The Pleasanton Highland Games in California has featured shinty many times before with the members of Northern California Camanachd playing demonstrations of the ancient Highland martial sport over the last few years. However, this year history will be made as Skye Camanachd, Scottish Intermediate Champions 2008, play competitively against their Californian counterparts in a range of games over the Games Weekend – the first time a Scottish team has played a US team on their native soil.
Skye Camanachd is one of the most illustrious names in the long, ancient history of shinty – long before the establishment of the club, the men of the different parishes of Skye would congregate for games with hundreds on either side, then when the rules of the game were set down in the Victorian era and the club was formally established, Skye won the first MacTavish Cup in the 1890s.
Shinty has survived in Skye through emigration, World Wars and a turbulent 1960s which almost saw the club fold but 1990 saw a golden moment when the team finally lifted the Camanachd Cup, the World Series, Stanley Cup and Superbowl of Shinty all rolled into one on a glorious sunny day against the then giants of the sport, Newtonmore.
Skye have never won the Camanachd Cup again since then, but like the Gaelic language and culture which is so important to the players of the club, there are strong green shoots of recovery appearing. The young Skye team won the Balliemore Cup, the sport’s intermediate title in 2008 and are in the second year of a ten year project to climb back to the top of the shinty mountain. A tough task, but Skye is home to some truly stunning mountains so “Na Sgitheanaich” have had plenty of practice in climbing daunting peaks.
Skye will be performing at the games in part due to the support of local entrepreneur, Campbell Grant, who is adopting a unique approach to taking his company Sitekit international.
As Managing Director of Isle of Skye based software company Sitekit, he is supporting his local club’s historic visit to the United States as a way to expand both the commercial and research arms of his business and to make new business contacts.
”Entering a new market is always hard, but selling software in California, the home of IT is a bit like taking coals to Newcastle. So, you need introductions and interesting edge, which I am sure this trip will provide in spades.”
“This is a unique opportunity to combine support for the local shinty team, which is so important to the community, with a unique marketing campaign in the most competitive and important IT market in the world.”
Campbell is determined that his company follows in the innovative tradition of Scots and sees Sitekit as a small but highly ambitious company with international aspirations. The company has had a string of awards and successes with customers benefitting from its innovative software application Sitekit CMS for managing large multiuser, multilingual web sites. With a particular focus on the healthcare market, Campbell is looking for new business partners in California. “Sitekit already provides products and services for well known US brands such as Johnson & Johnson, Tyco and ATD for their European subsidiaries and we’d like to expand on this.”
The Skye Camanachd squad has been based at Stanford University during their stay, and Campbell is keen to make this count; “Our R&D division, Sitekit Labs has PhD research links in e-health with Harvard University and MIT, so to establish research links with Stanford, in the heart of Silicon Valley, will be a massive boost to our R&D programme. Using the web more extensively for medical diagnosis and health care is the future and Sitekit aims to be a major player in this emerging global market.
The “Sgitheanaich” are here to visit their sporting colleagues at the Northern California Camanachd club. The first shinty club to be set up in North America, the inspiration was a visit by their founder, Michael Bentley to Skye in the 1980s. Over the next decade he worked towards a dream of starting his own American shinty club but in those pre-internet days it was hard business staying in touch with Scotland – but by the turn of the millennium he had garnered enough interest to start the club in San Jose and San Francisco with sticks and balls sent over from Scotland – now almost 10 years on the club has dozens of players from both genders, of all ages and sizes, run their own league, other clubs have started in Washington and Texas and they have visited Scotland on three occasions- the last time visiting Skye when an open invitation was laid out to Skye Camanachd which they have now taken.
This is the first time a Scottish club has visited the United States and although Skye Camanachd visited Canada in the afterglow of the Camanachd Cup win, this trip is unique as it will be the first visit to a true “shinty playing community” albeit one many miles from home.
“The Highland Games will market shinty to a massive audience, but it’s also opportunity to market Skye and the Highlands of Scotland as a destination and as a business location. While at Stanford, we are hosting a seminar on Skye – featuring its traditional Gaelic culture and music, and its traditional and modern businesses, from fishing to software design. Members of the shinty team will all contribute their expertise which includes fishermen, builders, surveyors, engineers and software designers, some of whom also perform as accordionists, singers and pipers in their spare time.
Campbell himself was a keen shinty player in his youth and may be picking up his caman at the Highland Games, although he’s not quite sure yet – “My son Stewart is travelling with the squad, so I might just leave the playing up to him as we haven’t developed a health care program which has helped cure old age yet!”
After months of planning, the departure day is finally upon us. With a good section of the younger members of the squad taking advantage of a free weekend to travel to Glasgow early, the more veteran members of the travelling party meet at the clubhouse to share out the camans, helmets for NCCC and gifts before heading for Glasgow.
An early to get to the airport for 7.30am – and thankfully everyone is present and correct. Some settle their nerves with a light pre-flight liquid breakfast and before we know it the final call for flight US 769 is announced – we are on our way.
Like Elvis Presley making his only appearance in the British Isles at Prestwick, Skye Camanachd made a customary ‘stopachan’ on the eastern seaboard at Philadelphia Airport. At this point, we were still only half way to our destination, and at $10/pint, our first round uses up a good proportion of the dollars exchanged - even Apollo Creed got off lighter in four rounds against Rocky Balboa in the City of Brotherly Love.
