As the curtain comes down on another shinty season, Grand Slam winners Kingussie complete a so far undefeated campaign against Kinlochshiel at Rèaraig.
The match is subject to a pitch inspection with a switch of venue a possibility.
Shiel manager Willie MacRae: “I’m hopeful our pitch will be playable. We are missing Archie MacRae, Arron Jack and WD MacRae who are all off to watch Scotland at the rugby.
“It’s a noon throw up and David Falconer is back onshore at 8am so I’m hoping he’ll be available.”
Kingussie boss Iain Borthwick: “The weather’s been good on our side, so we’ll have the Dell prepared just in case.
“Cammie Bremner completes his suspension while Calum Grant, Rory MacKeachan, James Falconer and Savio Genini are all unavailable so there will be places for the younger ones.”
Oban Camanachd and Lovat have agreed to share the points from their home and away fixtures against each other as have Skye and Caberfeidh for their meeting in Portree. Inveraray and Bute have done likewise in the Mowi National Division.
Two of youth shinty’s prize trophies are up for grabs at Blairbeg as the Glenurquhart and Newtonmore under-17 sides contest the Mowi London Shield before the Kingussie and Oban under-12s meet in the Camanachd Association Cup final.
Reid hopes international can be springboard
As the dust settles on a classic shinty-hurling international between Scotland and Ireland, manager Garry Reid lauded the spectacle served up by the players as his side went down 25-22 after extra-time.
Reid said: “I spoke to people at the end of the game who said it was the best shinty-hurling match they’d ever seen.
“There was some terrific talent on display, and you could hear the appreciation coming from the crowd at the skills shown by both sets of players.
“The crowd was much bigger than it looked on the video footage. The near-side stand was packed but as these supporters were behind the camera, they weren’t picked up.
“When we spoke before the game, we didn’t so much talk about winning or losing but spoke about putting on a performance.
“You try to win the game of course, and it’s been said we’d have won by four points with the old scoring system, but I think the most important thing with these games is to create a spectacle for everyone to enjoy and I don’t think you could have got a better game. I thought it was exceptional.”
Garry Reid is clearly enthusiastic about the cross-codes game, believing it has a place in the shinty calendar and would be a wonderful way to close the season.
He added: “The match leaves shinty-hurling in a good place and it’s been suitably resurrected after Covid.
“There will always be debate about the game, but I think we’ve left it on a good footing, and I hope shinty supporters get behind it when it returns to Inverness next year. This is a showpiece game, and it would be a fitting final match to close the shinty season.
It was a proud day for Scotland captain Robert Mabon who said: “It was really competitive out there and you could see the wind advantage helped Ireland in the second half.
“We did brilliantly to claw our way back into the game and then get in front just seconds from the end before their free-hit in the last 30 seconds.
“Overall, it was a brilliant game and a great advert to keep shinty-hurling rolling on for the years ahead.”
Skye’s John Gillies said: “I thought Ireland had the better of us with five minutes to go but we took our chances very well.
“We were ahead with seconds to go when they got a free which was never a foul in my opinion, but it took the game to extra-time and sometimes that’s just the way it works. It was a very close game against a great Irish side but sadly they just edged it.”
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