SWINGING IN THE RAIN

Mud, glorious mud

Approaching a month into the summer shinty season, there hasn't yet been a Saturday without the odd pitch being unplayable due, in one way or another, to our Scottish climate.

Some fields have been used in a bid to get games played when, arguably and in hindsight, perhaps they shouldn't.

Most of the wet pitches have been in the west. Most of the rain falls in the west.
Thankfully this week the weather forecast is looking a bit more promising, and we even look forward to a dry Saturday across the board - but let's not get carried away at this stage in the week.
Summer shinty is with us, and here to stay. If pitches are nowadays unfit for shinty matches in a season running from March to September (roughly), what on earth (no pun intended) kind of quagmires would we be playing on October through to April, as used to be?

Many believe that the game itself has changed as a generation has grown into summer shinty without ever knowing the dubious pleasures of battling away manfully (like a bunch of eejits?) through Sleet in Spean Bridge, Blizzards in Beauly and Dalmally Downpours; having lost the feeling in arms, legs and other appendages while being blinded by horizontal precipitation - all this time guddling about in mud looking for a ball that might occasionally be played before ankles and shins.
Sorry...a bit carried away thinking about the good old days.

No - forget all that winter malarkey. Summer shinty, if you believe the publicity, is faster, more skilful and demands superior fitness levels all round for playing shinty on hard, dry surfaces.

Summer shinty rain is casting a long shadow

Well...that's the theory at any rate. We hear of premier clubs towards the north east complaining that premier clubs in the west do not have pitches that are fit for modern-day shinty (as the summer season has moulded it). Western clubs argue that no amount of planning, preparation and groundwork on new pitches would allow perfect surfaces every week, given the climate we now live with. Even if the funding was there to create new playing fields.
One knowledgeable source recently opined that the west coast of Scotland is these days enjoying - sorry - enduring 40 per cent more rainfall annually than a couple of decades back. This may be a temporary blip or the beginnings of a longer term trend, but either way it affects how, when and indeed if shinty is played week to week.

One of the few new playing fields being constructed at the moment is taking shape in Strachur - right in the heart of shinty playing country in Cowal, which last year had to shed around eleven to twelve feet of rain from its hills and glens. The timing of this scheme meant that it just managed to get access to funds as they dwindled, and it will be interesting to see how this brand new pitch stands up to the Argyll climate.

With a modern new pavilion alongside, it certainly looks, at this stage, like being an asset to shinty, and a fantastic new venue for the sport.

Shinty is now a summer (whatever that might mean) sport, and has undoubtedly changed as a result of this and other changes in the game's administration and structures.
What doesn't change is the dedication of clubs - players, officials and supporters - up and down the land, from east to west, to work voluntarily to make sure their own playing surfaces are as good as they can be week in, week out.

The Camanachd Association has the difficult task of keeping the fixture list ticking over and doing its best, along with match officials and the aforementioned dedicated volunteers, to get games played. A recent innovation has been the switching of ties - in other words, if the designated home team's pitch is deemed unplayable, then it goes to the away ground or a neutral venue to be played, provided this pitch is fit for shinty itself.

As the season progresses, it is conceivable that more west coast shinty pitches will be unplayable due to persistent rainfall than eastern and north eastern counterparts. A logical extension of this might be that those in wetter climes, including clubs from Argyll, Bute and Lochaber, will play more ties at away grounds or distant neutral venues than perhaps would be the case for rivals around Inverness or Badenoch.

As an amateur sport, players with full time jobs and other commitments can find it difficult to get time to travel to away games as things stand, so any additional long journeys could place unbearable and unfair strain on playing resources. The cost of travelling to repeated distant fixtures might also place an extra unwanted burden on meagre club resources.


Shintyfan would like to hear your views on this, so please comment via the box below.

• What do you think of summer shinty?
• Are the association's rules on switching venue fair?
• Are pitches good enough?
• Is there too much moaning over perfect pitches?

Right now though, like every other shinty person, I just keep glancing at the latest weather forecasts in the hope that we'll get a game this weekend - and, longer term, that summer shinty will, this season, get a summer that befits the great old game.