On the shinty pitch

You will notice that this does not look like football goalposts or even rugby ones. Shinty is a sport which exists almost entirely in the Scottish Highlands. Played with sticks, it’s like a wild version of hockey. You can whack the wee hard ball with either side of the stick and you can launch it through the air like a missile. You can also crash into opponents as long as it's shoulder to shoulder. It’s not a game for softies. Shinty champions do not hail from cities but from small towns like Kingussie, Fort William and Newtonmore. The big matches are occasionally televised and described by that wonderful commentator, Hugh Dan MacLennan.