Mary chooses “Currachd Ruadh” for Wedding Hat

Imagine if the Wing Centre could get away with a headline like that? No chance- in fact there is more chance of Glenurquhart getting into the Sutherland Cup final with a 6-2 away victory over Fort William than of catching your attention with a cheap headline like that. That’s just tabloid stuff!
But then the trouble is that the Shinty hasn’t been so interesting of late - two away defeats to Kingussie are nothing to write from home about. Dickson’s injury is taking longer to heal than hoped for and Paul Mac appears to have hurt himself again which is more than a shame.
If reports from the Dell are anything to go by the Glen should have done better in the first game where our Corky got on the score sheet for the Glen (though it might have given us more pleasure if it had been their Corky who had got on the score sheet-for us! )
The second game saw the return of Mr Ross and he appears to be scoring lots of goals – and there is not much to be gained by noting the fact except to express wonderment that he takes it all so seriously. It would be nice if he were to meet a nice Polish girl - Inverness is full of them- and go off to live with her in Kracow or Gdansk or somewhere else he couldn’t get an Easyjet flight home to play on the Saturday.
Then there was Fort William in the Sutherland. The Wing Centre was walking to the bank to take out money to spend at the wedding when he bumped into a member of the Great Glen Public.
“Did you see the Courier?” said the MGGP
“No” said the Wing Centre quite genuinely since getting the papers is not one of his household chores.
“Well it seems that crowd from Lochaber pulled off their biggest heist in the Glen since they carried out the Raid of Inchbrine in 1692. That time they took the cattle; this time they’ve taken the Sutherland Cup and it’s not as if we can rely on the Young Crofters from over the hill to get it back”
Now the Wing Centre was at the game and thought that Fort William won because they scored more goals in the time allowed for scoring goals though he was bemused by the fact that the Glen had a goal disallowed because of a Fort William foul. But when the MGGP brought out a Courier the Wing Centre began to get roused: the way the Courier explained it Fort William had deliberately won the toss to get a home draw. They had then arranged a first team fixture at home against their alleged enemies from up the road (“Cattle stealers all of them-they were in it together in ’92 and they are still in it”- said the MGGP) changed the game to fit in with the West Highland Ferry services, done some voodoo to bring back the walking dead into their team and thereby won.
The MGGP began to backtrack concerned at the inflamed countenance of his companion.
“Hang on, Wing Centre,” said the MGGP. “Aren’t you going a bit too far with your conspiracy theory? The next thing you’ll be telling me is that there is a guy from Ballachulish running the Camanachd Association as well”
“You’re right DP” (for it was he)” That would never happen- and they did score more goals."
For the record Calum Fraser and Dave Smart scored two nice goals which counted and Dave and Ben Hosie had balls in the net which didn’t. Star of the show was Ryan Campbell of Fort a youngster who got three goals including the penalty which came after the disallowed Glen goal. Deke and Victor got the other goals and while the Fort Wing David Walker had an excellent game, it is also clear that Drew McNeil at the back can still do the business. For the Glen Calum Smith , Calum “Jock” Fraser and Gary Smith played well - the fact was that after shading the first half they fell away in the latter stages and must be disappointed - but not as mad as the Courier implies.
The better team won on the day (through gritted teeth) but doesn’t Deke have an annoying goal celebration? He charges up the field as if he was actually being chased by Iain Macdonald - he’s lucky he wasn’t on the day if only because Iain is being careful not to tire himself out this week since he is getting married.
That is of course the big Shinty story in the Glen this week - Iain Macdonald is tying the knot with Siobhan and the” D” wishes them all the very best on the big day and for the future.
Of course the talk in the Glen has been about dresses and hair do’s and fascinators and of course hats. The mother of the groom Mary Macdonald, our own Shinty Club secretary for many years, no doubt has already got her headgear organised. But just in case, the fashion advice from the Wing Centre is to try the Currachd Ruadh - those who have read the late Prof Peter English’s book on Glen shinty will know it is the ancient headgear associated with Glen Shinty. It is therefore traditional, historical and – on the right head - chic too. See for yourself.





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