Following the decision to cancel all 2020 league and cup competitions, the Camanachd Association has moved quickly to announce that the 2021 Tulloch Homes Camanachd Cup Final is to be played at the Dell, Kingussie on Saturday 18 September 2021.
The Association has informed Kingussie Camanachd Club that this year’s plan to host the final in Kingussie has been put back for just one year whilst the after-match Final Fling concert will also go ahead a year later in the same format scheduled for 2020 when revellers can look forward to performances from; Peat & Diesel, Manran, Keir Gibson, Dan Gilchrist from MFR and The Clan stunt cycling team.
Hundreds of tickets have already been sold for the whole day’s events and there are three ways to secure your tickets for this historic moment. Either go on-line to www.kingussieshinty.com or, for printed tickets, go to Caberfeidh Horizons Book Shop on the Kingussie High Street once it is open again or, for tickets for the “match-only”, go on-line to www.shinty.com.
There are some exclusive offers available providing more reasons than ever to attend Shinty’s BIG DAY OUT and to witness what promises to be a unique and epic occasion!
Kingussie Club Past-President John Robertson explained: “Tickets are selling even faster than we expected and all tickets sold so far for Saturday 19 September 2020 will now be valid for Saturday 18 September 2021. The remaining tickets for the rescheduled event on Saturday 18 September 2021 will be on sale on-line from this week and we expect them to sell quickly.”
John added: “The on-line platform we’re using for selling tickets is called Skiddle and they will be in touch by e-mail this week with everyone who has already bought a ticket to explain the details. We hope everyone with a ticket will keep them for September 2021 but anyone who can’t make September 2021will be entitled to a refund.
“Regarding the printed tickets already sold at Caberfeidh Horizons, they will now be valid for September 2021 and we hope everyone will keep their tickets.”
If anyone with a printed ticket wants a refund, or has a query, all they need to do is e-mail John Robertson by the end of June 2020. John’s e-mail address is tallananros@btinternet.com
The main message though is that tickets are selling fast!
John also went on to offer reassurance that every effort is being made to re-book the entertainment events which were planned for locations in Kingussie during the week leading up to the Big Weekend and there will be an announcement about these events in due course.
The 2021 final is set to be one of the biggest stagings of the event in its 125-year history and as well as the hundreds of tickets already sold, and the live traditional music and entertainment, there will be a dedicated Kids Zone, adding to the festival feel.
Gates for the 2021 final will open at 10am on the day with the rising stars of shinty contesting the Ken MacMaster Cup U14 final before the throw-up for the main shinty event in the afternoon. The Camanachd Cup Final attracts thousands of spectators on the day and it is also broadcast live by BBC Scotland across television, radio and online platforms.
Anyone with an all-day ticket will be issued with a wrist band on their way into the shinty matches and this will allow them entrance to The Final Fling concert in the evening.
Kingussie Camanachd Club President, Russell Jones said: “It is great news indeed that the entire weekend’s events are still coming to Kingussie just a year on from when we initially planned it. It is building up to be one of the biggest and most exciting events ever seen in Badenoch.”
2021 is the 125th anniversary of the Camanachd Cup and the final is returning to Kingussie for the first time since 1999 when Jimmy Gow’s Kingussie side beat Oban Camanachd 3-0. Barrie Dallas, Ronald Ross and Ali Borthwick were on target on a wet day at the Dell before Kingussie skipper Rory Fraser raised the trophy. It was a third successive victory, indeed a third successive Grand Slam, on a run which would see the Kings take the famous trophy for seven seasons in a row.
First contested in 1896, the final of shinty’s national knock-out cup competition promises to be a brilliant day out for all the family and also an opportunity to watch two of the country’s elite shinty teams.
The first ever Camanachd Cup Final took place at Inverness on Saturday 25 April 1896 following the qualifying rounds. Great interest centred in the match, which was played in Inverness at Needlefield, (a piece of ground situated between Longman Road and Cromwell's Fort) which was described as being “in good condition for the game”.
The contending teams were Kingussie and Glasgow Cowal, two brilliant exponents of the game. The day was practically observed as a holiday in Kingussie and the special train which conveyed the team to Inverness brought over 400 persons desiring to see the contest. From strath and glen, ardent enthusiasts are said to have flocked into Inverness, the streets of which contained a number of wearers of kilt and knickerbocker.
Entrance was a shilling, there were around 1,000 present. Gate receipts amounted to sum of £41. As the teams lined up on the field, the crowd anxiously weighed up their physical abilities.
At the end of the day, Kingussie emerged victorious winning the championship by 2 hails (as they were then described) to Cowal’s 0.
The news of the victory of the home team was received with much satisfaction in Kingussie and district, and the players were accorded an ovation on their return, met by pipers playing lively airs, and others carrying lighted torches, assembling at the station and marching through the town, while bonfires were lighted above the burgh and two on the farm of Dunachton.
Tulloch Homes have sponsored the Camanachd Cup since 2017. Tulloch Homes CEO George Fraser is an icon of the sport and is an eight-time Camanachd Cup winner – first captaining Newtonmore to a victory in the 1975 Camanachd Cup Final against Kyles Athletic.
Tulloch Homes, born in the Highlands, celebrates its 95th anniversary in 2020, and features regularly in National House Builders Council awards. It has current developments from Conon Bridge to Carr Bridge and south to Glenrothes.
The company employs 158 people, mainly in the Highlands, and supports 600 sub-contractor jobs. It has current developments from Conon Bridge to Carr Bridge and South to Glenrothes, while tackling the first phase of a £90 million development of close to 800 homes, 200 of them affordable, at Ness Side, Inverness.