Cornwall Shinty Club

THE ORIGINS of the BEAUTIFUL GAME

Football? Since when was a filthy pigskin beautiful? Many of the modern football sides, appear to have originated as or developed alongside shinty teams in the 1870s and 1880s. Birmingham, Manchester Camanachd, Old Trafford, the Highland Camanachd Club of London, Cottonopolis, Bolton, Nottingham Forest and Stamford Bridge, are all well documented shinty clubs of the late 19th century (MacLennan 1998 Shinty's Place and Space in the World).

Increasingly we are realising just how widespread shinty was in Cornwall and across England. In 1919 the Cornishman newspaper's West Cornwall News section related: 'Scotland is enthusiastic over the revival of shinty. The championship competition is to start this year, and entries are to be received up to November 1. Kinguissie Club was the last winner of the cup. International contests may be arranged. Lord Lovat is re-elected chief' (CM24/9/1919 p5). Numerous people have related playing at school in the 20th century, not just in the highland zones, but right across the country. Here in Cornwall locals remember playing shinty in the streets of Penryn with lumps of coal fallen off the back of the lorry in the 1960s...The more standard form continued to be played regularly right up until the 1980s in Cornwall, though latterly at fewer venues. It was played intermittently in Cornwall in the1990s, with pupils from Mullion School playing up until 2005.

London Camanachd resurgence from the 1980s onwards has been well documented, though Cornwall (2002) and then England (2006) fielded sides in the St Andrews Sixes though both teams were predominantly made up of ex-university players.

So perhaps we should be talking about resurgence rather than ressurrection when we talk about Cornish Shinty, either way its great to hear the clash of the ...aheem laminated hickory back in the Duchy.