Only seven teams will compete in the 2015 Marine Harvest National Division after the Camanachd Association confirmed that Glenorchy had withdrawn their team from shinty’s second flight.

Background

The Marine Harvest National Division was resurrected by the Camanachd Association Board of Directors ahead of the start of the 2014 shinty season despite the format being abandoned in the recent past.

At that time, Skye Camanachd set out reasons why they felt the new structure was wrong and this is available at the following link Why The Proposed New Shinty League Structure Is Wrong

Skye Camanachd, supported by Kingussie, Kyles Athletic and Newtonmore, put forward a resolution to a Camanachd Association Emergency General Meeting that:

1. That the Board’s decision to adopt a national first division for the 2014 season be withdrawn and the current league model, which includes a ten team premiership with its existing system of promotion and relegation, be retained.
2. That, subject to resolution 1 above being passed, the Board be instructed to carry out further consultation into the perceived problems of the sport and how a new league structure can help address these.

The resolutions required a 75% vote to be successful. A total 40 member clubs and associations took part in the vote. The result was 22 votes in favour of the resolution with 18 voting against. This means that the resolution gained 55% support which fell short of the 75% requirement.

Each club had one vote although many clubs had two teams playing league shinty on a weekly basis. The message sent out by the voting clubs throughout shinty’s various divisions was particularly interesting and can be seen at the following link which also includes how clubs and associations voted at the EGM The Voting

West Highland Free Press journalist Keith MacKenzie attended the EGM in his role as Skye Camanachd Secretary. Click on the following link to read his report West Highland Free Press

2015 Changes

Ahead of the start of the 2015 shinty season, Kingussie and Newtonmore met with the Camanachd Association to discuss amendments to the structure. What transpired was a proposal to clubs which included restoring shinty’s top flight to a ten team league. This proposal received almost unanimous support from the voting clubs with only Lochcarron voting against it as they had concerns regarding eligibility for the cup competitions. 

The new ten team Marine Harvest National Division was bolstered by the addition of Fort William and Oban Camanachd with no relegation for Lochaber who finished bottom of the table.

Skye Camanachd and Ballachulish were added to the Marine Harvest National Division with no relegation for Bute who finished bottom of the table. However Bute intimated that they wished to rebuild during the 2015 shinty season and introduce some younger players to the side. Therefore their wish to play in Marine Harvest South Division 1 was granted by the Camanachd Association.

The race was then on to replace Bute in the Marine Harvest National Division ahead of the start of the 2015 shinty season. In Marine Harvest South Division 1, senior clubs Oban Celtic, Aberdour, Strachur, Taynuilt and Kilmory were all eligible but all declined the offer to join. In Marine Harvest North Division 1, senior clubs Strathglass and Inverness were eligible to join. Strathglass declined the offer whilst Inverness, who had ironically finished bottom of Marine Harvest North Division 1 at the end of the 2014 season, accepted and had looked to restore the controversial division to eight clubs.

However Glenorchy’s decision has left the Camanachd Association with “no option” but to start the 2015 shinty season with seven teams in shinty’s second flight.

Camanachd Association Statement

In an e-mail to Marine Harvest National Division clubs, Camanachd Association Chief Operating Officer Torquil MacLeod said, “Glenorchy Camanachd wrote to the Camanachd Association at the weekend (Sunday 22 February 2015) to confirm that, with regret, they have decided to withdraw their first team from the 2015 Marine Harvest National Division. The Camanachd Association has today (Monday 23 February 2015) explored the possibility of a further team being promoted from either South or North Division 1 to replace Glenorchy but this has not proved successful.

In the circumstances there seems no option other than for the National Division to progress as scheduled with the seven remaining teams and no fixture for the team scheduled to play Glenorchy.

We recognise the disappointment for the teams competing in the National Division and will seek to convene a meeting at the earliest opportunity this week with representatives of the National Division teams to discuss the situation and consider any options put forward to minimise the negative impact of Glenorchy’s decision to withdraw.

Further to the above, Camanachd Association Directors have also agreed to Glenorchy’s request that their first team compete in South Division 1. This agreement is given on the on the basis that the team would otherwise withdraw from competition completely and their remaining players would be denied a playing opportunity. Glenorchy’s second team will remain in South Division 2.

An updated fixture list will be issued shortly.”

ends e-mail

Glenorchy Camanachd Statement

Glenorchy then issued a statement on their club Facebook page to explain the reasons behind their withdrawal from the Marine Harvest National Division. The statement read:

“As has been well documented today, Glenorchy will regrettably not be taking its position in the National Division and will instead play in South Division 1 for the 2015 season.

At the end of the 2014 season, we had to send what were effectively 2nd team squads to fulfill fixtures against Fort William and Kilmallie - these teams contained a number of players aged 40+ and also players aged 14/15/16 who had less than a season of South Division 2 shinty under their belt.

By our November AGM the club lost five senior players for the entirety of the 2015 season (one due to family commitments, one due to injury, one leaving the sport entirely, two due to offshore jobs) as well as a further six players who would only make around 50% of matches due to changes in job roles that meant they worked a lot of weekends, and being based a large distance away meaning travel to games was not always possible.

We informed the Camanachd Association of our situation on 26 November 2014 and held an emergency meeting a week later in order to assess whether we would be able to compete in the National Division - it was decided by a small margin that if we could get the remaining senior players to commit to all games, be fortunate with injuries and suspensions and borrow 'veteran' players from the second team for home games then we would hopefully be able to fulfill our position in the National Division.

However, as we attempted to get squads together for friendlies in February, a senior player had to be ruled out due to injury whilst another decided to move to another club. It was at this point, no matter how we tried to arrange it, that it became entirely unfeasible for us to field a team in the National Division. As such, we informed the Camanachd Association of our desire to instead play in South Division 1 for the 2015 season.

We have a relatively high number of players under 16 and others that have only recently taken to playing competitive shinty, and we do not want to lose these players from the sport - but they are nowhere near the required physical, technical or experience level to play an entire season at National Level. We felt that forcing them to play in that league would be massively detrimental to their development and would discourage them from playing every week.

Playing in South Division 1 would allow more of these players a chance to contribute positively to the squad, as well as the reduced distance to travel for away games allowing more senior players to commit to more matches throughout the year.

We deeply regret that we have had to take this step, and completely understand that the short notice has been far from ideal for the Camanachd Association and the other National Division clubs with regards to fixtures and organisation - however previously mentioned recent developments meant we would have barely been able to fulfill any of our fixtures in the National Division and would more than likely have had to pull out a few games in. We felt this situation would have been far worse for all parties involved."

Glenorchy Camanachd

ends statement

The Future

It is difficult to see how the fragile Marine Harvest National Division can have a meaningful long-term future as shinty looks set for another round of reconstruction talks.