Shinty players swing into gear

It's not quite field hockey or Irish hurling, but shinty is a 2,000-year-old Scottish sport picking up popularity in the least likely of places - San Mateo.

This month a team of Bay Area men - mostly from San Mateo - were the first known American shinty team invited to play the game in the Scottish highlands. Only seven are making the journey, but there are plenty more in the Bay Area picking up curved sticks and joining the shinty revolution.

The men are between the ages of 25 and 55, many of them fathers from Fiesta Gardens Elementary School. They've been playing pick-up games for the last two years and, by a Celtic coincidence, met organizers of the Scottish games earlier this year who extended the invitation to play in their tournament next month.

"It's truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," said Michael Bentley, an East Bay resident and founder of the Northern California Camanachd Club.

Camanachd is the Gaelic name for shinty and term used when referring to official rules and regulations. The game itself is reserved for areas of Scotland with Gaelic population.

"Not everyone in Scotland knows about shinty," Bentley said with a chuckle during a team scrimmage at Fiesta Garden Meadows in San Mateo.

In Scotland last weekend, the team managed to score one goal against in three short games. It's crowning achievement was when Elheran Francis won the Player-of-the-Match award, selected by the Camanachd Association.

Under its current rules, shinty is played 12 to a side with two periods of 45 minutes. The Northern California team plays with seven to a side. The field is 140 to 170 yards long by 70 to 80 yards wide. The goals are 12 feet wide by 10 feet high. The playing stick - the caman - is usually made of laminated hickory or ash, and the triangular head is about half two-thirds the length of the head of a hockey stick.

The ball has a seamed leather cover with a circumference between 7.5 and 8 inches and weigh between 2.5 to 3 ounces.

The game dates back 2,000 years and claims to be Scotland's oldest team sport, although it does not have professional league yet. Like many other sports, the game didn't gain written rules until the 19th century.

In 1879, the Glasgow Celtic Society instituted a cup competition and established rules of play. About the same time, the celebrated Captain Chisholm of Glassburn drew up "The Constitution, Rules and Regulations of the Strathglass Shinty Club" published in 1880, according to the Camanachd Association.

It is also considered to be the predecessor to ice hockey.

More than 100 years later, the game is gaining momentum again. The local interest began when Bentley was researching his heritage 20 years ago. He tried to start a team then, but college and careers got in the way, he said.

Two years ago, while manning a shinty booth at the Dunsmuir games in Oakland, Bentley was approached by San Mateo resident Bruce Norris. He liked what he saw in the dangerous game that allows players to take a baseball swing with something similar to a hockey stick. There's no high-stick rule in this game.

"I thought there were plenty of crazies in San Mateo that would play," Norris said.

So he gathered some of his friends - men, women and children - and the group began practicing. What started as barely enough people to hold a game has expanded to include enough people for three teams.

The group has won the California shinty championships two years in row. Their only competitor is a team from San Luis Obisbo. However, they are hoping next year's tournament will grow with rumors of teams starting up in Hollywood, Seattle, Wash. and Houston, Texas.

In May, Bentley met a well-known Scottish family who were guests of honor at the Pleasanton Highland games. They were so impressed with the idea of an American shinty team that they invited the men to Scotland for an annual tournament held the first weekend of September.

In Scotland, the sport is broken into men, women and youth leagues. Only the men were invited to play in the tournament.

That doesn't mean women won't be watching - 13 friends are making the journey to watch the team play, said Norris.

Team members include Bentley, of Berkeley; Elheran Francis, of Fremont; Bruce Norris; Ben Phillips; Mark Lawson; Walt Worthge and Jonathan Yee of San Mateo.

For more information:

· The Northern California Camanachd Club at www.foundrysite.com/shinty

· US Camanachd at http://www.uscamanachd.org/

Dana Yates can be reached by e-mail: dana@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 106. What do you think of this story? Send a letter to the editor: letters@smdailyjournal.com