A Positive Start- That’s it-That’s the Headline

Not that a positive start is ever a pointer as to how the season will go- at least not in recent years-but it’s always good to win the Macdonald Cup. Last season we lost out-how one will never know - but this year we had a 4-1 home victory over the old rivals. 

A hat-trick from Man of the Match Daniel Maclean-the umpteenth great-grandson of a hero from the 1880s (other great-grandparents are available)- really finished the game as a contest while a nice strike from wing centre Doug Brockie added to the tally.

Unsurprisingly Daniel was the man of the match- and it’s nice to include a fine portrait of him taken by Neil Patterson to make the day complete.

Before then the Ladies had won the Maclennan Quaich up in Cannich in a 5-1  victory against the home side. Once again Hazel Hunter was in prolific scoring form with four goals to her credit while Kirsty Smith hit one. Hazel picked up the trophy for player of the match.

Finally the Ali Ban saw Glenurquhart win comfortably with Strath struggling to hold the Glen front men. Mike Fraser was the top scorer for the Glen with a personal tally of five, Glenn Macdonald, the eventual MoM hit four while the tally was rounded off by Doug Brockie

                                

All of which takes us neatly to the opening game of the actual season in the Mowi National Division where a goal from John Barr, a second counter from Daniel Maclean and a late close-range finish from Doug Brockie were sufficient to see the Glen safely home 3-1 against a Louie MacLellan goal for Beauly. And if that were all there was to write about the game that would be fine but unfortunately two Beauly lads, Charlie MacRae and Connor Ross got themselves red-carded late in the day and now the lads in green will be facing a run of matches with important players missing.

For various reasons Beauly have lost a few players over the close season-Ryan Mackay, Colin Macdonald and Sandy Elrick seem to have disappeared from their ranks and with these two lads now due a ban then they will struggle more than a little. That of course is in no-one’s interest-certainly not that of Glenurquhart because the way Beauly were playing, they were very liable to take important points away from other teams which would be helpful to the Glen as well as Beauly. They played well in the Lovat Cup holding the Crofters all the way - and with Lovat hitting 10 goals in Oban, Beauly would have had every expectation of challenging this season. Now in a matter of minutes at the end of a game that was lost-albeit in a frustrating way-their season could well and truly have been derailed. They do have Jack Macdonald and Sean Stewart to come back though - and they could help steady the ship. Certainly, I would guess Glen were lucky Jack wasn’t playing- and Sean too.

The Glen has been there too – we’ve lost players in frustrating circumstances – and been forced to carry on. Enough of that for the moment. Suffice to say that Beauly took with them a good group of really nice people to support them and it took the Wing Centre back to the days when these derby games with the teams over the hill were regular affairs. Over the last twenty years we have not played Beauly, Strathglass or Lovat nearly often enough to make the friendships we used to. 

Glen bright spots- a few. Good running forwards, solid defensive play from Lachie Smith, Sean Brown and Tom Edwards but if I were to single out a player for special mention it would be Oliver Black for his tremendous display of taking shies. It’s a specialist skill and on Saturday at least Ollie mastered it- and one of them from out on the left eventually led to Daniel Maclean’s goal just before the half time whistle.

Meanwhile up at Invergarry the Glenurquhart seconds squeaked home to a 5-4 victory against the home side thanks to a late goal from Mike Fraser who picked the Garry’s pocket in the 89^th minute to claim the points.

Glen had rushed ahead into a 2-0 first half lead through Glenn Macdonald and Mike Fraser before a brace from Invergarry’s Nick Dalgetty and a single from Pitkerrald’s own Raymond Robertson saw the ‘Garry take a 3-2 lead. Two strikes from Glenn Macdonald which completed his hat-trick then saw Glenurquhart regain the lead once more. Glengarry fought back however and four minutes from time superNick completed his own hat-trick to bring the sides level at 4-4. Most spectators would have settled for that-honours even and the points shared but Mike Fraser had other ideas and struck the ball home in the 89^th minute to claim both points for the visitors. An excellent result then - and one in which the Glen was able to blood a couple of youngsters- and if the ending had not been so tight doubtless a couple more would have had a run out.

Congratulations in particular to youngster David Fraser who overcame an early knock to bounce back and use his skill and athleticism to make an excellent contribution to the match which included an assist. The more youngsters that manager Gary Marshall can feed through into his side the better because whatever else happens it looks like being a tough year.