After re-fuelling we take to the skies on US 701 and traverse the whole of the continent, the mid-west, the Rockies, the Nevada Desert before swooping into San Francisco International in one piece – to be warmly welcomed by the Northern California team in their big SUVs which swallow all of us and our luggage with ease.
We are whisked down the freeway to Palo Alto and deposited at our digs at the world famous Stanford University. Stanford's strict “no alcohol policy” was explained to the boys and they nodded in agreement. We were taken out for a welcome pint and pizza in Palo Alto although some of the boys were confused when their “Burger and Chips” arrives on a bed of CRISPS instead.
We all finally get to bed at 1am which is 9am in the morning UK time, exhausted but exhilarated at the prospect ahead.
The next day everyone is a bit jetlagged, but still manage to get up early for an intensive training session before a light breakfast of fresh fruit... not. The Stanford canteen menu did not apply the same portion control as Highland Council said Alice, as Donnie sat down to his 5 star breakfast. We dined alongside the man mountains of Stanford Football squad who make Alan Palmer look like a midget. Only Bruchie is disappointed by the size of the portions.
The lads decide to head for the beach and a bit of California sunshine. Iain Crossal gets a nice, uniform all-over tan but ‘Plonker of the Day’ award goes to David Grant – who leaves Donnie Boob’s new £80 desert running rucksack on the beach.
“The Big Game” the first ever International Match in the US takes place on Wednesday night at Stanford University. Your correspondent is positioned at full forward - where he can’t do any damage, but goes on to score 2 stunning goals and to prevent him getting a hat-trick, he is switched to referee for the 2nd half and Donnie Martin goes on in his place. Final Score is 7-1 to Skye and the players on both sides enjoy each other’s company with no injuries to speak of, except to Michael Bentley’s pride who had promised “Skye were going DOWN”. Then, back home to get togged up before hitting town where the massed kilts create a quite a stir in the bars and clubs and the Skye men make many new friends with an invitation to a 21st birthday party the next night, if only they turn up similarly attired.
On the way home, Donnie boo boo apparently knows the streets of Palo Alto better than the taxi driver. Brother Kenny decides to visit East Palo Alto, which we hear later is the ‘Bronx of the East Coast’, and agree Lucky2bHere would be an apt description on his safe return.
At Stanford University, we are officially staying as ‘educational conference’.. So on Thursday night we deliver a multi-media presentation on Highland Culture where we show videos of Skye and shinty and AB Connor and Alan Palmer entertain the audience with the pipes and the accordion. Donnie Martin teaches our hosts “Fàilte gu Fearainn” and everyone enjoys watching the footage of the aftermath of the Camanachd Cup win.
Later on that evening downtown Palo Alto, Steven Morrison meets the State wrestling champion in a bar and tries to wrestle her to the ground. She picks him up, turns him upside down and puts him down outside to gather his thoughts.
Friday is culture day for some of the squad who head for San Francisco and take in the famous cable cars, Fisherman’s Wharf with views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. The rest of the squad head for a water park in Santa Cruz to cool down in the 100 degree heat, sans kilts this time.
On Saturday morning, the ladies of the group were very kindly picked up by the NCCC ladies and whisked away for some retail therapy US-style. The Ralph Lauren outlet was heard to have closed down for the rest of the week as all sales targets were exceeded and the big SUVs struggled to fit everything in on this occasion.
Saturday evening is the day of the main welcome Ceilidh, with some input from the Skye Camanachd Men’s Choir to aid proceedings. We assemble at the ‘Swinging Door’ bar which is the Tongadale of San Mateo. We are royally entertained by the musical and Highland dancing prowess of the NCCC squad, ably assisted by Skye’s AB Connor and Alan Palmer as well as a cameo performance by Donnie Martin. After an evening of further developing international relations, the rest of the Sgitheanaich do their turn with a particularly harmonious ‘Oh Flower of Scotland’.
On Sunday, we were again picked up by our tireless hosts to travel to ‘Treasure Island’, (not the place of legend from Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel, but an island reclaimed from the sea in the middle of San Francisco Bay and the location of the fantastic Pairc nan Gael GAA grounds) for a game of shinty-hurling against San Francisco Rovers who are champions of the San Francisco Hurling league.
Two young Sgitheanachs stride home from an extended period of international relations development just in time for the lift - but then it wouldn’t be a shinty trip without a little bit of going awol. After a hard game, with assistance from some top NCCC players, namely Max McKay Taylor, Iain MacDonald and Michael Bentley, Jim Buatti makes a telling pass to Alan Palmer who scores the winning goal. Skye are victorious 10-4 and can claim to have kept Scotland’s (and the Scottish Diaspora’s) honour intact.
We take the scenic route back to Stanford via San Francisco and Golden Gate Bridge for a quiet night in after all the exertions of week one.
We look forward to our second week in California with a visit to the Baseball, the chance to meet up with some relatives and then the move to Pleasanton on Thursday for the San Francisco Highland Games where we will play in front of one the biggest crowds to watch a shinty match in a long time.
More news next week, you can keep up to date with the Skye Camanachd’s Cuairt gu California on www.skyecamanachd.com