Newtonmore Camanachd Club Newsletter
September 2011

1] Camanachd Cup Final Newtonmore 4 Kingussie 3 aet What more can you say? The game was played at full speed for 120 minutes. We went through every emotion from total optimism to impending gloom and some of us even perhaps hoped either team would score in extra time to avoid the unbearable tension of penalties. [I know some people that stopped watching!] Some fantastic individual performances by Man of the Match Norman Campbell and hat trick hero [accurately predicted by Jazza] Danny Macrae should not disguise the fact that this was a great team/squad accomplishment. The travelling support was fantastic [the Bught was a sea of blue and white and what a crowd welcomed the team back to the Balavil Hotel.

This was a historic victory that will, I am sure, be looked back on as a watershed in the clubs history. This should inspire our youngsters to strive for the same success; encourage more people to support the team regularly at home matches; and serve as a launching pad for the current 1st and 2nd team squads to build another era of sustained success for the club to follow Kingussie’s more recent period of dominance.

[Kingussie made much of the young players they had in their squad as part of the pre-match mind games. It was true that they had more players under 20. However the average age of the Kingussie squad was 3 years more than the Newtonmore squad and that was not all down to Rory Fraser!]

Congratulations have been coming in by text and through the website from Newtonmore exiles all over the world.

The Cup has been taken round some of the older people in the village and the youngsters at shinty training got to drink Irn Bru from it on Monday evening!

2] Strathdearn Cup Congratulations to the 2nd team for winning a tight match against Invergarry 3 – 2 to add to the league title. Only the treble will do in 2012!

3] Under 8 success They won the Alastair McNiven Development trophy hosted by the Bearsden and Milgavnie Shinty Club to add to the Balavil Cup and the Kincraig Fete Sixes. They were undefeated beating Meadowburn 3 – 0 in the final. The squad was Ritchie Irvine, James Ross, Marcus Orr, Ian Fraser, Sorley Thomson, Rasmus Cheyne and top scorer with 6 goals Keppa Roy. The under 12s competed well but lost 1 – 0 to Portree in the semi-final at the same event.

4] Glen Banchor canter Many thanks to Paul Macarthur, Fraser Mackintosh, David Cheyne and Michael Ritchie for taking part in this, to the helpers on the night and the generous donations of home baking. We raised £140 on the night and another £115 using the leftovers at the Ladies final the following weekend.

5] New Fence Many thanks to Gordon Kennedy for completing the installation of the new fence from the shed to the clubhouse. If you have not seen it, it is a much more substantial structure than what it replaced and has already survived Tony Mullender reversing into it! The Scottish Community Foundation was the funder for this project.

6] Clubhouse improvements If you have not been down to the clubhouse for a few weeks you may be surprised at the changes inside. A new kitchen has been partially completed creating a lot more room behind the counter as well as much needed storage space. A display case has been created facing the door and the interior walls of the clubhouse will be painted blue and white. The garage at the end now has storage cupboards which will allow us to use the first aid room for its intended purpose.

7] Advertising Boards DTE part of the Donaldson Timber Group is the latest company to be persuaded by James Brannan to take an advertising board. Many thanks to them and hopefully they may get new business through it.

If you know of someone who owns a business why not ask them on the clubs behalf as the worst they can say is no! Boards are still only £350 for 3 years or three payments of £150, £105 & £105.

8] Tracksuits We still have some spare extra large as well as extra, extra large tracksuits to sell. If you know of any supporters who may fit these we will sell to them at cost price which is £35.

9] Merchandise We have found a possible rain jacket at last and provided the samples live up to expectation we should have stock in for the Xmas sale. Thanks to Tony in EIS for selling over £1000 worth of merchandise in the week before the final.

10] Surplus camans + helmets We have still not had any response! Have you got old camans lying around unused that could be donated to the club? Perhaps they could be cut down and used by some of the younger players. With new camans costing over £35 it doesn’t make sense to have unused ones gathering dust. New helmets now cost 50 euros so if you have any helmets that are no longer being used a donation of these to the club would be much appreciated.

11] Ladies finals 10th Sept Congratulations to Fiona Mackintosh the captain and the rest of the Badenoch and Strathspey Ladies team on their excellent 9 – 0 win over Oban Lorne.

12] Safeguarding children in sport  Children 1st are running a survey to find out the perception of children to the behaviour of adults at childrens sports matches particularly to highlight poor behaviour which affects children. A link to the survey is http://www.children1st.org.uk/services/114/latest-news/361/help-us-to-help-you  Could you bring this to the attention of any under 18s in your house and ask them to take about 5 minutes to fill the survey in.

13] It’s sometimes not what you know, but who you know It is getting increasingly difficult to access grants from previous funders: criteria have been narrowed and you often need to wait a year before you can apply again. We have been trying to find new sources of funds and are looking for your help:
- does anyone know James Hunter the manager of the ASDA Perth store? Any applications for their community grants have to have the support of the store staff.
- does anyone work in the Royal Bank of Scotland and know anything about their community cash back scheme?
- does anyone have any ideas about grant funding we may not have sourced before?

Ian Gibson    Tel 01540 673048     Mob 07817 378729      iangibson12@btinternet.com      22nd Sept 2011

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