Ballachulish Pull Out Of National Divison Play-Off Against Skye Camanachd | |
25 September 2014 Ballachulish have pulled out of their Marine Harvest National Division play-off meeting with Skye Camanachd which had been scheduled for Blairbeg on Saturday 27 September 2014.
Ballachulish issued a statement on Thursday 25 September 2014 which read: We, Ballachulish Shinty Club, are confirming that we will not be taking part in the play–off on 27 September 2014 to decide who goes forward to play National League shinty next year. We would firstly apologise to Skye Camanachd and wish them every success in their endeavours next season. They are a credit to North shinty, have done their island proud this year and will undoubtedly continue to do so in the future. We had a great game against them in the Balliemore Cup Final, had hoped to run them close again but sadly, this is not now going to be possible. Our reasons for not competing are as follows 1. Our club is not willing to enter into our most important fixture for many years on the back of a three week lay-off. 2. With this being a holiday weekend, and originally a Saturday out-with the season, several of our players have made arrangements to be elsewhere and we would have to field what is effectively a junior side. That would normally be something we would accept and get on with, but as alternative dates are available we cannot accept it on this occasion. 3. Our league programme is not finished yet and it would be simple and indeed completely fair to finish it before the play off takes place – such requests to our Association to rearrange have been totally refused. 4. A play-off takes place when a league programme is completed, that way advantages and disadvantages with player injury and suspension will probably even out. This cannot happen by a play-off decider taking place with games left to play. 5. The reason we are being given by the Association for not changing the fixtures is players from both teams being involved in International Training – our club strongly disagrees with Shinty / Hurling internationals taking priority over important league fixtures. The allocation of this fixture date also gives no consideration to the fact that several of our squad for Saturday have been selected to play representative shinty the following day. We are of the opinion that Shinty / Hurling should not be taking priority over real shinty and would be confident every club in our sport would agree with us. Equally it is wrong to expect players to have to choose between international training and normal league fixtures when they will obviously be the better players in their own team and leave their own team weaker if they choose the international route. 6. Our club arranged our annual dinner dance for the Saturday and had requested this Saturday to be kept clear to allow everyone to be here on the day – although the opportunity for our last league game being played at home was completely acceptable to us for that day. 7. Many months ago, several of our players including our club captain and one other player will be attending the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles and, whilst we would rather have them playing shinty, we feel that we cannot refuse their requests to attend what could be a once in a lifetime golfing occasion. This was, after all, a Saturday with no shinty scheduled. Furthermore, considering sportscotland’s support of shinty and golf, surely shinty players should not be discouraged from attending major occasions like the Ryder Cup undoubtedly will be. 8. Choosing another Saturday would also allow this fixture to have a higher priority as it would undoubtedly be overshadowed by fixtures elsewhere on the 27 September 2014 – Mossfield for one.
So, in summary, we are disappointed that we are giving up our opportunity to compete to play shinty at the level our club aspires to, but feel we have little alternative on this occasion, due mainly to the intransigence of the decision makers at the Camanachd Association. We do, however, look forward to mounting a further challenge next season to return to National Leagues, and the continued improvement of Ballachulish Shinty. End statement |