Shinty!

Before even coming to St Andrews, I had decided I wanted to try shinty.  I wanted to play a sport or do something to stay active, and shinty sounded new and exciting and I figured that since it seemed vaguely like field hockey, some of my ice hockey skills might be transferrable.  So, two Wednesdays ago, I headed to the "give-it-a-go" session to see what it was like.

But what is shinty, you ask?  The team's website describes it as either [field] hockey with no rules, full contact golf, or ice hockey on grass.  These are all pretty good descriptions.  Basically, everyone has a golf club sized wooden stick (caman), it has a curved-ish end, and you use it to hot a ball slightly bigger than a golf ball.  You can swing as high as you want, so it looks a bit like golf.  Except with running.  And contact.  And you try to hit it into a net, not a hole.  There are 3 attackers, 3 midfielders, 3 defenders, and a goalie.  The attackers and defenders (opposing teams) stay somewhat near their respective goals, while the midfielders run all over the place.  If you need more info, I'm sure you can find plenty by googling.

So, two Wednesdays ago, I go to the Sports Centre (AU), and learn that the pitches are all frozen, so nothing's on.  Luckily, I had met one of the girls on the team as she is friends with my housemates (and me, I suppose), and so I texted one of my housemates to text her to ask where it was.  While I was waiting outside the AU for a reply, I saw a bunch of girls carrying camans walk out of the AU.  I asked, and they led me to practice at West Sands (a beach).  It wasn't really low tide, so we didn't have much room to practice, but it was a lot of fun, and I'd like to think that I'm not half bad.

That night, there was a Disney-themed get-together.  I went as Bagheera from The Jungle Book.  At the get-together, all of the new people got their Agnes names.  (New shinty girls are called Agnes, plural Agnii.  You get an Agnes name, i.e. Agnes Mungo Jerry (that's me (think Cats, not the band)), and then, after you play in your first away game, you have an initiation night, and are given your "real" name.  The name on your birth certificate is your "heathen" name, and is not to be used.)  We had a good time.  

I have since been to two more practices.  I have also skipped two (on tuesdays at 7:30am), but I haven't been getting my Tuesday reading done in time to spend my morning at practice.  It is quite fun, and I'm looking forward to practice tomorrow.