Sunshine shinty in the Glen, but dark clouds on the horizon for the indigenous sport.

Glenurquhart 6 Glenorchy 1
Skye 0 Hendo’s Bairns and Grandpas 8


Hey Mr Wing Centre, why the sad headline? Certainly not on account of the two matches in which the Glen participated this past weekend. Not even the fact that Caley Thistle were relegated from the Premier. Oh dear! What a pity. Never mind – after all Glen’s own “Ikey “ Fraser ,smart boy, stays up in the Premier with Motherwell which looks more and more like a clever move on his part.
No, the problem for the Wing Centre is the news which he received that Inverness Shinty Club are in danger of being pushed off the Bught Park in favour of a football club. If shinty folk sometimes feel paranoid that’s not because there is no one trying to get at them because there always is even if some of them don’t realise they are doing it.
Indeed if the Wing Centre were to write an essay entitled “What shinty teaches you about life.” then the main thrust would be that you should prepare to be marginalised, patronised or otherwise “dissed”. Good training if you want to be a politician or a public service worker, but on the whole not a sensible way to live your life. But more of that anon -and in another blog. It is enough to say that its time the Cameron Cattlethieves in Alton Towers got down to a bit of politicking with the Provost of Inversnecky.
Back in the real world, away from the sporting politics of Newville on Ness, the Glen forward line had a useful afternoon – and for the supporters of the home side, if not for those of Glenorchy it was a rare day when the result was never in doubt
However before we start, some words of caution. Glenorchy were under strength in as much as whoever else was missing from their squad, the absence of Alan MacKechnie at full back left a massive hole in the defence. The “D “has referred to MacKechnie before ,having been impressed with him as a force of nature of the John Barr-type when the two Glens went to war in the National League a few seasons ago. His absence was greatly missed.
The Glen of course were without players too but that did not stop Andrew Corrigan knocking home the first goal in 6 minutes after Neale Reid’s goal bound shot came back off ‘Orchy keeper Graham MacKechnie . Glen continued to press for the next period but it seemed even to the biased observers on the side line that they were being too elaborate in front of goals and chances to put more pressure on the Glenorchy keeper were not taken swiftly enough. Indeed in the 17th minute a snap shot by ‘Orchy’s Kieran Mackay forced Glen keeper Stuart Mackintosh to make a smart save.
Then the tide turned in the Glen’s favour about the 20 minutes mark. First Dave Girvan had a drive saved by MacKechnie and then some neat work between Neale Reid and Eddie Tembo, with referee Macrae playing advantage after a foul on Tembo, left Glen’s top scorer Billy Urquhart to open his personal account for the day.
Minutes later a Neale Reid shot was saved by the keeper and shortly after a cross from Dave Maclennan was pulled out of the air by full centre Lewis Maclennan who dispatched a left hand drive past MacKechnie.
The second half continued in similar vein because shortly after the restart last week’s poster boy Billy Urquhart got on the end of a ball in by Neale Reid to put the Glen four up and in 60 mins Superbill completed his hat-trick after getting on the end of a little slip ball from Corrigan.
Glen continued the pressure and in the 85th minute they made it 6 in a most bizarre way. Corrigan took the corner on the right and the ball spun up off the stick of ‘Orchy wing back James Livingstone and sneaked in at MacKechnie‘s post. If that was a lucky goal the one at the other end was all down to carelessness –suffice it to say with 89 minutes on the clock Ewan Murray scored for Glenorchy.
And that was it on the day apart from the news from Skye which must have surprised even MacVicar and Malky because they were bound to have had a better side than travelled to Drum recently.
Apparently not because up there, amidst a great deal of mist, there was a fair amount of mellow fruitfulness for the Glen in terms of goals. Eight is a lot and for those who wish to read all about them the suggestion is that you flip to the Skye Camanachd website. It is worth recording that Ben Hosie and Dave Smart also joined the hat-trick club while Ewan Brady and Brad Dickson got the singles. Good games were had by Macleod, Macdonald and Smith while Sam Cumming got another run out in a big team. Well done guys.
After reflecting on the day and cheering up a bit, it’s always nice to have some pics and here they are. Visiting legend Burton Morrison chats on the sideline with Fort Augustus legend Graham Morrison and all round Great Glen legend DP Mackintosh. One supposes they were talking about the Macdonald Cup (1975) because all three are pictured in Peter’s book together having just won that final – and in the absence of anyone to contradict, that will have been the last occasion they were snapped together in the one team. Young Al and Boy are pictured in the “Up the Glen” corner in the changing room. The other? It’s The Man. Back out of Africa and into the team. But the barnet? Cool on the extras in Shaft but in the Glen? ? There is definitely a money-making sponsored event there. Don’t tell the Treasurer.....




Free Counter