As the 23rd of April marks St George’s Day, there’s no better time to shine a light on a lesser-known but fiercely passionate corner of English sport. Shinty in England has a long history, with historic teams such as Nottingham Forest originally starting out as shinty teams. The English Shinty Association was founded in 2013 by three ex-University Shinty players with a passion for reviving the game in England. The three players in question, Matt Mossop, Graham Love and Alan MacDonald, had already founded/revived teams in their respective areas, Cornwall, London and Northallerton. We caught up with the ESA in the midst of their Chieftain’s Cup triumph over Tayforth.

Today is St George’s day – on a day to celebrate national identity, how big a role do you play in maintaining a local identity for Scots south of the border? 

The English Shinty Association serves a wider role much like the Camanachd Association in preserving shinty in England and the various cultures we represent from our player base. We have players from England, Wales, Isle of Man, Ireland and of course Scotland represented in the English Shinty Association, and as such we have twinned games and tournaments with various cultural / social events. With many players not always local to the teams they play for, the fixtures provide social elements in our growing community. The annual Oxford 6s tournament hosts a traditional Scottish Ceilidh, Cornwall vs London on 14^th June is based the same weekend as the Falmouth International Sea Shanty Festival. Our final English Shinty League 6s tournament is held in Cornwall at the Lowender Celtic Festival during the October half term. The festival hosts multiple Ceilidh’s from Cornwall, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Brittany.

You triumphed over Tayforth in back-to-back games – how does it feel to have won these matches to send you through to the next round?

It feels amazing. We took the decision last year to enter the Chieftain’s Cup at our EGM. We have been having fantastic turnouts at our games and tournaments in England. We wanted to provide a pathway to enable players the opportunity to travel and play against teams in Scotland. To win our first game in the Chieftains Cup in such attacking fashion was a great moral booster for the team. That then brings us to last weekend in the Bullough Cup at St Andrews. With the university system in Scotland a key pathway into English Shinty, it’s always a delight to support cup shinty at universities; to encourage more players to take up shinty but also a recruitment opportunity by promoting English Shinty at Scottish Universities.

Technically a “home” game for the ESA, but played in Glasgow and St Andrews – do you savour these trips?

The last time we triumphed over Tayforth was in 2023 when they travelled down to London in the 1^st round of Bullough Cup as part of our tenth anniversary. This was fantastic for shinty, but sadly for us, teams currently have the option to play us in our true home of England. So, we technically forgo our home advantage and travel to Scotland to play. These are great bonding trips and helps foster a sense of community amongst our players. The Bullough Cup game was factored into our Easter tour where we held a joint training session with Stirling on Good Friday, with the ESA ladies drawing 1-1 against Stirling University. With many St Andrews Alumni in our team including our captain Matt Mossop, they played a part in the annual St Andrews University Alumni game before playing Tayforth. Then on Easter Sunday everyone played in the St Andrew’s sixes. Hopefully, we will see more clubs returning the favour and travelling to England so we can have our home field advantage like all other clubs.

Have you seen growing interest from English players with no Scottish background? What’s drawing them in?

As an English Man with no Scottish Background (in fact the first time I travelled to Scotland was to play shinty) leading the English Shinty Association it is great privilege to be apart of an inclusive community that is growing shinty. We have many players across the country that picked up a caman for the first time in England via word of mouth or at university here. We have also seen players move to Scotland for university and are now continuing their shinty career in England. Take myself – I am probably not your average sporty person! However, we encourage everyone to play. We have multiple opportunities at all levels for adults to join the sport. Personally, I feel we do this better than many shinty areas as we have next to no youth shinty in England due to a lack of funding.

How is the English Shinty League going?

The English Shinty League has only just started with further games due in the summer to encourage travel to Scotland for the cups. However, at the Bristol 6s – our curtain opener, London Camanachd just beat Bristol Camanachd to win the tournament. With a long season ahead of us, it’s all to play for.

Durham became Shinty’s newest club this year – do you have aspirations to spread the game further in England?

Absolutely. The world is our oyster or at the very least England. Our growth is driven by enthusiastic individuals and with help from Abbott Risk Consulting  (https://www.consultarc.com/) via their multiple years of sponsorship. We made our latest sponsorship stetch to sticks, helmets and goals to enable Durham to continue to grow. With many expats in Birmingham / West Midlands, Northwest (Manchester and Liverpool), enthusiastic players in Newcastle and Reading. With some support and generosity by more companies to help with the purchase of helmets, sticks and goals in these areas we can make a real impact for the whole shinty community. We would also love to see more encouragement from Scottish Teams to encourage any players who move south to continue playing.

What’s next for the English Shinty Association? Any upcoming events or plans?

Historically our key title clash has been Cornwall vs London. This year the game takes place on 14^th June. Before that we have fixtures in Scotland for the Bullough, Chieftains and Challenge Cup. However our key focus this year is awareness and supporting growth. Winston Tjia one of our members is creating a shinty documentary. If you see him at one of games, please introduce yourself and support him.

If someone in England is curious about shinty, how can they get involved?

Players can reach out to any of our clubs, our Facebook page or via email englishshintyassociation@gmail.com

Video courtesy of Winston Tjia, images courtesy of John MacMillan.