That was the Season that was

 We are at a strange time of the year now in Shinty’s little Loch-side parish- after the end of the season but before the AGM and the Dinner Dance. If the Glen were like any other team, we would have a queue of potential managers knocking at the door looking to guide our side to glory. Are they out there?  Who can say? Time will tell - and as our supremo would tell you if he were here “It will be what it will be!”

So where did we end up? Well, the Wing Centre (one will have to come up with a more modern positional description that this - what about “ false 6” -a player who  can run between the lines or play in the pocket-as opposed to being in someone’s pocket- but more of that anon perhaps-or maybe not) produced an annual shinty report for the Glenurquhart Bulletin which gave a round up of the season up to the end of August. The assumption is that most of the folk reading this will have read that. As if !!

What has happened since then?

The main positive was that the Ladies second string won their league   by four points. To do this they won eight games and drew two recorded a massive goal difference with Rowan Brockie, top scorer by a mile with 30 goals to her credit. That feat was enough to win the Glen Ladies the trophy for the Team of the Year in their division at the Mowi Annual awards night with coaches Judi Crichton and Hugh Montague going down to the Fort to pick up the spoils.

Also at the MOWI Awards, Helen Maclennan our youth convenor won the Donella Crawford Trophy for Youth and Schools. Helen previously won this award in 2010, and has continued to work tirelessly for the following 15 years  to make a grand total of over 30 years service in the development  of young talent at Glen Urquhart Shinty Club.  

As an aside it was also good to see Strath’s Roddie Maclennan also picking up a well merited volunteering trophy.  Every club has folk like that- and a very good and necessary thing it is too.

The Glen under 17 team also had a successful season in comparison with all the other under-17 sides in Scotland bar one. They reached the finals of both the MacTavish Juvenile Cup and the London Shield but lost out in both to Newtonmore.

At the other end of the scale the first team though it had a disappointing season did manage to finish on a high of two away draws: 3-3 against Glasgow Mid Argyll and before that 1-1 at Inveraray. Yet both those games were chucked away from winning positions- and because our cup form was every bit as poor there were long gaps between matches. Indeed, by the end of the season we were down to one game a month. I do not think that is good enough and I’ll leave that suitably ambiguous.

The ladies’ top flight also had a tough season and the men’s seconds while ultimately without a trophy to their name had occasional high points. However, the loss of the Sutherland semi to Kinlochshiel at Invergarry will long haunt the club. This was a game that ought to have been won-indeed it was a game in which we went ahead in the third minute, slipped behind to a 2-1 deficit before Mike Fraser levelled on the hour mark- and then we gave away a cheap goal and that was that.

What was worse was that some weeks later we had to watch ‘Shiel play Fort William at Blairbeg- and despite the fact that it was an excellent game it has to be said that it was a very hard watch. The Wing Centre was trying hard to think of a comparison to that game – and an exemplar suddenly came to his mind when he was watching an episode of Highland Cops.

Now a lot happens in Highland Cops which must make us all thankful that, despite the over-generous pensions, we are none of us actual cops: it is a frustrating job that plays havoc with your emotions. Constable Dan is never going to catch anyone for shooting a buzzard; the traffic boys are always going to stop young men who overtake them; walkers are constantly wandering off and dying in and on the hills, while cars and motorbikes are always crashing on the A9, on the A82, even on the Bealach.

And what about Constabal Murdo who busts the drug cartels? Well, he is usually successful but then he only lives in Angus Peter’s books

However, the comparison that did come to mind was the “Raid of Ardvasar” (Creach Aird a‘Bhasair) which really should have a piece of Bardachd Baile to go with it. Sergeant Garry’s tooled up crew smashed down the front door only to find that the bad guys had escaped out the back door. Even Constabal Murdo would have surrounded the house even if he had to have brought along Angus Og and Lachie Mor. Still the lads captured the cannabis plants which unlike Triffids did not walk away or even eat the cops- and these plants are now doing time in Kyle. To be fair the Wing Centre had not seen actual growing cannabis plants before though to his eye they look very like the vegetation which is growing out of the guttering on the derelict Backpackers building at the far end of Eastgate in Inverness. Never mind, it was that similar mixture of bad luck and imperfect planning that made Kinlochshiel’s “Raid of Craigard” (Creach Creag Aird) such an annoying experience.

Still at the end of every season there are always positives to be savoured- the Mowi Awards was one. Hazel Hunter playing for Scotland in the International is another one- as was the fact that Dan Maclean, Doug Brockie and Alfie Macleod were with the under 17s in Ireland.

I rather thought Lachie Smith could have had a shout for the senior team for the Home International but I do not know if he was ever invited to a trial.

That plus a pile of other items including a fantastic charity event where we raised a great deal of cash for Mikeysline-the suicide prevention charity based in Inverness. The local representative for Mikey’s line Donna Brady was presented with a cheque for £16,000. However, let us not go on about them, just let the pictures speak for themselves. I guess though that this blog ought to have been a little more regular. Memo to self -Must write more often.

Thanks to Neil Paterson for all  his pictures and to the Club’s Facebook pages for the others