Despite being one of the oldest sports in Scotland there has never been a shinty club at the University of Stirling.
But this year thanks to Drew Bain an all-new sports club has been formed for the traditional Scottish sport.
Bain only came across the game last September after a discussion with his friend Neil Sutherland.
But he’s now been completely sold on it, and through the use of social media, has became founder and President of the newly formed club at the uni.
He said: “I was in the Gaelic Society for their give-it-a-go and I was talking to people, I met a guy called Neil Sutherland, he’s a bit older, he’s in his thirties I think, and I was just talking to him.
“He told me that he likes shinty so I asked what it was, it sounded really good.
“At the time I didn’t have a sport to play, a lot of the bigger teams you need to be a decent skill level to join, so I thought ‘you know what I’ll just start the team’.
“After that, I just put a post on Facebook the next day and that was it.”
The club started in October, but training sessions have just started this semester.
Despite having never played before the first-year student quickly fell in love with the sport: “It’s just really fun, there aren’t many rules to get your head around, it’s a little rougher than other sports but way better craic and its great fun.”
“It was the way Neil described it, he said that it was like ‘a wilder version of hockey’.
“Neil just described it very romantically.”
Bain has ambitions of growing the club, with the team looking for new members as it aims to enter a league next year, he said: “We’re really looking for people to join the committee and next year I think we’ll branch out a lot more and try to get more socials organised.
“This is what we want to brand it as, a really good club for socials.”
For anyone interested in joining the club, Bain said: “The best way to contact us is through our Instagram and we are looking to get a Facebook page started up as well.”
The club is mixed and open to all abilities.
More information can be found on the Stirling Uni Shinty Club Instagram page.
Feature Image Credit: Andrew Robson
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