Members of Kingussie Camanachd club were saddened to hear of the death this week of Alistair ‘Alta’ Borthwick. He was considered to be one of the most skilful forwards who ever played shinty for Kingussie, and he captained the club in 1955.
His shinty career started successfully when he captained the Kingussie U17 team to victory in the Mactavish juvenile Cup in 1949. Then in 1955 he captained Kingussie first team to their first ever victory over Newtonmore in a final, when they won the league cup 4-0 in Inverness.

Alistair’s finest season for Kingussie, however, came in 1961 when he played a huge part in bringing the Camanachd Cup back to Kingussie after an absence of 40 years.  The Kingussie club brought him back from England for the quarter-final against Newtonmore and he scored all 3 goals in a 3-1 victory. In the semi-final he again scored a hat-trick in a 5-3 win over Kilmallie. The 1961 final is one of the greatest days in the history of Kingussie Camanachd Club, and Alistair scored the opening goal in a 2-1 win over Oban Celtic.
During his working life he was a plumber and after he returned from working in England he was a partner in a local plumbing firm for many years.  He died in Raigmore hospital on Monday evening 20th May, 2013 surrounded by his family and is survived by his wife Mary and eight children. All 5 of his sons are exceptional shinty players and all played for, and captained, Kingussie. There have been many occasions when his 5 sons all played in the same Kingussie team including Camanachd Cup Finals. At present 5 of Alistair’s grandchildren play for the club at different age groups including granddaughter Rachel who was the first girl to captain a Mackay Cup winning team.  The shinty world will remember him as one of the most skilful players who ever played, and he will be sadly missed. A minutes silence will be held before this weekend’s premiership game between Kingussie and Newtonmore at The Eilan.

Happy 40th to Claire Falconer. Lets hope your husband can give you a nice birthday gift tomorrow night……… a win would do fine!!

Mactavish Cup 30.3.13

Skye Camanachd 1 Kingussie 1 (Kingussie won 3-2 on penalties)

It took a sudden death penalty shoot-out to separate Skye Camanachd and Kingussie at Pairc nan Laoch, Portree. Kingussie, who were without Ryan Borthwick and Barrie Dallas, edged the first half without being able to find a way past home keeper Michael Nicolson, or the frame of his goal, hitting the bar and the post. The Islanders, who were without the injured Chris Rose and Iain Nicolson who was working, had the better of the second half and they took the lead on 79 minutes when Neil MacVicar worked his way through the heart of the Kings’ defence. His initial shot was saved by keeper Craig Dawson but MacVicar tucked the rebound into the net to the delight of the home crowd. However there was to be a cruel ending for Skye as they conceded an injury time free-hit around 15 yards from goal following a foul on substitute Rory MacKeachan. In a move from the training ground, Fraser Munro looked to take the free-hit but stepped back at the last minute which allowed Paul Gow to slip the ball to Munro and he sent and unstoppable shot into the roof of the Skye net. There wasn’t enough time left to restart the game. The extra-time period was even with both sides having chances but there was no further scoring. The first five penalties ended even at 2-2 with keepers Michael Nicolson and Craig Dawson making fine saves. In the end it took fourteen penalties to separate the sides and it was Paul Gow who converted the all-important spot-hit although Dawson’s four penalty saves were equally crucial.

Report by Alasdair Bruce

Orion premiership 16.3.13

Kingussie’s unbeaten start to the season came to an end at Mossfield Park Oban on Saturday.
Kings travelled without full centre Louis Munro who was serving a one match suspension and Gary Munro carried on where he left off the previous week as the lynchpin of the midfield. Sixteen year old Rory Mackeachan made his first start of the season at wing centre.
Camanachd won the toss and elected to go with the wind in the first half and the match was only six minutes old when they took full advantage of early pressure to open the scoring through Iain Campbell as he cut in from the right wing to fire past Craig Dawson in the visitor’s goal. Young Mackeachan’s game only lasted ten minutes as he had to leave the field with a nasty finger injury, James Maclean took his place. The hosts continued to look the more lively side for the opening exchanges without applying a finishing touch and gradually Kingussie came in to the game. On 32 minutes a Gary Munro free hit was controlled by Lee Bain and moved on to Thomas Borthwick who fired past Robert Dunnings from 20 yards. As the half drew to a close Kingussie were in the ascendancy for the first time but on the stroke of half time they were hit by a sucker punch when Iain Macmillan scored to put the home side ahead at the interval. After the break the Badenoch team would have hoped to have more territorial advantage with the wind at their backs but Camanachd dug in and were determined to secure their first points of the season. Andrew Macuish put a bit of daylight between the teams with a third goal on the hour mark and although Dunnings was probably the busier goalkeeper in the closing stages, including one outstanding save from a Fraser Munro drive, the Argyle men held on to win.
Kingussie co manager Davie Anderson said afterwards “while we knew we would have some ups and downs this season we are disappointed to lose this one but we will continue to work hard and look to get back to winning ways next week at home against Inveraray.”

