EASTER PARADE OF FANTASTIC SHINTY

Shinty fans are hopping with joy as they look forward to a egg-citing day of Easter weekend shinty.

The new pavilion at Strachur

Will premiership table-toppers Newtonmore have an easy afternoon as they take on bottom club Kilmallie at the Eilan?

Can Kinlochshiel crush Kyles?

...and it's Gaelic all the way on Skye, while one of the best new playing fields in Scotland is unveiled later today.

Kilmallie haven't quite clicked so far this season, finding goals hard to come by ast the Canal Park club props up the Orion Premiership. 

Today they travel to Badenoch to play the team at the opposite end of the table - perhaps the last team the club would want after a disappointing defeat to Inveraray the previous week. Newtonmore is a team for which goals are not a problem.In MacRae they have the best (fit) marksman in the game at the moment, and he is surrounded by good players. In defence, Newtonmore are big, strong and athletic. Hard to break down.

The league table suggests a simple win for the home side. We'll see.

For the second successive week, a dogged Inveraray squad travels to Lochaber - this week to play Fort William. The garrison club has hardly been mentioned so far this season while Newtonmore, Kyles, Kingussie, Kinlochshiel...and Beauly...have been grabbing the headlines. But quietly they are coming up on the rails. They have games in hand and should be handily-placed if they win those.

Elsewhere in the top league, Glenurquhart are at home to Bute in a game that is hard to call. It may well be a close one.

Lovat, hoping to resurrect their season after last week's cup exit, might just be hoping that a certain Mr Ross is away shopping for Easter eggs rather than cracking home goals with ruthless efficiency for Kingussie. An entertaining match is in prospect at Balgate.

The Sutherland Cup first round ties today have been hit by a number of match cancellations. Three clubs - Lochaber, Lochcarron and Tayforth - have had to scratch because they are unable to raise teams. Great for the opposition, who are awarded a walkover, but not so good for the sport. Playing numbers, or lack thereof, is a serious ongoing problem for many parts of the country,and it is something that Shintyfan will revisit.

Now - there will be a shinty/hurling event with a twist later today at Pairc nan Laoch, Portree.

The fifth annual Iomain Cholmcille will see four teams - two representing shinty, Alba and a representative Skye team, and two from hurling, Micheal Breathnach and a team from Ulster - take the field.

We mentioned a twist. This is it - there is just one over-arching rule, and that is that players speak Gaelic.
The action gets underway at 10.45am culminating in the final at 3.15pm.

And did you know that the Camanachd Cup Final is to be played later today?
According to the CA website Oban Camanachd, Glenorchy, Inverness and Caberfeidh will contest the final at 2.30pm and 3pm.
Alright - I'm being a smart-a***. A simple typo in the description of the matches in the list of fixtures. And there but for the grace of God goes Shintyfan...

The Portree pitch is one of the top shinty venues, but now it might just have a rival. A brand new playing field will be used for the first time today in the Argyll village of Strachur.
It is a tremendous facility in a glorious setting, and today's south division one match between Strachur and Aberdour marks the culmination of eight and more years of hard work by the local community development company.
Everyone involved, including funders such as sportscotland and the Camanachd Association, is to be congratulated.

Strachur's new pitch will be a truly great setting for sports including shinty - and, who knows, perhaps a major final before too much longer...