Fort William Face Race Against Time To Have An Aird Ready For Skye Camanachd Cup Clash. | |
20 February 2009 Fort William shinty club face a race against time to have their An Aird pitch ready for their MacTavish Cup first round clash with Skye Camanachd on Saturday 28 March 2009. An Aird will not be available to Fort William for the start of the 2009 shinty seasom meaning the Camanachd Cup winners will have to play their first three league games away from home. However they want work on the pitch undertaken by Highland Council to be completed before their MacTavish Cup first round tie with Skye Camanachd on 28 March 2009. Speaking in this week's Oban Times, Fort William chairman Richard Gall said: ‘The pitch is closed from now until the last Saturday in March. The first three games of the season we will have to play away from home. The council are going to re-turf the area that was re-turfed for the Camanachd Cup final. It didn’t take very well and will have to be done again. They are hoping to get a decent spell of weather to do the work just now, in fact they were supposed to start last week. It’s certainly not an ideal start but it’s what we have. The council have been told that the park must be ready for the last Saturday in March as we have a cup tie against Skye and we don’t want to give up home advantage for a cup game.’ Gall also confirmed that in the long-term Fort William hoped to take over the lease on the stadium once a solution has been found to the problems with the pitch adding ‘In the long term the council are going through the process of applying for funding from Sportscotland for drainage works. ‘We have a business plan in place now for the next four years for Fort William Shinty Club. We are hoping to become a limited company, then once the work on the pitch is done we want to take the lease over.’ |