'WE HAVEN'T EVEN STARTED YET'

They are ageing, grizzled, battle-scarred veterans of many a mud-spattered boorach up and down the country. Oh, and male. 
Shinty presidents, that is.*

We all know this to be true. It has to be.

Lassies don't know about shinty, surely?

Well, shintyfan is here to disabuse you of that particular notion.

We spoke to one of the sport's rising stars recently. She's young, pretty, intelligent...and has hardly a scar to be seen.

Fiona Mathie is the newly-elected president of the Women's Camanachd Association.

Voted in at the association's November's AGM, this 25-year-old is a woman on a mission. And, with evangelical zeal, that mission is to spread the word about shinty for women as well as men, and develop the sport to a point where it is on a much more even footing to mainstream (ie male-oriented) shinty.

By her own admission she is “bursting with ideas”, and if administrators in the wider Camanachd Association exhibit half the enthusiasm that shines out of Fiona as she talks about the game – our ancient sport is surely in safe hands.

Young Fiona Mathie learned about shinty at home in Argyll. Brought up in the hamlet of Carrick Castle, on the shores of Loch Goil, she attended Lochgoilhead Primary and Dunoon Grammar School. It was when her older brother Andrew arrived home from Dunoon Grammar with a caman poking out from his school bag that wee sister's interest was sparked. As well as playing football at secondary school, she was soon a member of Dunoon Grammar School shinty team – and not the girls' team, if that's what you're wondering, because there wasn't one.

Talent-spotted by Glasgow Mid Argyll at the age of fourteen, she turned out for the city side for a number of years, winning a Valerie Fraser winner's medal (the Women's Camanachd Cup) during her time with the club.

Fiona later attended Strathclyde University, studying sport and exercise science, and while there got herself involved with organising the university shinty leagues, yet still found time to be capped for Scotland playing against the British universities select side.

On graduation two years ago she took up a sports administrator position with Scottish Student Sport, an umbrella organisation developing sporting opportunities across 500 sports clubs in the country's universities and colleges.
She now plays with Glasgow side Tir Conaill Harps, winning a second Valerie Fraser winner's medal along the way.

“It's great to be involved in sport, said Fiona, “and a lot of what I do in my day-to-day job can be transferred to my role in the Women's Camanachd Association."

She is full of enthusiastic passion about her lofty new position in the association, as she explained: “Karen Cameron from Glengarry, whom I succeeded, has done a fantastic job, as has the whole committee.

“Sometimes it's good to have a change though, and bring in new ideas.”

The big news this year has been the announcement of nearly £10,000 of funding over over the next three years from Marine Harvest.

Fiona commented: “This is fantastic news, because it allows us to spend more money on development, improving the standard of shinty and encouraging partnerships.”

“One thing I want to do is to strengthen links between the universities and the Camanachd Association. The association is being supportive, and Ronald Ross (national shinty development officer) and Russell Jones (Highland development officer) are helping out at this year's Littlejohn Vase on March 21.”

In conversation, her love of shinty is patently clear, with innovative notions bursting forth. She has ideas - at various stages of gestation - for setting up a youth international system; senior and junior development camps; promoting the women's game; supporting individual clubs; introducing a patronage system; introducing true women's shinty internationals alongside the men's version; the list goes on. Keep an eye on shintyfan for more on this in time.

“The potential for women's shinty is huge. It's a Scottish sport, there's a great community spirit, you get to meet a lot of new people. Some of my closest friends I met through shinty.”

She added: “It's very exciting, and we haven't even started yet.”

Fiona Mathie is a woman on a mission, and who would bet against her achieving her aim of women's shinty achieving similar – or greater – recognition than the men's equivalent.

“I am loving every minute of it, she concluded. And I feel very lucky.

“I get to play shinty and to shape the sport I love.”

*No offence intended to Camanachd Association president, Archie Robertson, who may be a veteran of a boorach or two, but is hardly grizzled...or ageing.