Brodick Primary shinty players come third in central tournament
Brodick Primary School’s shinty team finished in third place at the Central Scotland Youth Shinty Association tournament held in Fife.
As winners of the Arran primaries qualifying tournament, Brodick Primary was one of six central Scotland teams invited to compete at the tournament. These fixtures marked the first matches against any outside team for many of the Brodick players.
Brodick’s first match was against a strong Gaels Yellow team. After a tentative start, Brodick gradually found their feet with the help of Peter Mochan who was speedy and agile at Centre. Peter was quick to force a turnover often taking the ball the entire length of the field to link up with Brodick’s attackers; Tia McKinnon, Luca Duncan and Joey Duncan. Brodick really gained momentum when Luca skilfully opened the scoring with an outstanding hat trick of goals. Younger brother, Joey, came off the bench to score a fantastic final goal for Brodick, sealing their first win 4-0 much to the surprise of the other teams.
The second match was against national indoor champions, Aberdour, who proved too sharp and experienced for Brodick, winning the match 4-0. While the game was predominantly played in Aberdour’s half, Brodick’s defence was outstanding against this top team and kept their goals to a minimum. Ruby MacArthur defended formidably, fearlessly taking on much bigger opponents, frustrating their attempts on goal and managing to clear the ball back towards halfway time and again. Lucy Napier, the only member of the team to have played a match before, worked strongly in defence very bravely putting her body on the line to save further goals being scored against her team. Louis Henberry played in goal for the majority of the day and showed off some impressive defensive skills, making a number of unbelievable saves for the team-especially against Aberdour.
Brodick’s defence was again tested in their third match against Gael’s slick and accurate top team - Gaels Red. Brodick’s defenders were again tested, with Connie Watts thwarting a number of attempts on goal and putting a lot of pressure on the opposition’s attack. Connie further annoyed her opponents through the field, skilfully tackling and turning over the ball a number of times and successfully feeding this back to her attackers. Unfortunately the 8-0 score to Gael’s was not truly reflective of the hard work put in by all of Brodick’s youngsters.
A last minute timetable change from CalMac meant Brodick had to play their last two matches back to back in order to make the last sailing of the day. Tia McKinnon, having played the first three games in offence, switched to Centre against both Stirling and Edinburgh. Linking up well with Luca, Tia scored three impressive goals for the team - one of these being an outstanding mid-air strike from the halfway point. The Duncan boys continued to slot goals in for the team, whilst Lucy Napier scored a hat trick against Edinburgh. Brodick won these matches 4-0 and 5-0 respectively, earning them third place on the day.
The youngsters displayed amazing teamwork and sportsmanship throughout the tournament. Coach Bobby Crowe was exceptionally proud of his young team on their first outing whilst Assistant Coach and Team Manager, Gillian Frame, noted that each and every player shone at one point or another during the day.
The players, and their very loud supporters, were extremely grateful for the time and effort both Bobby and Gillian put into training the team and organising their entry into the tournament. With further fixtures hopefully on the horizon, the future is surely looking bright for Arran’s young Shinty players.
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