WINTER SHINTY WOULD NOW BE IMPOSSIBLE - DISCUSS

ANY shinty player over the age of 30 can remember these matches.

Numb hands, legs, faces and other extremities as sleet and snow are driven on freezing gale force winds across sheep paddocks in God-forsaken glens and straths.


The joys of the winter shinty season.

The domain of the boorach. The muddy graveyard of fast shinty.

But there were plenty of Saturdays between October and May when pitches were hard, the air was clear and play raged with skill and dexterity that would put many a modern encounter to shame. These days were a genuine joy in which to play shinty. The pitches were, of course, more agricultural than most these days, but this was no impediment to men of strength and true skill with the caman.

But here is a question. Could we have played winter shinty in the kind of weather conditions experienced in Scotland over the past decade?

Rainfall seems to be heavier, more prolonged and - when it does stop - there seem to be fewer dry, cold days of the kind we (perhaps) used to get more of. The climate seems to be stormier and milder in general, particularly closer to the west coast.

It's hard enough to get matches played in our modern-day summer season, but it seems improbable that - despite better pitches with more efficient drainage - any winter fixtures programme could be completed in the 21st century.

What do you think?