Aliban-tastic! Glen retain Ali Ban with top notch display of goal getting.

Alas the Wing Centre was unable to make the game. As the Glen were winning the Ali Ban in fine style on the Park of Zeros up at Cannich he was in Partick trekking round the Salvation Army shop at the bottom of Dumbarton Road looking for a second hand deerstalker hat with which to conceal his identity on visits to shinty grounds this season. Sadly none were available.
A string of texts however kept him abreast of matters of a goal scoring kind and his heart leapt with joy. 7-1 was the final score and the texts came in the following manner.
5 minutes on the clock and Kelvin Mackenzie has put us one up –a good goal from the left. A spring came to the step of the Wing Centre .Five minutes later came the words Kelvin’s done it again – another good goal.
But then disaster -Strath have pulled a goal back.
Which of them got it? was the return text.
Young Harvey – and him living on the road to Milton too was the reply. But on reflection that was not so bad because he is an honorary drummer boy and one day he too will want to play for the Glen.
A few minutes later Ewan Menzies restored the balance of power. How? As the ball came across about the penalty spot he pounced on it and fired it into roof of the net. Shortly afterwards Calum “Jock” Fraser made it four and then just before halftime Ewan Brady fired in a drive from an acute angle which beat the Strath keeper all ends up. The Glen went in at 5 goals to 1 and the Wing Centre settled down to some serious shopping
Two more texts came to make the day complete : “Stuart Morrison has just got number 6” and finally “Chips has scored a screamer from 30 yards –a peach of a goal” Thus was the day complete and when a subsequent phone call made it clear that Hendo and Mike had packed the side with youngsters and that Ryan, Sam, Ross and Daniel Mac were also in the black and red then the Wing Centre could not have been more delighted. The Ali Ban now sits proudly on Hendo’s sideboard and to be truthful it is just as well we won it again because the Wing Centre asked Hendo’s Mam and she said that he was so sure they would win the trophy once again that he had not bothered to give it a wee shine with the old Silvo. Now that is what the Wing Centre calls cool.
After that the phone was switched off because there was rugby on the telly in one of the shop windows on Great Western Road and the Wing Centre stopped to watch it through the glass - and so it was not until he read Roy in the Highland News that the full horror of Saturday’s later events came home to him. The Crofters had beaten the Cabers by 8 goals to 1. James Macpherson and Fraser Gall got hat-tricks each while Greg Matheson and Euan Ferguson could only manage one apiece. That was some result. What are these lads on? The spirit in that crofting camp is high enough for them all to get together and attempt a community buy-out of the entire Lovat estate. Strangely enough there was nothing in the Wing Centre’s edition of the HN about the Macdonald Cup –though to be fair there was a piece cut out of the paper to the left of the Crofter’s report where the good lady had been snipping out some sort of advert which had presumably been placed on the back of the account of the match. As a result the Macdonald Cup remained out of mind until the phone was switched on later.
Three further texts noisily popped up on the screen: Lewis has put us two up- we are walking it and timed a few minutes later Corky has Darren Reid in his pocket. The final text was E J and Arran having tremendous games-both going for man of the match.Of course by the time these texts were read, they were historical documents but the guys were at training and so the Wing Centre went down to see the Cup. First a conversation with Lewis revealed that his two goals were excellent. Number one was a fine strike taken as he was running in on goal. Keeping his composure he simply patted the ball home. The second came from a ball which bounced off a defender and Lewis took it in the air and steered it home skilfully.
But where was EJ? Not at training? No in the 75th minute on Saturday he suffered a cut worth nine stitches after slipping on the turf. A few further questions soon made it clear that Stuart Reid, John Barr and Boy Macdonald were not playing. Neither Arran nor Cork won the Man of the Match -apparently.
There was no point in any further conversation. The Wing Centre went up the road and watched the Winter Olympics. The Macdonald Cup? No idea what happened to it but what an Alibantastic performance from the youngsters.
The pictures? As soon as we get them back from the Chemists we'll post the Aliban snaps.