There was of course one more game on the day- a home game against G.M.A at in the first game of the season for the WCA Mowi Women’s Premier League.

Despite conceding an early goal the Glen performed creditably, with Hazel Hunter, Kirsty Smith and Rowan Brockie putting plenty pressure on the G.M.A defence.

A second goal from G.M.A shortly after half time was to seal Glenurquhart’s fate. Despite a couple of excellent saves from Keeper Amanda MacLennan, managing to stop and clear a penalty, and strong performances from youth players Jessica Crichton and Emily Van Loon the Glen were unable to break the Glasgow defence and the final result was 2-nil. Congratulations have to go to former Glenurquhart players Freya Gault and Grace Montague who both put in strong performances for G.M.A. on the day

This game was also manager Hugh Montague’s last at the helm as he sadly stepped down after 10 years coaching at GUSC. We wish him well.

 What will this weekend bring?  Time as always will tell. Pictures from a wider range of matches would help

 Thanks for most of the pictures we have as always to Neil Patterson. Thanks to GUSC Facebook and above all thanks to Doug and Ollie for smiling.

 

New Season- Old Challenges

All this happened-more or less. Of course, these games are not real life: that starts with the MacDonald Cup. Let’s hope it doesn’t stop there also.

The first encounter of the season was a 0-0 against Fort William at home - and it’s fair to say that our early rustiness could have told against us except that they were rusty too. I’m never really certain at my stage in life whether we ought to feel highly competitive in these games or not. I suppose it comes down to the fact if we take the lead then despite common sense – I want us desperately to win. If we go behind, we tend to say it’s only a friendly after all.

 Of course, against Fort William, a friendly match is a contradiction in terms - an oxymoron if you can remember the figure of speech from Mr McKell’s English Class- which of course you can’t. Whatever !!-  there were times when Referee MacPherson had his work cut out : I’m not sure but I think big Finlay got a row and I did see Scotty MacNeill rushing on to the field a couple of times and Mr Macdonald too but they are decent guys -passionate about the game and they swept out the dressing room afterwards which is not the state the Lochabermen left the dressing room in when they last came up here 300 years ago to steal cattle, so things are definitely moving in the right direction.

One particularly positive thing about the afternoon was that the Glen defence Lachie Smith, Tom Edwards, Sean Brown and Ali Maclean put in solid performances and managed to keep Fort from scoring although to be fair keeper Stuart Mackintosh played his part too. Disappointingly, though the Glen forwards were lively and mobile they could not find a way past Fort custodian Paul Mackay. On the plus side, Charlie Macleod performed well and Oliver Black in the centreline put in a good shift - and on the whole it was a good afternoon’s work.

On the same afternoon Farr Farr away from the warm side of the Loch, the Glen second team had a contest against Boleskine which Garry Marshall’s Glen side won 5-1. Though the youngsters were a little rusty all round and the pitch wasn’t in great shape it was actually was a good work out. Goals came from Glenn MacDonald, Brad Sneddon and John Barr who all hit singles while Mike Fraser fired home a brace. Most of the action took place in the first half with the Glen leading  4-0 at halftime and though there were a few chances missed after the break, the quieter part of the afternoon allowed Liam Patience, Abriachan’s Hugh Burnett and Chris Edwards to get their 2nd team debuts as subs and all performed well. So positives all round for the first games of the season.

The second friendly was against Kinlochshiel- and again this was a close fought game though ‘Shiel were a few bodies short. Despite this they edged the game 2-1 with goals from John Macrae and Jordan Fraser while Andrew Corrigan replied for the Glen.

Which is all I really know, since I spent the afternoon listening to Hugh Dan talking about Donald Mackay’s photographic journey through the ‘70s, ’80s and ‘90s. 

Donald of course had a strong Glen connection and there was a nice Glen turnout at the talk though some of us would perhaps have preferred to have been back in Drum at the ‘Shiel game. Why was it so early- It surely couldn’t have been the international rugby: but no-the shade of rugby-mad Charlie Smith has long gone from Plockton High School so the explanation must be that the ‘Shiel WAGs were hoping to have an afternoon shopping in M & S or wherever such ladies go nowadays.

However there was one bonus- “that” picture the Sports Pic of the Year (1978 Camanachd Cup Final-“Eyes on the Ball”) was unveiled as an oil painting created by Ballachulish player Dougie Rankine. What can you say?  Big John would be the first to say he was no oil-painting. Turns out he was wrong – and now he will be one forever.

