Official www.skyecamanachd.com Launch. | |
27 September 2008 The Skye Camanachd website, www.skyecamanachd.com was officially launched with a promotion in the West Highland Free Press dated 26 September 2008. Free Press journalist Keith MacKenzie wrote the following artice on the website: A New "Net" For Shinty When sports fans look for the latest news of their team these days, inevitably it's to the computer and to the world wide web that they turn. With this in mind Skye Camanachd have launched a new and comprehensive web site, www.skyecamanachd.com, providing up to date news, views and reports which will cover every aspect of the club and the sport. Crowds at Pairc nan Laoch may often be measured in the double figures, but that would disguise the widespread interest in Skye shinty which spreads across the globe and seems to be borne out by hits on the website since it was revamped just a few short months ago. In August 13,000 people visited the site, which has sections detailing all the developments concerning Skye shinty at senior, juvenile and primary level. There is plenty to read as Skye Camanachd is the only club in Also included are a View From The Touchline section, which details some thoughts on the game at large; a club history section and pages that will keep everyone updated on what's on at the Skye Social Club at Pairc nan Laoch as well as team news prior to matches. There are also plans to have a section commemorating Skye Camanachd’s 1990 Camanachd Cup success. Much of the work on skyecamanachd.com has been down to Alasdair Bruce, who is the club's long serving treasurer, and his son Martin, a promising member Skye's juvenile and second teams and who has just been named captain of the North under-14 team to face the South next month. The impetus, says Alasdair, came when 15-year old Martin attended Portree-based web design firm Sitekit for a spell of work experience organised by Portree High School earlier in the year. Sitekit Director Campbell Grant had designed a template for the web page last year, and loaded some initial information on the site but the club were still searching for someone to update it on a regular basis. Step forward the eager Martin who was able to spend much of his working week combining his two main interests — shinty and computers. The results since then have exceeded all at the club's expectations with the site — publicised only through word of mouth so far — growing from just over 1,000 page visits a month during the September 2007 to May 2008 period, to high of 13,000 page visits in August 2008. "The results have been great, and Skye Camanachd are very grateful to Sitekit for their assistance in setting up and developing the site" said Alasdair, who admits that he had trouble transferring photographs from his digital camera to computer just a few short months ago until Martin showed him how to do it. "There's a lot of stuff going on at the club with two under-14 teams, primary leagues as well as the senior sides," he added. "And the website is updated every day, giving people access to information that you just don't get elsewhere. For example it's very rare that you see team line-ups from a match report, but we put them up on the web-site and they will stay there for good. I think doing this — particularly at junior level — has the potential to create a fascinating historical record for the future. In ten, twenty years time guys might have left the island, but they'll be able to look back and review old games, and see who was in the teams. I know a lot of people now would love to have access to that sort of thing from their younger days. It would also be nice to develop a section tracing the shinty careers of Skye Camanachd players of the past". The possibilities are not just historical or social, however, and the club are also keen to exploit the commercial aspect afforded by the web. Skye, who in connection with Hummel and Intersport, were one of the first clubs in the sport to begin selling replica merchandise, are close to tying up a new deal with Portree firm West Coast Marine. The firm will soon be selling a range of clothing carrying the club's brand in the Portree store and through the firm's own website, with links set to be available on www.skyecamanachd.com. |