COULD SHINTY SHINE AT COWAL GAMES?

Cowal Highland Gathering is, we hear, about to lose its status as one of the major pipe band championships after this August's event.
But there is no room for tears, and the organisers will even now be looking for a replacement with the punch and vitality such that the major championships are hardly missed.

How about shinty?


The loss of major status is widely seen as a potential catastrophe for this proud and historic Highland Games, which is held in the last weekend in August.

The prestige attached to the Cowal Pipe Band Championships was at one time - in the last few decades - greater than the (then nomadic) World Pipe Band Championships. Bands were more eager to come to the Dunoon-based Cowal competitions, and more made the journey to the Cowal peninsula than followed the worlds around the British Isles.
How quickly this has been lost and forgotten.

But why doesn't the sport of shinty put together a business-like proposal to plug the undoubted gap this will leave?

Cowal Games could offer a high profile platform for the sport, and there is no more exciting sport than shinty - or one more indigenous to Cowal, for that matter.

Ironically the sport, in six-a-side format, was removed from the Cowal Games a few years back - to make more room for pipe bands and spectators. It is unlikely that the main arena would be available, but there is a top field with plenty going on around it. Erect a temporary stand, make it into an arena and offer spectators something that's exciting to watch.

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