Anyway, back to Blairbeg where there was a positive performance and attitude against Kinlochshiel though manager Iain Macleod felt disappointed in the result. What made that a little bit hard to take was that after ‘Shiel had lost a couple of players to injury they asked to borrow a sub. Glen gave them John Barr who can truly be said to be a Glen legend. Now it appears he’s well on the way to being a Shiel legend because he had a stormer and probably won the visitors the midfield battle.

There is no doubt the guy is a doughty competitor- He's only playing for 'Shiel as a guest and he gives it his all. Look at the way he is trying to stop young Alfie Macleod : that's a competitor for you. Double click on it and have a look for yourself.

Glen have not quite clicked up front yet but certainly created more chances compared to the Fort William game due to better distribution from midfield. Though no goals were produced both Daniel Maclean and Alfie Macleod hit the woodwork.
One disappointment is having to drop Ali Maclean back to defence but with Fergus on the sidelines for the opening few games there is no alternative at the moment and actually the back lines as structured have become a good solid unit that is hard to break down.

Other players who performed particularly strongly were Sean Brown who was superb in defence (See Charlene Macleod’s pictures), Liam Robertson who provided the side with energy, great hitting and fine shies in the middle of the park and the aforementioned youngster Alfie Macleod, who gave a tough match to ‘Shiel’s Donald Nixon which was no mean feat. 

 Donald is one of the best players in shinty and a Scotland international as well. Given that he is married to a girl from the Glen and his Mum is from Drum, it’s time he was coming home in a shinty sense as well. The transfer forms are here on Balmacaan Road - all it needs is a wee signature.  He’s halfway there already of course because no matter how much Cork wants to claim the goal, it was clearly Donald who glanced it past big Josh. He’s chalked up his first goal for the Glen already without even signing for us. Perhaps I should just pop the papers down the road to his mother-in-law’s mother.

Next we face up to the Glasaich in the Macdonald Cup and hopefully the Glen are on track to get back to where we once belonged, whisper it “The Premiership”– and with Gavin Heath, Steven Henderson and Fraser Heath in the backroom team then ….who knows?

Thanks to Charlene Macleod for the photos of the players and to The Camanachd Association (Jenna Calder, Inverness) for the pictures taken at Hugh Dan's event.

 

Signing off for this season ----and moving on to the next: whatever happens, the only winner will be Shinty.

Let’s face it we all love cliches-particularly the old one about the only winner being shinty. Not sure that shinty is ever really the winner especially in such changing times. Yet we still plug away in the hope that one day our lottery will come up trumps- just as we all hope that one day the Glen will again win a Sutherland or a Strathdearn.  The Camanachd ?  Well you never know though you do really. No matter. Like eager fishermen we look forward with hope- but we also have to acknowledge and reward what has been done.

In that spirit we can report that the Glen Shinty Club has held their dinner dance and not one but two awards presentations- and though a little time has passed it is as well for the sake of posterity to preserve in print the memory of these two events. Of course, it’s a busy time with the club having its eye firmly fixed on next year which means sorting out management teams for the new season. Not a particularly easy task it would appear.

However, to more pleasant duties-the Club Dinner Dance took place on Saturday November 29^th at the Clansman, a venue which we enjoy but one which is a little inconvenient for some because of the matter of transport back and fore.

 The meal was enjoyable – and the menu is noted because the house here is so filled with ephemera that one cannot really justify hanging on to another slip of paper no matter how useful it would be in the archive for the prompting of some shinty memories.

Between the courses Mr Mackintosh, the President of the Club, organised the handing out of the annual awards co-opting whoever caught his eye to hand over the treasures.

The awards were as follows:

Men’s First Team Player of the Year- Lachlan Smith

Men’s Second Team Player of the Year -Rory Maclean

Women’s First Team Player of the Year- Ishbel Barr

Women’s Second Team Player of the Year -Rowan Brockie (trophy accepted on her behalf by her brother Doug)

Young Male Player of the Year -Glenn MacDonald

Young Female Player of the Year -Ruby Fraser

The second set of awards took place a few days later on Thursday 4^th December at the Craigmonie Centre and unfortunately the Wing Centre missed out on these since he was out of the village.