There was a minutes silence before the start of the game against Lochaber in memory of Pauly MacIntosh, a long standing Committee member of KCC and goal judge for many years. Also the silence was in memory of Kenny MacRae, a Committee member in the 70′s and father of last year’s Sutherland Cup winning captain, Greig MacRae. Both passed away in the last week.

Horse meat has been in the news almost every day recently. Now I personally have no problem eating horsemeat and I think those who are against are a bit blinkered. Only a few folk who ate Tesco burgers fell ill, but as far as I know they are now all stable.
Lorna’s team at ‘Cafe Dell’ assure us that the pies from Gow’s are fine, but I do wonder if anyone else thinks that their bar codes closely resemble a zebra….

Now you may wonder what all this has to do with a shinty report. Let me explain.
Last week Lee Bain, who is as strong as a horse took the bit between his teeth and scored twice to help us gain a very good away win. Lee would not win any medals in a dressage event, but when it  comes to rough and ready and on the hoof, he is always in the mix.

Back to back victories would potentially put us top of the league and today’s hurdle was Lochaber. Given the weather, which was arctic cold, it was a stampede away from the Dell to get to a fire. A dram by the fire was most enjoyable whilst reflecting the result, as our young stallion Tuc  Borthwick, who was clearly champing at the bit to get on the score sheet, pleased the home support by doing the needful twice.
Now you are probably hoping these puns don’t go on furlong… and they don’t but it has to be pointed out that Craig Dawson produced a couple of great saves to keep the game alive when really he could have gone to grass at the end of last season!! Well done Dawsy.
Lochaber seemed to dominate the first half and Kingussie struggled to put any real pressure on Lochaber with the exception of a very clean strike from Savio Genini, which brought out a great save from their young keeper.
Half time came at 0-0 and an accurate summary would have put most of the territorial advantage to Lochaber with some stout defending from Hutchy and the ever blossoming Jake MacPherson (won’t mention his nick name on the site) . Ryan Borthwick looked like a thorough bred and deserves all the oats he can get!
The second half started with much the same pattern until Russell Jones and Davie Anderson made some tactical changes. It is not always wise to change horses in midstream, but these changes seemed to take the pressure off the Kingussie defence and chances where beginning to pop up for the home side.
The Kings  came off the last bend in control and had a tight reign on the game as the clock wound down with twenty minutes to go. A couple of times last season we fell at the final hurdle, but we did look like finishing stronger as the game drew to a close. Not the prettiest game of shinty ever seen at the Dell but one that gives the Kings some pleasure as we sit top of the league (at the time of writing) and another game in the saddle for our young crop of youngsters. So a victory by a short nose and a welcome one.
Many thanks to those who turned upon such a cold day and to those involved in the car wash before hand. Rumour has it that Jimmy Gow was doing a deal with the George Gow as a fund raiser where you could get petrol and food at a knock down price. It was called Only Fuels and Horses!

Premier League Kinlochshiel v Kingussie, 2.3.13

Kingussie travelled to Kirkton to play Kinlochshiel in their opening Orion Premiership match of the 2013  season on Saturday. This was a repeat of the opening day fixture of last season which ‘shiel won at The Dell in their first ever Premier match.

Kingussie were without injured defender Gary Munro and 17 year old Jake Macpherson made his first Premier League start at wing back. Kings started brightly and were awarded a penalty in the 8^th minute when ‘Shiel keeper Kennedy kicked the ball while trying to clear. The goalie made amends when he saved Thomas Borthwick;s effort which although on target was not struck as cleanly as he would have liked. The rest of the half was fairly even with Kings probably having the better chances as full forward Lee Bain grew in confidence. However a minute before the break the home side took the lead when a strike from Duncan ‘Ach’ Macrae deflected off Barrie Dallas’s stick to give Craig Dawson no chance in the Kings goal. Kingussie, playing down the famous Kirkton slope in the second half, were nearly on level terms in 49 minutes when skipper Fraser Munro ghosted in behind the defence only to see his deft flick rebound off the bar. The equaliser was only delayed and four minutes later determined work from 16 year old Savio Genini saw him rob a defender and play the ball in to space for Louis Munro to crash a backhand drive in to the top corner of the net. Two minutes later the most controversial incident of the game saw Finlay Macrae put the home side ahead again although the ball did not appear to cross the goal line. This seemed to galvanise Kingussie and from that point they controlled the game with Ryan Borthwick particularly impressive at centre half. Three goals in a 10 minute spell were just reward for Kings pressure. In 69 minutes Lee Bain squared the game, 4 minutes later Paul Gow drove low in to the corner to put the visitors ahead for the first time and Lee Bain made sure of the points with his second goal in the 79^th minute. Kingussie co manager Davie Anderson said “it was a great team effort with some very good individual performances but it is only one game and we will keep everyone’s feet firmly on the ground”.

Kingussie play Lochaber at The Dell this Saturday.