EPIC CAMANACHD CUP FINAL AHEAD

Kyles Athletic and Inveraray are two shinty clubs with names that echo down the years in Camanachd Cup history.
As these two Argyll shinty clubs - near neighbours and rivals - square up at an Argyll venue this weekend, history is created.


Kyles Athletic is still one of the great clubs to be associated with the old trophy. Many rank the Cowal men alongside Newtonmore as the best in the competition's history. But the folks of the Kyles of Bute have not seen this piece of much-coveted silverware since 1994. That's 18 long years ago, when the likes of such illustrious players as Dan and Iain Macrae; (the much missed) Andy Irvine; Ronnie MacVicar;...er...Fraser MacDonald; and...erm...veteran goalie Kenny MacDonald were still playing.

Anyway - you get the drift.

For Inveraray, the wait is shorter. They last won the cup in 2004, and many of that current team will feature on Saturday - longer in the tooth and with experience in bucketloads.

They may have won the Camanachd Cup on four occasions as opposed to the 20 Kyles victories, but this is Inveraray's fourth final in the last decade.
Kyles have contested just the one over the same period - three years ago, also at Mossfield, when they narrowly lost out to Fort William.

But the two have never before met in the Camanachd Cup Final.

Few would place their mortgage on naming a winner. Some say Aray have the advantage with their greater experience, age and fast-moving forward line. Others that Kyles have the youth, energy and fitness allied to an improving defence.

In their respective goalkeepers, however, they each have potential match-winners. Some say Kenny MacDonald is a man who has seen fifty summers, but everyone - team-mate, supporter or rival, agrees that Kenny is one of the biggest factors in their recent seasons of prominence. His calmness with a fag hingin' oot his mouth while under pressure is legendary. There is, though, a nasty rumour that big Kenny started training last Thursday for this Saturday's final. That's how seriously he's taking it.

Inveraray, on the other hand, have the wee Toad between the sticks. Graham MacPherson is arguably as important to his team as Kenny MacDonald to his own. But the styles are slightly different. Toad is as likely to be seen running to alertly intercept a ball towards the corner flag as standing on the goal line. Both players - Toad and Kenny - have the reflexes of a cat underneath their unruffled exteriors.

And either one could be the difference between winning and losing at Mossfield on Saturday.

After a run of cup defeats in different competitions to their yellow and black rivals, how Kyles would love to beat them in the final, but Inveraray are on a special steak-and-pasta diet served up by the George Hotel - and are equally as keen to bring home the cup.

It's going to be an all-Argyll cracker.

Who's your money on?