Every once in a while in sport a team comes along that grasps its moment and today's Camanachd Cup semi-final features one that could just do it.
The name of Kinlochshiel has never been chiselled into the ornate base of the sport's most important trophy since it was first contested more than a century ago.
The small club from Balmacara, close to the Skye Bridge, has simply never made an impression in the competition. Indeed, the semi-final against Inveraray, televised live from An Aird on BBC Alba, is their first. What a tale it would be, then, if they could make it to the final in Oban in September.
If anyone was under any illusion that this journey is a fluke, they are mistaken. Here's why. Last year, the club won promotion to the Orion Group Premiership on the back of an unbeaten run which lasted the entire campaign. This season, Kinlochshiel have beaten Kingussie, double winners Kyles Athletic and the champions Newtonmore.
The club, meanwhile, is homing in on finance for a new park and clubhouse at Reraig that will take them away from the soggy Kirkton in a £500,000 flit.
Whatever happens today, their manager Johnston Gill knows that the club has progressed beyond all expectation. "This is the most successful Kinlochshiel side in history; we've broken a few records recently.
"We were the first club to win North Division One unbeaten. When we beat Kingussie, it was the first time in 30 years we'd done that, and we've done it again since then. It was the same against Newtonmore; it was 30 years since we had beaten them. Now we are in the semi-finals of the Scottish Hydro Camanachd Cup and we'll just have to see how we go from here."
Even Kinlochshiel's path to today's semi-final is worthy of recognition. They have beaten last year's finalists Kingussie and title hopefuls Lovat.
One side they have been unable to get a handle on, though, just happens to be today's opponents, Inveraray. The Argyll side lost at this stage of the competition last year and will be a prickly proposition. They also have vast experience when it comes to the Camanachd Cup; some of the players from the 2004 triumph are still playing.
"They are a bit more battle-hardened when it comes to these occasions," admits Gill. "Then again, our young players tend to be quite fearless. They will just do what they need to do today."
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