Aberdeen University
Shinty Club
other, either on the bus or in cars on the way to games. It’s
cheesy as hell, but when the whistle goes and you’ve given
it socks for 90 minutes, and it’s paid off, that feeling’s class.”
Present
“Our 2018 season has just started, and after week
one being culled due to the snow, we went out at bet
Kinlochsheil 7-0 away from home at the weekend. So it’s
safe to say we’re positive, but we’re realistic. There are
teams in this league who will roll over on one day, but will
turn up with a different dozen for the return game and
make a show of you. A great start is half the work, but we
know if we focus we can get a very good run going.”
2017
“2017 was good, very good. We had just been promoted
from North Division Two where we won every game that
season, but we came up knowing life would be tough in the
next tier. Survival was the key, just don’t be one of those
teams who goes up, then straight down again.
We started well, a win on the road against Kingussie,
and we built on that. Our home games were crucial, only
losing one all season to the eventual league winners, and
taking all bar three points on our travels. In the end we had
pushed Newtonmore to within two points of the title, a fair
achievement for a team just happy to survive five months
beforehand!”
2018
“Our plans in 2018 are to push on. We know promotion
from this league could be seen as too much of an ask, but to
put the pressure on the big names through the year is the
plan, make them sweat. A nice run in the cup wouldn’t go
amiss either, cups are something we have struggled with in
our parts in recent years.”
Get Involved
“If you’d like to get involved just get in touch, we’re a
fairly approachable group! From our starting twelve, there
are lads from eleven different previous clubs around the
country, only one of us was born in Aberdeen!
Some clubs can be a bit cliquey, boys who’ve played
together for decades and don’t take kindly to strangers.
That ain’t us; we’d never survive as a club with that attitude.
There’s contact details for us on the shinty website, on our
own Facebook page, even if you’ve never played before
and just want to watch our games at Balgownie. We’ve had
some players come along, pick up a stick and start rattling
in the goals in no time, it can be done!”
Challenges/Ambitions
“Our biggest challenge is keeping a squad on the go.
With people moving away for work, or family, or Uni, it’s
always been tough to get a squad out, we’ve never been a
club loading the subs bench. But perseverance pays offs, we
always manage to get lads in, who hear about us through
mates, or see us training, or who played as a kid and always
meant to get back into it. More of the same!
Our ambition is to be consistently in the top half of
North Division One, and if the squad grew, who knows
even a stint in the National. Oh, and a nice cup run would
be a treat. Get ourselves on one of those televised matches
... some folk can dream eh!”
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