A (Little) Roar for Newtonmore.

This is a Glen Team of 1902 which stood up to Newtonmore. These striped jerseys are black and red.Take heart.
I say this because it is difficult to know what to say when you have to play a home game against a side which is rediscovering its pedigree and has just come off a 6-2 win against Kingussie except to whisper under your breath “Bring it on” and hope that they are not really listening.
Well we have been in a Camanachd Cup final before : so have they- a few times I believe . Once upon a time we used to beat them when they came to Drum- 6-2 I recall on one occasion -but not that that won us anything.
I believe they are now being trained by some inspirational guru and that they have finally begun to try in this summer shinty business . Not only that but they have Ricky Ross travelling up from Preston and Orsten Gardiner coming up from London so they are nearly as dedicated to the cause as we are.
However, we are at home and we have the tradition. The President however in an act of supreme fairness has cut the grass : on reflection it might have been better for him to have put down some fertiliser on it to encourage it to grow long and lush in the very spots where Fraser Mackintosh is wont to run. Our friend the mole too should have been cajoled to play his part by rendering the top side of the field over by the bowling green rough and uneven . That way running shinty can not be played and a good thing too.
While wishing to make a little note that the other team defeated Lochbroom 4-1 last Saturday I have to confess that the game to come has been preying upon what passes for my mind. Still credit to all the scoring Neils and to Ally Mack who not only notched a goal but got his name in the West Highland Free Press too.-though that is a dubious honour. I also believe that the boys had to play on sea turf too with a former Kinlochshiel Fraser at fullback against them.
Hendo counted them all out: he was lucky to be able to count them all back in.
Now here’s a question for the Shinty Quiz- Which team was the first to beat all of the new teams in North shinty?
Why Hendo’s Glen Heroes of course.
A win against Nairn, a scrape against Ardnamurchan and finally a squeak against Lochbroom and the Neils make shinty history. Well done.
Team of the month? Hardly. The Glen doesn’t do Team of the Month.
Anyway there’s a snap of a Glen team that gave Newtonmore a run for their money. The year was 1902 . The occasion was the MacTavish final and these guys drew 3-3 in Inverness which means that had they played at home the boys would have won. They are looking very ned-like in their prototype tweed baseball caps and I may be wrong but I think that we can see Billy Reid in the front row third left hiding behind his moustache. Again uncertainty rules but the consensus is that the chap in the back row two in from the right is none other than Ron Fraser. However since he is wearing the obligatory headwear his distinctive hairstyle is uncheckable. Geordie of course is unmissable.
Nothing to fear from newtonmore then- our team has qualities of durability that Newtonmore will ignore at their peril. We didn’t suffer in the Clearances either but they did. So there. Only perhaps they did not suffer enough. So there again.