This weekend and next in the heart of the Highlands, the little town of Newtonmore plays host to battles that look set to prove pivotal in the 2017 shinty season.
Very much the dominant force in the sport in recent years, the hosts are on course for the sport’s elusive “Grand Slam” after winning the first trophy available on an emotional day in Inverness last month when they beat a tragedy stricken Kilmallie team to retain the trophy. However the uniqueness of a shinty ‘Grand Slam’ is that it is always still available to two teams after the first two trophies of the season have been won, with the MacTavish Cup only contested by the sport’s northern teams, while the Celtic Society Cup is, nowadays, solely for those from its south.
Kyles Athletic, their visitors for both today’s Camanachd Cup quarter-final and in the Marine Harvest Premiership next Saturday are, then, not only the Celtic Society Cup holders, having beaten Oban Camanachd in its final at Taynuilt a fortnight ago, but are unbeaten this season. While Newtonmore have proven themselves to be the most consistent team in the country by dominating the Premiership in recent years, winning the last seven titles in succession, they have already lost three times this season and consequently trail Kyles by six points with half of their matches played.
There was consequently more than a hint of defiance in tone when they won that MacTavish Cup final, with PJ Mackintosh, their team manager, indicating that they had been very much aware of suggestions circulating around the sport that they may no longer be the same force as a nucleus of key players inevitably grow older.
That they suffered the third of those league defeats at Lovat, a week after that cup final win, suggested continued vulnerability, but they have followed that with a couple of home wins over Fort William and Glenurquhart. Perhaps most telling in the context of this weekend and next is that both of those matches were played in Newtonmore and they are not only unbeaten on their own turf but have won all eight matches played there. Kyles will consequently make the trip north only too well aware that these two matches represent the sternest possible examination of their own capacity to win the Premiership title this time around, let alone harbouring notions of a clean swep of trophies.
Their manager James Perlich warned, after their Celtic Society Cup triumph, that they were in a similar position last season and must remain focused on nothing further ahead than the next match, a message to which they responded by eking out a 2-1 win against Glasgow Mid-Argyll at Yoker last week.
As to which will remain on ‘Grand Slam’ course – something that has eluded Newtonmore throughout this dominant Premiership run - today’s Camanachd Cup tie is obviously the more immediately decisive, while it could provide one or other with significant momentum for the week and rest of the season ahead. For all that a draw would result in a replay, one way or another something must give in terms of Newtonmore’s 100 per cent home record, or Kyles’ unbeaten record.
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