Ronald Ross Speaks Of Pride At MBE Award. | |
02 January 2011 Ronald Ross has spoken of his pride at been awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours List for services to shinty. The award is another milestone for the man who has won every honour in the game of shinty. Ross captained the Scotland side in the recent Shinty / Hurling international against Ireland at the Bught Park, Inverness and he will wear the skipper’s armband for his Kingussie team in 2011. He has broken the 1,000 senior goals barrier and is widely regarded as the best player the game has ever produced. “I’m personally delighted and I hope the award is seen as being good for the sport of shinty too and that it helps raise shinty’s profile,” said the man who has recently been promoted to the role of Camanachd Association Development Officer. “You don’t go looking for awards like this,” said Ross. “Everything I have done has revolved around shinty whether it’s practicing, training or even missing holidays so that I could play the game. I turned down the chance to pursue a tennis career and to go on to further education to play the game. I hope that young players can see that anything is possible if they apply themselves in the right way.” Ross is particularly mindful of those who have helped him along the way. “My Dad introduced to me to the sport at a very young age and he taught me how to play the game. He was also of course my first team manager for a number of years. Donnie Grant gave me my first break in to the Kingussie first team and Jimmy Gow carried on the good work after that. I’ve also been very fortunate to play with a lot of very good team mates over the years and there is now a different challenge, helping to bring on a younger team and I’m enjoying that.” “When the letter first arrived, I kept it secret from everyone – even my parents. I was even a bit worried that it might have been a wind-up but thankfully that wasn’t the case,” laughed Ross. The award means that Ronald Ross joins a prestigious list of shinty legends who have receiving such an accolade. The Badenoch area is particularly well represented and deservedly so. Newtonmore legends John MacKenzie and Douglas MacKintosh have previously been honoured as have Kingussie’s Donnie Grant and Ian Ross. The latter is of course Ronald Ross’ father and there certainly cannot be many other father and son who have been recognised in such a way, let alone for the same sport. Ronald Ross is currently recovering from a double ankle injury but his enthusiasm for the game remains. He will be Kingussie captain for the 2011 shinty season where the prestigious Camanachd Cup will no doubt be his main focus. |