Sir, Well done to the North and South under 14 and under 17 shinty players for putting on a fine display of shinty at the Dell, Kingussie, and the Eilan, Newtonmore, on October 5.
The matches had originally been scheduled by the Camanachd Association to take place at An Aird, Fort William, with Lochaber’s pitch at Spean Bridge booked as a fall back. However, heavy rain that weekend meant that it was clear on the Saturday afternoon that neither pitch would be playable.
In October 2007, the inclement weather also postponed these fixtures. The matches did not take place until April 2008 when they were played in Perth.
This year it was decided on the Saturday to reschedule the games to pitches which were likely to be available the following day at locations which could host an after match reception. This meant that travel arrangements had to be changed and many players had to make long journeys on the day but the alternative arrangements did avoid the disappointment of the matches being postponed.
Fort William is an obvious location for these games to take place. However in the event of Fort William being unavailable, there was also a sense of fairness with the games taking place in the North in 2008, as they had taken place in the South in 2007.
The ladies who travelled from the Fort William area to serve the after match hospitality did the occasion proud, as did the supporters.
The Fraser MacPhee Trophy for under 14 shinty and The Peter Black Trophy for under 17 shinty are two much anticipated events in the youth shinty calendar and I commend the Camanachd Association for continuing to keep both matches as high profile shinty events.
Alasdair Bruce, North Shinty coach.
