Friday 9th February, 2007

4th Scottish University Shinty V British University Hurling / Camogie All Stars

On a historic day (Saturday 27^th January 2007, Hough End Playing Fields, Manchester) for both sports as the first Shinty/Hurling and Shinty /Camogie matches took place out-with either Scotland or Ireland, the Scottish University Shinty Squads again emerged victorious against the British University Hurling / Camogie All Stars.

The fourth consecutive event in this historic series, which was first contested at Celtic Park Glasgow in 1924 between University College Dublin and a Scottish University Shinty select was played at the Hough End Gaelic Playing Fields in Manchester on a perfect day for Shinty-Hurling-Camogie. The aggregate score system, which has been a feature since the fixtures latest revival in Portree 2004 continued with a 24-10 aggregate score over the two games in favour of the Scottish teams.

The Scottish Ladies Squad, captained by Jenny Durkin (Forth/Edinburgh University) started the proceedings against the Camogie squad and were rewarded with a fine 15-0 win, with 5 goals scored by Jenny Haggart (2), Fiona MacKintosh , Sheena MacWilliam and Catriona Jeffrey getting on the scoresheet. This was a much tougher game than previous for the Scottish girls with the Camogie squad putting out a much stronger side than in Perth last year.

This was an entertaining game with the Camogie players struggling to come to terms with the compromise rules, especially not being allowed to handle or kick the ball, this prevented them getting the ball into the air, where they tend to dominate the game. The Scottish defence was rarely threatened by the Irish forward line and the odd attacks were dealt with comfortably by the Scottish Defence. The experience of the playing with the successful Scotland Senior Women’s Shinty Squad in Dublin in November was shown to be crucial with Katy Myerscough and Fiona MacKintosh both having strong games.

The men’s match proved to be a much tighter game with both sides proving to be equally able of taking the opportunities that came their way. The Scottish Squad being captained by Gilleasbuig MacDonald (Skye/Glasgow University) took the early advantage and used the strong wind to great effect in the first half to 5 points from a sideline cut and a penalty scored by Gilleasbuig MacDonald. This was matched by 5 points from the Irish squad from a sideline cut and three points over the bar.

In the second half the Irish Hurlers started to exert a lot of pressure on the Scottish defence aided in no small part by the strong wind that had been at the Scottish backs in the first half. The Scots defence struggled to clear the ball out of their own half at times and were playing the ball back into the centre of the park too often, this presented a number of opportunities for points over the bar which were gratefully taken by the Irish squad.

When the Scots succeeded in getting the ball up front they managed to create a number of potential scoring chances alas none were taken with their only points in the second half coming from a couple of well struck 2 pointers over the bar from John Barr (Robert Gordon’s / GlenUrquart)

The final score in the Men’s game was 10-9 in favour of the Hurlers, bringing to an end another wonderful day of University Sport.

It was noted during the Hurling Allstar presentations that there was an increasing level of integration between the sports particularly in Scotland where Dundee University play in the Scottish Universities Shinty league with a team made up almost entirely of Irish Hurlers. Despite their lack of background in the game of shinty, the hand to eye coordination that is part of hurling has enabled these Irish players to be a very competitive force in the University Shinty league and the Little John Cup over the last two seasons. Conversely Robert Gordon’s University have a leading international Shinty player, John Barr who performed so well as a hurler in 2006 that he was awarded a universities hurling allstar. This level of collaboration and integration between two sports augers well for the future.

Antony Stone the new Scottish University Photographer was present to record the event and his photographs are available to view at the new Scottish University Sport website http://www.susphoto.com/

You just need to subscribe (its free) and then you can download or order prints-there's some great team pics and action shots.