It was a joy and a privilege to be at Mossfield Park in Oban last Saturday to see Kinlochshiel win the Camanachd Cup for the first time in their history, beating a fine Lovat team 3-1.
The victory has been earned over generations, with parents and grandparents watching their children and grandchildren finally achieve what they themselves deserved in their day.
Sorley MacLean, who taught these generations, would be so proud, as would another son of the glens, the late John Farquhar Munro, who was a skilled hand with the caman himself.
And none of it would happen without the decades-long commitment of the women and shinty families of Lochalsh and Kintail. The likes of Bert and Alison Loades, Finlay and Alice MacRae and other faithful supporters who have kept the club going over the years, whether cutting the grass and lining the pitch, or making the tea and raising all the essential funds.
I’ve always liked Mossfield, since that time I scored twice for Seil United to beat the mighty Oban Saints, and for the time I ran the 440 race at the Oban High School Sports and, to paraphrase the great Tommy Docherty, was lucky to come in last.
Shinty is a highly skilled game
Mossfield is also where the historic Argyllshire Gathering takes place every year and where my piping daughter, Brìghde, almost broke the ground record in the girl’s long jump, except she slipped at the very last second and the stewards refused to measure where her feet had landed – somewhere to the east of Taynuilt – which would have been a new world record. At least.
But to the shinty. What a terrific game it is. A stick (caman) and a ball and 12 players on each side. The aim is to put the ball into the opponent’s net more times than they do into yours. The thing is, though, that all those brawny defenders, bodies and camans and bonny helmets, stand in the way.
Shinty is a highly-skilled, physical game. You just try and balance or control a ball with that curved caman and you’ll know how talented the great players are – those like Kinlochshiel captain Keith MacRae, who scored all of his side’s three goals on Saturday, their former players Grant Michael and the late Johnny “Ach” MacRae, as well as, of course, the legendary Ronald Ross of Kingussie, and so many others.
Sitting ‘The Qualifying’
Speaking of Kingussie reminds me of the greatest rivalry there is. With Newtonmore. The two villages are three miles apart, and it’s one of life’s marvels that both continue to nurture teams of the very highest calibre. My dear, late friend, Bill Ramsay of Kingussie, told grand stories of the old rivalry.
Bill told me that the high school was in Kingussie, and you had to sit “The Qualifying” to get into it.
The best thing is that shinty belongs to, and represents, its local community. It reflects the strength and demography of that community.
Part of the prize for passing The Qualifying was that you were gifted a bicycle to make your way to school. Bill told me of the Newtonmore girls (“It was always girls who qualified,” Bill added) cycling in through Kingussie in the rain, hail and snow, shouting to the Kingussie boys: “The sun’s shining in Newtonmore!” Of course it was.
Shinty belongs to community
One of the finest things about the great game of shinty is that it’s a completely amateur sport, played at the very highest skill level. On Saturday, for instance, Kinlochshiel had three stonemasons and two joiners playing for them, while Lovat had five plumbers and three electrical engineers.
It’s a working sport. A sport of trades, you could almost say, which contrasts so vividly with the professional footballers we watch on television, rolling around on the grass whenever anyone touches them. Many’s a cailleach has said to me: “A wee while on a shinty pitch would sort them out!”
The best thing is that shinty belongs to, and represents, its local community. It reflects the strength and demography of that community. Kinlochshiel’s success has brought renewed pride to the area. That sense of communal wellbeing, cohesion and achievement is extremely precious. It signifies a future.
The Gàidhealtachd has, for too long, been losing its young people to urban centres. The horrendous price of housing and land makes it increasingly difficult for young families. And without youth, no future. For Gaelic or shinty or anything else.
Thankfully, the glens and villages of Lochalsh and Kintail are still strong. For the moment, the glory rightly belongs to mighty Kinlochshiel.
Now that they’ve matched Skye’s Camanachd Cup win in 1990, wouldn’t a grand final next year between these two giants be just the very thing?
Angus Peter Campbell is an award-winning writer and actor from South Uist
