Lovat Shinty Club are not exactly synonymous with cup finals, which is why just about everyone in the tiny Highland hamlet will today be downing tools, upping sticks and moving to Bught Park in Inverness for the Co-operative MacTavish Cup final against Glen Urquhart.
For the first senior trophy of the 2013 season, you could hardly have picked more fascinating combatants, since the final puts two Inverness-shire sides on parade in the Highland capital with BBC Alba cameras there to capture the moment. It also offers a rare chance to see one of shinty's less auspicious clubs adorned with a major.
Not that these two have any intention of playing down their chances. Lovat, a slick and swift, young side barely out of high school, are without doubt the team of the year so far. Having suffered just one defeat, Alan MacRae's team have thrilled supporters and collected new admirers along the way. This final may bring with it a first whiff of success for the club since 1953, but the scent of success will linger on as Lovat are also in the Macaulay Cup semi-final and in contention to win the Orion Group Premiership.
Glen Urquhart, too, have higher aspirations than they have achieved during the last few decades. The club won their first trophy last term and the cup final suits will still fit them for a few years yet.
That the focus has been wrenched away from clubs in Badenoch and Lochaber, at least for this final, is as welcome as it is refreshing. It is certainly appreciated by precocious Lovat forward Greg Matheson, the 18-goal marksman who can appear an old hand at scoring despite only being 20.
"I started playing shinty when I was in primary 3 at Tomnacross Primary School [the only school in the village]. I've been playing ever since," he said. "My grandfather played in Lovat's last cup final in the seventies when they lost to Newtonmore after a replay and my uncles both played for 20 years and never got to a cup final. I think we know to appreciate getting here because you never know when it will come around again."
Similarly, Glen's players are also acutely aware of the significance of their place in the final. The club contested the 2008 showpiece at this venue but ran headlong into Ronald Ross, who was in rude form at Kingussie at that time. The 6-1 defeat was sobering but Fraser Mackenzie, the Glen co-manager, does not believe it will have an impact today. "It is all useful experience," he said. "Sometimes you have to lose to learn how to win."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article