WITH COLGLEN’S season now over, Saturday’s fixture was a chance for the club to come together on the pitch one more time as former and guest players were invited to join the current squad in a friendly at the Clachan.
After weeks of anticipation amid debate over origin and ancestry, two teams were finally drawn up along village lines, and so it was, that perhaps for the first time ever Colintraive and Glendaruel competed against each other.
Despite monsoon-like rain, and a rogue herd of cows wandering onto the pitch, the playing surface was in surprisingly good condition.
Craig Harrower from Bute Shinty Club was brought in to officiate proceedings and, after some stern words of warning no doubt directed towards some of the older troublemakers. he got the match underway.
The Colintraive team, who were sporting blue and white strips kindly lent for the occasion by Strachur and District Shinty Club, were the sharper side to start with and it was only ten minutes in when Marcus Keith bagged a neat goal to open the scoring.
Although, with half back Murray McClymont forced off injured shortly after, Glendaruel who were wearing yellow and black as they somewhat contentiously deemed themselves to be the ‘home team’, started to claw their way back into the game. Scott MacVicar levelled on 20 minutes after his long- range effort scorched past Colintraive keeper Sandy Paterson.
With the tempo of the game rising, the remainder of the first-half was pretty even.
As the weather deteriorated, Willie Morrison was seen dishing out the drams for many of the players at half-time to keep them warm.
With everybody suitably refreshed and raring to go again, the game resumed with gusto.
In short order, Glendaruel started to get on top.
Neily McNaughton, who only just qualified for Glendaruel as he was raised a mere stones-throw north of the Ardachuple Burn. was starting to find his flow and scored a quick-fire hat-trick.
Steven MacKellar added another goal himself in what was an impressive physical performance.
Then, Scott MacVicar bookended the scoring for his team with another distance shot on target.
The Colintraive lads were far from done though.
With Rory Fraser moving back into defence, he and young James Morley worked well together to keep the likes of Stuart MacKellar and Martin MacFarlane at bay.
Colintraive skipper, Hamish Harrison, rallied his men.
He and Sandy Paterson pushed up the field and to their credit, the coastal village started to cause all sorts of problems for the hill dwellers.
Club president, Neil Black, was lurking around the box and with more of the ball coming his way, and came tantalisingly close to scoring a couple of times.
However. it was the lightning quick Marcus Keith whogotontheendofawell taken free hit to crack a low ball past keeper Ewan Morley.
With Colintraive now looking much more dangerous in front of goal, the Glendaruel defenders had to dig deep to keep them out, so much so that when Harrower blew for full-time the pitch resembled a bog as the match finished 6-2 to Glendaruel.
Although the weather was horrendous, it was clear that everyone involved had thoroughly enjoyed what was a hard, skilful and highly entertaining exhibition of shinty.
Afterwards, presentations were made, with current squad man of the match awarded to Auryn Kerr, who was outstanding throughout.
The club was very proud of the young player who went on to captain the South against the North at under-17 level the next day in what, although was a narrow defeat, turned out to be a classic game of shinty.
Top man for the older players went to Iain MacKellar, who dominated much of the game from the midfield leading many spectators present to question why he is not in the current ColGlen team.
There was a special thanks to Craig Harrower for refereeing, especially at such short notice, and for doing a sterling job of keeping a lid on things.
The club were very grateful to long-term sponsor Winston Churchill Venison for running a superb barbecue pitch-side and feeding all the players.
Strone Inn also supplied post-match drinks, not to mention a star full forward, which the club was grateful for.
The event was organised by Andrew MacVicar, and all proceeds raised went to Lachlan Campbell’s MND campaign.
