Finally, the days are getting
longer and though the rain still hasn’t stopped, it is still true that as
always at this time of the year if you step into a young Glenner’s mind you
will find nothing but thoughts of shinty. Mr Reid, who imagines he’s a young
man still, dreams of the resumption of the ancient stick game once more and who
is to blame him.
Nevertheless, always the
worker Mr Reid keeps himself busy during the close season with the Lotto. Drawn
every Wednesday at one of four venues throughout the Glen -the Loch Ness Inn,
The Benleva Hotel, The Steading and the West End Garage- the Lotto is one of
the main means by which the shinty club manages to fund itself. The secret of
the Lotto’s success is that you have to keep at it especially when there are no
regular games to rely on as a focal point for selling tickets. The pic here
shows Mr Reid shaking up his balls prior to last week’s draw in the Benleva.
During the Festive period the
Shinty Club, with the help of Isla Urquhart of the Loch Ness Inn and Ian Miller
of Loch Ness Gifts, held what is known as the Loch Ness Swinndle. This took the
form of a large raffle with the prizes provided by Loch Ness Gifts and a quiz
night with the questions provided by Isla Urquhart, with the insert of a
special shinty section created by the Wing Centre himself. This year’s event was
held at the Loch Ness Inn on Friday 3rd of January and was very much
enjoyed by all who attended. A sum of money in excess of £500 was raised on the
night and as happens every year was shared equally with the Glenurquhart Care
Centre, a locally run facility which provides day care for elderly Glenners,
most of whom are keen supporters of the Glen and avid buyers of Mr Reid’s
lottery tickets. The picture shows former Shinty Club Chairman Alan Bell
handing over the cheque to Mr Tom Barr who accepted the cheque on behalf of the
Centre. Tom is the father of Camanachd Association Director of Coaching Jim
Barr and grandfather of Glen’s international full back John Barr.
Since the Glen last lifted up
their camans in competitive earnest there has been a huge change at the helm of
the playing side of the club, though the committee have kept their shape. First
Fraser Mackenzie left then trainer Jemma Docker stepped down and finally Drew
MacNeill decided that enough was as good as a Glen feast. Not an easy situation
to be dealt with given that some idiot decided that the leagues needed a revamp
and that both Glen sides would have to operate in the new season in pretty
challenging circumstances. Never mind with the top team playing in a slimmed
down Premier League, the second team would have to compete in a league where
the standard would obviously be more much more difficult to handle in as much
as this season some of the first teams that missed out being promoted to the
new National League i.e. Skye, Strathglass and Inverness would be in the same
division as the seconds. That is going to be a difficult task for all concerned-
and there will be a lot of pressure on manager Iain Macleod and his squad but
if they keep their focus- and it’s up to everyone at the club to help out here-
then the youngsters who have come in to play at this level should have benefited
from the experience. Given that a large number of youngsters will be playing in
this League the onus will be on referees and the Camanachd Association to make
sure that the kids get adequate protection and it’s to be hoped that some
attention is given to this in pre-season briefings to referees.
In the Premier Division there
will be no “gimmes”, though to be fair there were very few in the 10 team
Premier Division that ran for a number of years. The fear must be that with the
fear of relegation quite high on the agenda for a majority of the clubs then
the priority will be on defensive security at all costs and as a result clubs
will be less willing to risk youngsters in the sides. Time no doubt will tell.
The Glen first team will be
managed by Davie Menzies and Billy Maclean which is a return to the management
duo of 2009. Training the guys will be Gavin Heath and also helping out across
the whole squad will be Steven Henderson and Alan Corrigan with Chris Surtees
as back up to Iain Macleod. Stuart Morrison and Davie Stewart come out on the
same night to look after the under 17s and while Stuart stood still long enough
for a pic, Davie kept on the move. We’ll get him next time.
Personnel changes have been minimal
on the playing side with the biggest loss being first teamer Liam Girvan who
has returned to Inverness to play alongside his dad Clive and his brother
Craig. He will be a miss because not only did he have some nice skills but he
was also a willing trainer who was prepared to put in the time required to keep
sharp. Inverness will benefit from his return and at Blairbeg we wish him all
the best for the new season. Into the squad in his stead have come Michael
Brady (Glengarry) and Raymond Robertson (Boleskine) players who familiar with
the Glen set up both being former pupils of the High School. Indeed Raymond was
born and bred in the Glen up the Pitkerrald Road and it’s only because of his employment
as a gamekeeper across the loch that he turned out for Boleskine.
Training started in the first
week of January and as can be seen the Wing Centre managed to snap a pic or two
on a recent icy evening.
So there we have it then: the
empty winter months without shinty are almost done and when February gets
underway the Glen will get busy with some friendlies –Skye and Boleskine are
lined up for first and second teams respectively and then we will have to face
our old rivals in the Macdonald Cup, though with Strath dropping down to one
team this season the Wing Centre is unsure at this point whether this will
affect the Ali Ban.
A wee stroll down to Blairbeg
at the beginning of last week revealed a rather soggy playing surface and
surprisingly long grass: the stuff has obviously been growing in some measure over
the winter period. Santa, though, has not been reading his letters: the sign
still does not seem to be working. Oh well, never mind…..
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