Argyll hopes with Kyles Athletic in shinty’s 2011 MacAulay Cup clash between two historically successful teams

Tomorrow, Saturday 20th August, Kyles Athletic carry the flag for Argyll on to Oban’s Mossfield Park, for a throw up at 2.30 against Newtonmore.

Kyles has had a fantastic run, not losing a game all season until they met a hot Inveraray team in the quarter finals of the Camanach Cup and lost 4-1 – with Inveraray going on to come very close to taking Newtonmore in the semis – until the last few minutes of the game.

So it’s all down to Kyles tomorow.

No fewer than half of the teams in the MacAulay Cup are from Argyll – 8 out of 16, underlining the strength of the game in this part of the world.

• Bute
• Glasgow Mid Argyll
• Glenorchy
• Inveraray
• Kimory
• Kyles Athletic
• Oban Camanachd
• Oban Celtic

The surviving four found themselves making up an entire half of the draw in the quarter finals, with Kyles Athletic beating Bute and Oban Camanachd beating Glasgow Mid Argyll by the same narrow margin of 4-3.

Kyles then proceded to run all over Oban Camanachd in the semi, winning 7-2, the third biggest goal-difference win in the entire competition – to date.

With Newtonmore in the final of the Camanachd Cup against Kingussie, Kyles can keep Argyll in the frame tomorrow with a win against Newtonmore.

The form

Kyles is the possessor of the highest scoring win and the biggest (as well as the third biggest – see above) goal difference win in the cup so far – beating Glenorchy 11-0 in the opening round.

Newtonmore has two cracking scores – beating Kinlochshiel 5-0 in Round One and Kilmallie 6-0 in the quarters.

Inveraray showed what can be done against Newtonmore, It will be a tough game but Kyles can take it.

Live on TV

BBC2 is showing the match live, only in Scotland, from 2.15pm tomorrow, with the sport’s biographer, Hugh Dan MacLennan in the Commentator’s chair.

Gold standard history

It’s interesting to look at the performance of the two teams in the touchstone competition of the sport – the Camanachd Cup.

These two clubs have their names all over the Camanachd Cup – and with Kingussie, more than any others. They have facing each other in the finals 19 times, but not since 1980. That was Newtonmore’s last appearance in the finals, where Kyles have been the losing finalist in 2000 and 2009.

Of the 19 finals featuring Kyles and Newtonmore, 6 came in succession, from 1975-1980. Newtonmore has won 12 of those 19 finals.

Between 1974 and 1987 – for 14 successive finals, one or other of these two teams – and often both -  was in the final.

Newtonmore has won more Camanachd Cup finals than any other team, with 28 and, with being losing finalist a further 19 times, has the most cup final appearances – at 47 – in this premier competition in the national sport.

Kingussie – the first ever winner of this cup in 1896 – has one more Camanachd Cup final appearance than Kyles, at 34 but is ahead of the Argyll team in wins by 22-18. Kingussie also has the longest unbroken sequence of appearances, at 9, from 1995-2003. Newtonmore is next with 8, from 1975-1982; and Kyles is third with 7, from 1974-1980.

The historical weight is with Newtonmore – but with Newtonmore out of the  final for 31 years and Kyles in it twice in the last 11, who would bet against them.