Glenurquhart Shinty Club
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| Full name | Glenurqhuart Shinty Club | ||
| Gaelic name | Comann Camanachd Ghleann Urchadain | ||
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| Nickname | The Glen | ||
| Founded | 1885 | ||
| Ground | Blairbeg Park, Drumnadrochit | ||
| Manager | Jim Barr | ||
| League | Premier Division | ||
| 2010 | 6th | ||
| Reserve Manager | Stuart Henderson | ||
| League | North Division Two | ||
| 2010 | 1st | ||
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Glenurquhart Shinty Club is a shinty team which plays in Drumnadrochit on the banks of Loch Ness, Scotland. It draws its players from the part of the Great Glen which encompasses Drumnadrochit, Lewiston and Glenurquhart. The club has been existence since 1885.
The club presently has two teams, the first team, which plays in the Premier Division and the second team, which won North Division Two in 2009 and 2010.
[edit] History
Glenurquhart played a match against Strathglass on the 12th of February 1887, at the Bught Park, Inverness and in a landmark game concerning the establishment of the first official rules of Shinty. Glen Urquhart lost a game, played with 22 players on each side 2-0. This fixture was to be repeated on 12 January 2007 in Inverness as the opening centrepiece of the Highland 2007 celebrations in Scotland.
The club has had very poor historic success with purple patches in the 1960s and early 1990s. The club participated in the Fairytale Final of the Camanachd Cup in 1988, succumbing 4-2 to Kingussie Camanachd. The Glen were relegated from the National Premier in 1999. [1]
In 2007, the club reached the Balliemore Cup Final but lost 1-0 to Kinlochshiel.
In 2008 the Glen have reached the Mactavish Cup Final for the first time in 26 years and won North Division One, winning promotion to the Premier Division. The second team also added to the success of the club in 2008 when it won North Division Three and was promoted to North Division Two in 2009. The club were named Marine Harvest Club of the Year for 2008 on the 20th June 2009, the same day that the club won the inaugural Marine Harvest Clash of the Camans[2]. The Glenurquhart second team won the North Division Two title on the 10th of October 2009, which would have seen the team promoted to North Division One in 2010 but the club committee turned this down.
Hugely successful management duo Billy MacLean and Dave Menzies stood down at the end of the 2009 season to be replaced by Jim Barr.[3] Glenurquhart's excellent fourth place finish for 2009 was downgraded to 5th place after Kyles Athletic won their appeal against a 2-point penalty for failing to fulfil a fixture.[4]
The club's reserves won the North Division Two in 2009 and 2010 having won the North Division Three in 2008. The club refused promotion to North Division One. The club's reserves also featured in the 2010 Sutherland Cup Final and won the Strathdearn Cup.
2011 saw the second team struggle to maintain the standards of recent years but the first team continued to consolidate its Premier Division status. Jim Barr stepped down from his management role at the end of the season to be replaced by ex-Fort William manager Drew MacNeil.
[edit] Players of Note
Midfielder Eddie Tembo was the first black person to play for Scotland at full international level, coming on as a substitute in the combined rules international with Ireland in 2008. [5] He was joined by John Barr in 2009. John Barr is an iconic figure in the present Glen squad. Another player who has gained international recognition and holds a record number of under-21 caps is present goalkeeper, Stuart MacKintosh.
January 2009 saw the club afflicted by tragedy with the death of shinty historian Professor Peter English, who was intrisically linked with the club as a player and an official.[6]
Shinty journalist Fraser MacKenzie played for the club and writes the Glen based "Keeping Out Of The D" blog. The club also signed former Scotland and Lochcarron manager, Fraser MacKenzie in 2011.
There is also an under 14 team and under 17 team at the moment.
[edit] External links
- Glenurquhart @ shinty.com
- Some photographs of old Glenurquhart teams
- Shinty's First Blog, Written from a 'Glen' perspective
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