WILL TAYNUILT RIP UP FORM BOOK?

Captains Stuart Scott, Taynuilt and Inveraray's Scott Robertson would love to get their hands on the old trophy

It's an all-Argyll affair in the AJG Parcels Celtic Society Cup final this Saturday, as it was last year at Inveraray when Kyles took on Oban Camanachd - both (then) premiership sides.

This year's 108 Celtic Cup Final, at Strachur's new community playing field, will be contested between south division one club, Taynuilt and premiership outfit, Inveraray - and refereed by Argyll man, Robert Baxter.

The north equivalent, the MacTavish, followed a similar pattern this year when premiership Newtonmore faced north first division Lochaber last weekend. Despite some determined play, with no little skill, Lochaber ended up the wrong side of a 5-1 thumping.


With Inveraray finding scoring form - admittedly interrupted by a 4-1 away defeat to Kyles, though Aray were missing key forward players that day - and Taynuilt struggling to win games in division one recently, this has led to widespread predictions of an even greater mis-match than that seen at the Bught last weekend.

Taynuilt manager, Davie Thomson, knows this better than anyone.

He has said that his plan is to put the shackles on the yellow and black forwards as long as possible in a bid to stop early goals.
Then, his hope is...
well...you just never know what might happen.

Taynuilt is a team with a good sprinkling of experience. They are pretty sharp in midfield and up front, but have a tendency to be slow starters, and this might be their undoing at Strachur this weekend.

Inveraray, on the other hand, will be short of the McMurdo brothers and David MacPherson. But with an unrivalled recent history of Celtic Cup wins and a burning desire to reclaim a trophy they see as theirs, they should, on paper, be too strong for Taynuilt.

Shinty, though, is not played on paper.

The match starts at Strachurmore Sports Centre, Strachur, at 4pm, with live TV coverage on BBC ALBA.

The Cowal village has been working hard to put together the facilities and prepare the venue for this occasion. With the under-17 McQuiston Cup Final preceding the main event at 1pm, it will be a feast of shinty, no matter the weather.

It will be well worth going along to.

You just never know what might happen.