Cornwall Shinty Club in partnership with Oxford Shinty Club visited the club on Thursday 8 August 2024 for a match at Smith Avenue as part of their annual Scottish tour.
It was great to welcome Cornwall & Oxford. Competing as Cornwall they gave us a very fun and entertaining match on the astro, a great fillip with the news our game v Aberdeen Uni is a walkover.
The final score was Lewis 7 (Sean MacLeod 10, 11, 14, 16, 63, Callum MacRitchie 12, Daniel Gallagher 89) – Cornwall 2 (38 and 86). Sean’s five goals is a record haul for the club in one match!
It was a great event and we were delighted that Cornwall made the trip. It’s a great opportunity to delve into the storied history of touring teams in Lewis.
The very first team to play Camanachd Leòdhais on tour was The SCOTS. (They were also the first ever senior side to visit the island to play the club). The armed forces side came to Stornoway and played a ten-a-side game at Stornoway Primary School on Saturday 12 September 2009 as part of Cuairt Camanachd an Airm, where they played Bute, Skye and attended the 2009 Camanachd Cup Final in Oban. It was a very young Camanachd Leòdhais side who fell behind to 2 goals in the first two minutes, but in the second half Paddy Sinclair got his first ever goal for the club. Afterwards they presented the club with a commemorative shield that became known as the Cupa Shiophoirt. This was used for the Cupa nan Sgìre a youth competition in 2016 but has been lost to the ether. You can read more about the game here.
The club of course spent the next couple of years trying to secure teams to come to the club on a more fixtured basis, which was successful in 2011, but that year was also marked by the visit of Northern California Camanachd. The NCC were a really quite incredible set of guests who had travelled to Scotland on several occasions in the preceding decade, but they finally got to Lewis for a game on Wednesday 21st September 2011. It was a very very wet night at Bayhead, not like California at all. Camanachd Leòdhais would be crowned “intercontinental champions” thanks to braces from Donald Lamont and Craig MacLeod. Paddy Sinclair obviously enjoyed these challenge matches as he scored as a guest for the Americans, as did NCC founder Michael Bentley. It was all part of a very memorable trip, where Iain “Diablo” Sinclair acted as the ultimate host, putting on a ceilidh in the Nicolson Institute on the Thursday night as well as a Friday tour of the island. Sadly, many of Michael’s team are no longer with us, but it was a great part of an incredible year for the club.
Whilst Newtonmore (2012) and Skye (2012 & 2013 would come to the island in pre-season, these would more properly be regarded as friendlies. It was one of our own, Micheál Macdonald, who would bring the next touring side to the island in the spring of 2015. Micheál had been appointed captain of St Andrews University as he studied medicine in Fife. He made a big impact on shinty at Prince William’s Alma Mater, and many years later many of those who would tour alongside him would return for his wedding to Caroline. After a trip to Skye where they received coaching, they then travelled over for a few nights in Laxdale, with trips around the island and then a game at Bayhead on Wednesday 25th March 2015. This was a great opportunity for a lot of home based players who hadn’t had much of a runout to get game time, and St Andrews put up a great fight. Will Church would make the difference for the Dubh is Gorm with a double. You can read more here.
The penultimate team to tour before the game against Cornwall was the English Shinty Association select. This was held on Monday 31st July 2017 at Bayhead as well. It was previewed here. It was a very entertaining match which managed to draw a crowd to Bayhead, and a welcome win in a season where goals and wins were hard to come by, we came out 5-3 winners with Dougie Shaw at the double, along with Duncan MacIntytre, Kieran Macdonald and Dylan Murray all getting on the scoresheet. Euan Gilmour guested for the English and scored a double too. You can read more here.