QUESTION:
Take two teams, neck and neck on form and each with equal desire to win a trophy that has eluded them too long, and what do you get? Answer: today's 107th Scottish Hydro Camanachd Cup final between Kingussie and Glen Urquhart in Inverness and a herculean contest where something, clearly, has to give.
It is only those unaware of the idiosyncrasies of shinty who do not know not the immense value that is placed upon the Camanachd Cup. At market rate, it's price tag as an antiquity would make a collector drool. However, for every boy who grows up in the Highlands with a caman, it is worth much more than a row of digits after a pound sign.
Just ask defender James Hutchison, of Kingussie, one of the "bridging" players between the all-conquering team of seven successive Camanachd Cups and the current side, whose relationship with it has become distant and strained.
During their glory run in the competition, which started in 1997 and ended in 2003, Kings players were accustomed to organising family holidays and significant calendar events around the date of the final. Like a tide chart, it governed the club's activities. Buses would have to be booked, costs factored in and signed off.
All good things, though, must end. Hutchison, with eight winners' medals to his name, was a mainstay in the seven-in-a-row side but has not clutched the Cup since 2006 at Dunoon, where Kingussie outscored Fort William.
This week, during the media build-up on the shores of Loch Ness, he superstitiously refused to touch the sculpted trinket, eager to be getting his hands on it for more than publicity reasons.
"The club and the village are hungry to bring the cup back. It's been such a long time. Personally, although I have won it eight times, I think it makes me more determined because I know what it feels like to win it.
"During the seven-in-a-row years, we had a bit of luck and, maybe, this season we've had a bit of that again. We lost a lot of boys through retirement after that era. We had to rebuild and every club goes through it. It's been a slow process. However, if we can do it, hopefully it is the start of the transition coming round for us.
"It's hard not winning trophies, but we always knew, by looking at the youth teams coming up, that the club could be successful again."
While Hutchison's last few years have been unique, so, too, have Fraser Heath's. It is only in the last three years out of 129 that a boy born in the Great Glen could expect to be involved in major shinty finals, with Glen Urquhart's first senior trophy arriving only in 2012.
The 20 year old represents a new generation of Glen stars; a generation that has come to expect to do better, in the wider arena, than their fathers, uncles and great grandfathers.
This Glen team, having never won this trophy, can see history stretching out on the horizon.
"We've been in four finals in three years now," says Heath, who scored in the famous Macaulay Cup victory in Oban two years ago.
"It shows how much progress has been made. It's at the stage now where we know we can compete at this level. We've had some good games with Kingussie recently. I think this will be another."
A club supporter from a local building firm has rigged up temporary floodlights to let the Glen players train on into the night. If they achieve the unprecedented, they may need to keep them there for the party.
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