There the awards were as follows:

Player of the Year U17 (M & F) Alfie Macleod & Rowan Brockie

Most Improved U17 -Hugh Burnett

U17 Development Player of the Year -Sophie Power

U17 Development (Most improved) -David Fraser

U14 Player of the Year -Kaleb Power

U14 Most Improved Player -Sam Jones

U14 Girl’s Player of the Year - Ava McConville

U14 Most Improved Player - Katie Edwards

A Special Award to Doug Brockie was made to mark his outstanding performance/ attendance/attitude throughout the year at U17 and First Team level- and well merited it was too. 

Moving on to the other matter which caught my eye it appears that in the new year Hugh Dan is going to deliver a talk on the photographic legacy of Donald Mackay. Fair play to HD; Donald Mackay has now slipped from the memories of shinty’s most recent generation and indeed over the years since his day the sport has been blessed with a large number of excellent photographers.  However, if you were to look at today’s newspapers, you might be forgiven for thinking that no-one is bothering to capture shinty chemically or even digitally any more.

Gone are the days when action pictures of games from Phil Downie and Neil Paterson appeared regularly in the national and local press. Pictures do appear-publicity shots of sponsors and the like distributed by the CA- but action shots from games, though they are still to be found on Facebook and the like – have largely disappeared from newspapers.

I did not really know Donald at all well but I certainly admired his photographic work. He did once produce the sporting pic of the year-taken against the back drop of Ben Nevis in a Camanachd Cup final. 

Nearer to home- and I assume HD knows this- he was related to Glen’s own Peter English and as such produced a pile of pictures in which he captured more or less everything about the Glen’s Centenary in 1985. From a personal point of view I guess that apart from one pic which appeared in the West Highland Free Press which I assume was taken by Willie Urquhart, Donald’s pics are the only action shots ever taken of the Wing Centre during his own playing career.

The relative absence from a range of newspapers of action photos of shinty is something that another Donald, the late Donald Stewart former Vice-President of the CA, would have had something to say about- and the thing about Donald is that he would have kept on saying it until something had been done about it-one way or another. Perhaps the pics would have come back, though the economics of newspapers may have precluded it or at least they would have been argued to have precluded it in the eyes of the bean counters in charge. The present doesn’t seem to be a good time to be in newspapers given the huge haemorrhage of readership- and then again you have to ask what are newspapers in Scotland for, given that most of the titles are diametrically opposed to the views of at least 49% of the population who basically no longer read them. Some of those that do tell me they only buy them for the crossword which they have been in the habit of doing over the years.

Anyway-back to Donald Stewart (pictured above in the London Camanachd team of the late 1980s) .I sometimes didn’t like being challenged by him over some of the newspaper pieces I had written but on reflection his position came out of fierce loyalty to the CA and in particular his support of the CA’s links with the GAA. Without out going into too much detail, that did not really pay off for him in the end and it may be that shinty as a whole missed out as a result. That’s one of the great “what ifs?” of Shinty history-but like all “what ifs of shinty history “ it will mean nothing to anyone who lives outwith the boundaries of the three shires and the three Islands.

Anyway, we all look forward to the season to come- with the Lovat Cup out of the way we are all allowed to anticipate the coming season. It will be as it always is a mixed bag. However, one thing will be strange- we are going into the new year without Andy Lloyd who has stepped down as Vice Chairman. 

Andy will be missed greatly for the wide range of work he undertook on behalf of the Club and the fact that he was a calming influence on the sidelines and at committee meetings. Let’s hope he doesn’t walk away too far.

Of course you can find all the above here 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CW_DUnwzEOx9qHmuYwpJaZ2reuF-psm8/view?usp=drive_web

Thanks to Glenurquhart Shinty Facebook for most of the pictures - and of course to Hi Life Highland for the Donald Mackay photo of Johnny Mackenzie; the other Donald Mackay photos belong to the Club. Thanks to Alister Chisholm for the picture of London Camanachd which includes the image of the late Donald Stewart. Finally, many thanks to our Club Secretary Laura Stoddart for creating the round up of the year.

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.

This is of course the third time in a  row they side have made it to the London Shield final which, considering they lost five players to the march of time is a considerable feat.

The Development Team made it to the final of the W J Cameron Cup once again but were unable to win it for a second time losing out to Bute despite defeating Inverness.

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.

Meanwhile Charlie Macleod found himself a berth in Peter Ross's North Under 21 select which lifted the Caol Cup.

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