Clan Macleod Canada

Ross strike keeps Beauly title bid alive

BEAULY kept in the hunt for shinty's North Division One title with Connor Ross netting the only goal of the game against Skye on Saturday.

Kinlochshiel remain six points clear at the top, maintaining their perfect record with a 5-0 rout over Inverness at Kirkton.

Lochaber came away from Castle Leod with a 5-2 win over Caberfeidh to go joint third with their opponents. Ryan Toal gave Lochaber the lead, only for Kirk Taylor to equalise one minute later.

Lachie Campbell quickly restored the visitors' lead, with goals from Ben Delaney and another from Campbell extending this to 4-1 before the break. Toal added Lochaber's fifth, with Taylor finding the net again for the home side.

Lochcarron swept aside the challenge of Strathglass at Cannich on Friday evening with a display of clinical finishing. An early Gregor Cushnie double set Lochcarron on the road to a 7-0 rout, with Iain MacKenzie bagging a hat-trick in addition to scores from Peter MacKenzie and Criosdain Finlayson. This result elevates Lochcarron in to fifth place in North Division One.

Torrential rain brought an end to the Artemis MacAulay Cup semi-final between Newtonmore and holders Kingussie after only 22 minutes.

Referee Billy Wotherspoon decided to give the clash of the Badenoch giants every chance, however with no let up in the monsoon conditions, abandoning the fixture was the only option.

The teams will meet again on Saturday at The Eilean to determine which Badenoch club participates in the final.

Kingussie will go in to Saturday's rearranged clash without manager Steve Borthwick who will be in Canada attending his daughter's wedding.

Three playing members of the Borthwick clan, goalkeeper Andrew and strikers Ryan and Thomas, will also be missing from the Kingussie ranks for the same reason.

Kyles Athletic will represent the South area in the Artemis MacAulay Cup final at Oban after the Tighnabruaich side were 7-2 winners over Oban Camanachd at Mossfield Park.

Kyles added three second half goals after turning around at the break 4-2 ahead.

Roddie MacDonald hit four goals for the victors, with Grant Irvine, Robbie MacLeod and Gordon Whyte also finding the net, whilst Iain MacMillan and Matt Rippon responded for Oban.

With Kyles on cup duty, Fort William grasped the opportunity to go top of the Premier Division after cruising to an 8-0 home win over Lovat.

Goals from Gordon MacKinnon and Gary Innes gave Fort a 2-0 interval lead. Fort went on to enforce their superiority with MacKinnon going on to complete his hat-trick, Bryan Simpson weighing in with a double, Innes adding his second and Steve Stewart adding a last-minute counter.

Great Big Canadian Scottish Blog: NB Highland Games Festival Money ...

This morning on Information morning CBC Fredericton, Terry Seguin interviewed Chris Gallant from the New Brunswick Highland Games Festival. 2011 is the 30th anniversary of the Games and you would think that after 30 years we would be talking about something other than funding for this cultural event. During the interview it came to light that the games receive from the Province of New Brunswick a total of $4000.00 in grant money. Now something just doesn’t sound right. When you look at what the provinces dishes out for other cultural events in New Brunswick we don’t believe it comes to any where close to what other groups receive. If the government is going to be in the business of dishing out money for cultural events it must be a level playing field for all involved. However putting aside Government money Mr. Gallant from the Highland Games went on to say that only ¼ of the funding comes from sponsorship and the reason that they are having a hard time to attract sponsorship is because of how diverse the games are with its events. Mr. Gallant indicated because of the diversity the games didn’t meet many of the company criteria for funding. Most festivals don’t focus just on one event. Festivals are comprised of different events and normally get sponsors for the festival as whole and smaller sponsors for the individual events. The games also have a group called the Friends of the Games and it sounds like the event is starting to depend on that group, gate fees for revenue. Nothing was mentioned about vendor fees and what was collected each event. We believe there isn’t anything wrong with depending less on government hand outs and more on other sources of revenue. Now in its 30 year maybe it is time that the games committee sit down and do a complete review of its funding, pricing and budget. Even the Friends of the Games program could do with a sprucing up. Anyone who donates money knows that there isn’t much of a thank you in return. Communications from the games throughout the year only comes when they are looking for money. There is no involvement from the stake holders in the event from one year to the next. We believe the games could focus more on the Scottish culture and less on being a multicultural event as it has been doing in the past years.

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