Games People Play

That’s the Glenurquhart Games over for another year and now the Club must face up to the prospect of two or three weeks which will determine the ultimate success of the season. The Club has worked hard enough to get where it is: the next trick will be to keep focused for the run in.
Not that the Royal Marines were focusing last weekend. Despite billing themselves proudly as the “Royal Marine’s Visibility Team” the driver of the 15 tonner smashed the Club’s scoreboard into tiny pieces as he tried to extricate his vehicle from the muddy mess left on the park at the end of the Games. The park too took a battering – and would have fared worse had not Games chairman Iain Urquhart taken his tractor down to the field and pulled the big show vehicles out. Left to themselves there is little doubt that the Show folk would have taken route 1 – across the field to the Balmacaan Road exit leaving goodness knows what kind of mess.
As it was with sun and wind drying out the ground the former president, the Chairman, the Treasurer, Geordie, Davie Menzies, Peter, Boy, Hendo, Mike and of course, the foreman Mr Reid himself spent an entertaining evening forking out the holes caused by hammers and shot putts as well as trying to level out the deep ruts caused by the lorries.
That aside the men in Black and Red were fairly high profile on the big day having decided to lug a caber up to the top of Achmony following the hill race route. Before they set out they had conned gullible members of the public not only to sign the post but also to pay money to guess how long it would take to get it there and back. 43 minutes turned out to be the answer to that particular question a turn of speed which caught everyone out. Then having done that ,the bold boys only went and won the tug of war – a picture of the squad is included of them receiving the trophy from Games chairman Iain Urquhart- and to cap it all Ewan Menzies actually ran the hill race in a very respectable time as well.
While the Club website is really coming into its own with pictures and info about recent events (http://glenurquhartshintyclub.com/) what with all the emphasis on Premier survival, the eyes of the Glen public –including those of the Wing Centre- have been diverted from the fortunes of Hendo’s Heroes.
Big mistake! The heroes have just produced two back to back 7-0 wins - against Beauly and against Kilmallie. The Beauly game was an excellent encounter notable for the fact that five of the goals came from youngsters. If this sort of free scoring, free running play carries on in the team with youngsters to the fore then perhaps we ought to restyle the team as “Mike’s Mites”.
Against Beauly – who were by no means an unpromising outfit with wing back Scott Maclean in particular playing well - the young Glen forwards were simply too hot to be stopped.
Kelvin Mackenzie opened in 10 minutes and he was quickly followed on to the score sheet by Daniel Mackintosh. Dan the Man took his first neatly firing it home from the left hand side of the D in 22 mins then ramming home his second in 35. Ewan Brady extended the Glen lead with a tricky shot from about 15 yards in 38 minutes – and the Glen were coasting.
Goal of the match was that scored by Kelvin Mackenzie in 55 minutes when he turned quickly and found the roof of the net with an excellent strike. Ross MacAulay who had a fine display in the centreline then was on hand to score two goals from distance -one an unstoppable drive in 62 minutes and his second –and the Glen’s seventh- in 70 minutes with a shot which bobbled past the by now demoralised Beauly back line. Beyond Beauly the player to feel sorry for was forward Ewan Menzies who had a series of excellent strikes on target – all of which were saved by the Beauly keeper.
The young Glen forwards were equally on song against Kilmallie who also went down by 7 goals to nil despite an excellent display by their stand-in keeper Robbie Macfadyen. In this game Glen got off to an excellent start with Iain Macleod slipping the ball through to Ewan Brady who found the net in the first move of the game. The time on the clock? A mere 22 secs.
From that point on despite a strong wind which undermined the game the young Glen forwards were rampant. Daniel Mackintosh in particular found space in the early part of the game but his shot agonisingly grazed the bar. Not long after that Kelvin Mackenzie fed the ball back to Mackintosh but his drive was blocked by Macfadyen. Then Mackenzie dribbled through himself but his final shot whistled past the post. Two minutes later Macfadyen again defied the glen forwards this time saving from Mackenzie after the latter had run on to a neat through ball from Ewan Menzies.
The second Glen goal eventually came just before halftime. The provider was once again the inspirational Iain Macleod. He held the ball until Daniel Mackintosh made some space on the left and when Macleod flicked the ball through to him the Glen youngster finished with style.
The second half saw five Glen goals –the first coming in 56 minutes – when Menzies finished strongly. His drive fired in from the right and from a narrow angle was too fast for Macfadyen and though the keeper did manage to get a touch on the ball with his stick he was unable to keep it out of the net.
Six minutes later Ewan Brady got his second courtesy of an excellent piece of skill from Daniel Mackintosh who juggled the ball over the head of the ‘Mallie full back into the path of Brady who accepted the chance gratefully. Brady picked up his hat-trick shortly afterwards when drove the ball home from the edge of the D.
Ewan Menzies was also a hat trick kid with two late goals both of them well taken, the last being right on the final whistle. What made the victory sweeter was the news that Fort had beaten the Garry 3-0 – a result that meant a ten goal advance on the day over Glengarry for the Glen. This league trophy is there to be won for the second year in succession but as always caution is the watchword. And there is of course still the Strathdearn. Interesting times indeed.
And who else played well? Chips, Ian Macleod and Smithy as always were doing the biz. Boo-boo Fraser looked as if he was back on song and the Shopkeeper himself was solid at the back. Calum Smith did the simple things well as did Ross MacDiarmid. Kelvin? He was excellent but try as he might his luck was out in front of goal. About 7 of his shots were stopped by Macfadyen and after he had got over his frustration he began to see the funny side - but by then we were winning comfortably.
The pics speak for themselves. Enjoy!



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