Ballachulish Camanachd Club is a

shinty Shinty ( gd, camanachd, iomain) is a team game played with sticks and a ball. Shinty is now played mainly in the Scottish Highlands and amongst Highland migrants to the big cities of Scotland, but it was formerly more widespread in Scotland, an ...

team from

Ballachulish The village of Ballachulish ( or , from Scottish Gaelic ) in Lochaber, Highland, Scotland, is centred on former slate quarries. The name Ballachulish (Ballecheles, 1522 – Straits town) was more correctly applied to the area now called No ...

Lochaber Lochaber ( ; gd, Loch Abar) is a name applied to a part of the Scottish Highlands. Historically, it was a provincial lordship consisting of the parishes of Kilmallie and Kilmonivaig, as they were before being reduced in extent by the creation ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. The club was founded in 1893 the same year as the

Camanachd Association The Camanachd Association (in Scottish Gaelic, ''Comann na Camanachd'') is the world governing body of the Scottish sport of shinty. The body is based in Inverness, Highland, and is in charge of the rules of the game. Its main competitions ...

. One of the sport's most famous clubs, they won the

Camanachd Cup The Camanachd Association Challenge Cup known as the Camanachd Cup (or less commonly the Scottish Cup) is the premier competition in the sport of shinty. It is one of the five trophies considered to be part of the Grand Slam in the sport of shin ...

four times before

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The club is also the most northerly of teams playing in the South district, the kyle at Ballachulish being the traditional demarcation point between the two districts. The club has moved to one team playing South Division Two in 2013 but soon gained promotion and re-established two teams, and gained promotion to National Division One for 2015.

History

Founded in 1893, and built on the strength of the men who worked the Ballachulish Slate quarry, the club won the Scottish Cup in 1899, 1901, 1911 and 1912. The outbreak of war was to put an end to this run of success and the club has never quite achieved these heights again. The club regained some modicum of strength by winning the Mactavish Cup in 1938, the only South team to ever do so, before war intervened again. The last

Final appearance to date was in 1948 when they lost to Newtonmore (Shinty), Newtonmore. Although the Ballachulish quarry is now closed, Balla's red strips continue to represent the trade union socialism in the quarry. The club has never recovered the

, but has several Celtic, Sutherland and Dunn Cups to its name and enjoyed a great spell in the 1960s. The club's second team restarted in 2007 and competed in the Bullough Cup and the Sutherland Cup, did not enter competition in 2008 but be competed in 2009 in South Division Two. The second team was removed from all competition in March 201

It re-entered in 201

The return of Dugald Rankin from

Skye Camanachd Skye Camanachd is a shinty team from the Isle of Skye, Highland, Scotland. It plays in the Premier Division and has a reserve team in North Division One, as well as a Ladies team in the WCA National Division One and a Ladies reserve team in the ...

saw an upsurge in the team's fortunes. However, Ballachulish has also exported David Campbell to Newtonmore and John MacDonald to Fort William, and is often losing players to other clubs. This has seriously affected the club's ability to return to the top level of the sport. With an imbalance in the number of clubs in the South and North Divisions One, Ballachulish were approached to enter North Division One in season 201

However, only a month after rejecting this move, the club sensationally announced that the club would be scrapping its reserve team and also taking their first team down to South Division Two despite both sides finishing in respectable mid-table positions in 201

The move to the South Division Two initially saw Balla maintain midtable, but the return of several ex-players who had been playing for other teams, such as David Campbell, a Premier League winner with Newtonmore and John MacDonald, a multiple Camanachd Cup winner with Fort William and Scotland internationalist saw Balla win the Sutherland Cup in 2013 and gain a league playoff against Kyles Athletic. Although the league playoff was lost, Balla were still promoted. They then won the South Division One, but were defeated in the National League Playoff in 2014 by Skye. However, league reconstruction saw both teams promoted into National Division One for 2015.

In popular culture

*"The History of Ballachulish Shinty Club" has become a phrase used in connection with casting aspersions on any qualification seen as obscure or of low utility

*In her article, ''When it's rational to hate a stranger'', Scottish journalist

Sylvia Patterson Sylvia Patterson (born 8 March 1965) is a Scottish author and music journalist. A former contributor to ''Smash Hits'' and the '' NME'', she is the author of the memoirs ''I'm Not With The Band'' and ''Same Old Girl''. Life Patterson grew up in Pe ...

wrote that she hoped footballer

Cristiano Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (; born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward and captains the Portugal national team. He is currently a free agent. Widely regarded as one of the greatest p ...

would be resurrected "as a 5ft 2in winger of a Ballachulish shinty team" in order to teach him a lesson about humilit

External links

Ballachulish @ Shinty.comBallachulish History JibeBallachulish Shinty Club
{{Authority control Sports clubs established in 1893 Shinty teams 1893 establishments in Scotland Sport in Highland (council area)