Shinty

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Shinty

Shinty, also known as camanachd or iomain, is a team sport played with sticks and a ball. Now played almost exclusively in the Scottish Highlands, but formerly more widespread, the sport was derived from the same root as the Irish game, hurling and is similar to bandy.

Shinty is one of the forebears of ice hockey, Scottish immigrants to Nova Scotia playing a game on ice in 1800 at Windsor. In Canada, informal hockey games are still called shinny. It was also a predecessor of bandy.

In the Scottish Lowlands, it was formerly referred to as common/cammon (caman), cammock (from Scottish Gaelic camag), knotty and various other names.

Game

The objective of the game is to play a small ball into a goal, or "hail", erected at the ends of a 120 to 160-yard-long pitch. The ball is played using the caman, a stick of about 3 1/2 ft in length. Unlike the Irish camán, it has no blade.

A team consists of 12 players, including one goalkeeper. A match is played over two halves of 45 minutes. With the exception of the keeper, no player is allowed to play the ball with his hands. There are also variants with smaller sides, with some adjustments in the field size and duration of play.

Whilst erroneous comparisons are often made with field hockey, the two sports vary wildly. In shinty, a player is allowed to play the ball in the air and is allowed to use both sides of the stick. The stick may also be used to block and to tackle, although a player may not come down on an opponent's stick, this is defined as hacking. A player may tackle using the body as long as this is shoulder-to-shoulder as in football.

A player may only stop the ball with the stick, two feet together or one foot planted on the ground. Only the goalkeeper may use his hands and then only with an open palm. He may not catch it. Playing the ball with the head constitutes a foul whether intentional or not.

Fouls result in a free-hit, which is indirect unless the foul is committed in the penalty area, commonly referred to as "The D". This results in a penalty hit from 20 yards.

History

Gaelic settlers from Ireland brought the sport of hurling to Scotland, where the game was played as such until the 14th century, albeit with a different caman from the Irish one.

The modern sport is governed by the Camanachd Association (Comunn na Camanachd). The association came into being in the late victorian era as a means of formulating common rules to unite the various different codes and rules which even differed between neighbouring glens.

Shinty is traditionally divided into two administrative and playing areas, the North and the South. The geographic divide is at Ballachulish, with all clubs south of here being classified as South teams, although most are still northerly in comparison to most of Scotland.

These clubs compete in various competitions, both cup and league, on a national and also North/South basis. Whilst the top two leagues are played on a national basis, the premier competition is the Scottish Cup or the Camanachd Association Challenge Cup, (the Camanachd Cup for short) which has been totally dominated by Kingussie in the last twenty years. The other dominant team in Shinty history has been Newtonmore, Kingussie's near neighbours. Strangely these two teams only met in the Camanachd Cup Final for the first time in 1984. The 2005 Final saw Fort William rivals, Fort William and Kilmallie clash at An Aird in Fort William on a dreich day in front of a healthy crowd, a passionate local derby saw Fort William win the cup for only the second time in their history by defeating their neighbours 3-2 thanks to a last minute goal.

In 2003, Shinty clubs voted for a trial period of two years of a Summer Season starting in March until October, with a view to moving permanently to Summer Shinty if the experiment was adjudged to be a success. Despite opposition from the "Big Two", Kingussie and Newtonmore and other small groups in the game, an EGM in November 2005 voted by an overwhelming majority (well over the required 2/3s) to make Summer Shinty the basis upon which the game would proceed.

Predominantly a Highland game, there are also clubs to found in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth and even London. University Shinty is also a popular section of the sport, with almost all Scotland's main universities possessing a team. Historically, Glasgow University, Aberdeen University and Edinburgh University have vied for supremacy but in recent years, Strathclyde University, Robert Gordon's College and Dundee University have risen to prominence. It is also played in the Army with The Highlanders Shinty Club keeping alive the tradition of the game being played in the Forces.

In recognition of Shinty's shared roots with hurling, an annual international between the two codes from Scotland and Ireland is played on a home and away basis using compromise rules. In recent years the Irish have had the upper hand but the Scots won the fixture narrowly in 2005.

Although Camanachd Cup finals and internationals have been shown over the years, 2006 marked the first ever regular TV deal for shinty with matches being shown on the BBC Sports show Spòrs.

Clubs

Senior clubs include:

Women's Shinty

Aberdeen University
Dunadd
Edinburgh University
Forth Camanachd
Glasgow Mid Argyll
Glengarry
Inverary
St Andrews University
Tir Connaill Harps
Robert Gordon University

Youth Shinty

Youth clubs who go by a different name from any connected senior club include:

Shinty Teams in North America

Shinty Abroad

Shinty is also spreading to North America, though originally played in the 18th and 19th century by Scottish immigrants, the sport died out, however it is enjoying a revival. Two teams, Northern California Camanachd Club (NCCC) and Morro Bay Shinty Club, play regularly on the Highland Games circuit in California, both clubs train year round. On 04 September 2005 the first international Shinty match between a team from USA and a team from Scotland on Scottish soil was played. The event was hosted by the Blairgowrie Highland Games where the Northern California Camanachd Club (NCCC) played a series matches against the Tayforth Shinty Club, with Tayforth victorious, the Cup for the match was provided by the Pleasanton Blairgowrie Fergus Sister City Organization (PBSO) and the "Player of the Match" award was provided by the Campbell Highland Games Association (CHGA), note both organizations are California based. The Tayforth Shinty Club is organizing a Shinty tournament to be held at the 2006 Blairgowire & Rattray Games to compete for the Cup. This match was followed by the Northern California Camanachd Club participating in the first inaugural Annual Edinburgh East Lothian Levenhall Six a Side Shinty Tournament in Musselburgh on 05 September 2005, other teams were Edinburgh East Lothian aka EEL (Hosting),Aberdour Shinty Club and Edinburgh University Women’s team. Edinburgh East Lothian won the tournament with the NCCC coming in 3rd out of 4 teams. As the teams in Scotland have switched from a winter schedule to a summer schedule more visitors to Scotland are seeing the sport and returning very interested in it. Clubs are forming in Houston (Texas), Dunedin (Florida - Tampa Bay area), Washington State (not DC) and there is interest in forming clubs Santa Monica and Bakersfield (Calif), Utah, Phoenix (Arizona). For contact information for Northern California, Santa Monica and Bakersfield (Calif), Utah and Phoenix please e-mail: info@norcalshinty.com, for contact information for Morro Bay, Houston, Dunedin (Florida), Washington State please see the links section.

Pleasanton Blairgowrie Fegus Sister City Organization: http://www.pbsco.org/ Campbell Highland Games Association: http://www.campbellgames.com/ The Blairgowrie and Rattray Highland Games: http://www.blairhighlandgames.co.uk/

External links

Team sports | Shinty | Scottish cultural icons | Sport in Scotland

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Game

History

Clubs

Shinty Abroad

See also

External links