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Macdonald is up for the Cup

It is MacDonald Cup time again- if the weather can hold its nerve for a day or two- and once again the Glen’s own Macdonald is up for the cup. It was a fierce training session at the Astro this week and as the pictures show the management team is on top of the game. Big Mike casts a keen eye on proceedings as the second squad engages with the top boys while it’s clear that Mr Barr (sen) has got his little book of positions and tactics all worked out. The player in top form on the astro was however Arran Macdonald. The big man will be hoping for an injury free season this session in contract to last season’s stop start affair. He was looking good on the ball and if the ground is not too heavy the big centre can do the biz against the Glasaich on Saturday.
As always there will be a few changes for the pre-season work out- not all of the top squad are available -but the shinty equivalent of “commercial confidentiality “ precludes mention of the absentees. However by the middle of March the hope is that the Glenners will be firing on all cylinders and will be in a position to give a few of the top teams a run for their money.
One player who won’t be joining the Glen is Drum resident Steven Callendar who has decided to stay with his home side Kinlochshiel. You have to say-fair play to Steven. His choice is an honourable one- and it shows the loyalty of the lad and makes it clear to this commentator that he has a quality which would make him an asset to the Glen. The catch 22 is that it keeps him with Shiel.However, Steve has come to Glen training on and off over the last year or two and hopefully he will continue to do so since it is a fair trek up to Shiel to train. As his wee one grows up and he continues to live in the Glen-where better- then he might just have a rethink. The door is always open.
In the other fiefdoms the grapevine is thick with rumour that turns out at times to be fact. It has been noised abroad that Beauly have picked up Mark MacLauchlan from Strathglass – but then he started out in North shinty as a Beauly lad so that’s OK then. David Neilson has moved from the town and more intriguingly Ian Nicholson has joined them from Skye. Now Ian started out with the town as a schoolboy under the Davie Glass/Graeme Macmillan youth coaching scheme before going back to play for the island. On the assumption that Ian is living somewhere in Easter Ross-shire that could be called a coup for the men in green. Looks like Beauly are about to “murph” into a good team.
Over on the Crofting Estate something is also afoot. The boyans have been over in the Drum training and it has to be said they are looking good. The year in the Premier and winning North 1 have made them a more focused club and the turn outs for training that the Wing Centre has spied on were excellent. Jimmy Mackenzie was running about like a teenager and it also must be reported that Stuart Macdonald, goalie extraordinaire, was training in the outfield. Will he be between the sticks? True Fraser Gall looked like he had enjoyed a good Xmas dinner or two but the stick work is still there and if he avoids injury, then the belly should go. You heard it here first; Lovat look as if they could do something. To be fair, there was no sign the times the Wing Centre went down of Mr Rennie but the boy Matheson can score which is always good for a point or two when you need them. In writing about Lovat it is also appropriate to note that the sympathies of the Glen Shinty Club and indeed the entire shinty world go to the family the late Simon Macrae whose funeral took place today.Simon was a member of that special Lovat team of the fifties and early sixties which won a pile of trophies including the 1953 Camanachd Cup. Just how special a breed they were was probably not really noted at the time but as 57 years have gone past and no side from the Aird District has won the big one in the meantime, then the quality of players like Simon Macrae, the Thows, Cowie, Mackenzie, Mackinnon and Fraser the goalie becomes easier to appreciate.
About our remaining neighbour Strathglass nothing must be written: they must at no time receive encouragement. Not ever! No doubt they will have their own tricks up their own sleeves though the loss of Lee Bain to Kingussie will be felt keenly. The Glen wish him all the best with his new club and hope that he has a great game every week except when he plays against the red and black.
So there we have it. The Glen have been training hard. Big Arran is back to the front of the pack, Girv is looking hungry, Lewis Maclennan looks deadly in front of goal as always, Smack is in top form and Mr Tembo even went to training. What more do we want? Let the games begin!



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