newer secondary establishment. The link is that the present squad train on the artificial surface which has replaced the grass over which Russ dragged the roe. Two years later these guys won the Strathdearn Cup. It's hard to believe.