Published: Thursday, 16th November, 2006 12:00pm

Sticking around

by Sportsdesk

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Pic by: Dunfermline Press

FROM her Kincardine home, Lisa Norman reckons she"s halfway to everywhere.

Halfway to her sports development officer job in Paisley; to Aberdour, home to the thriving shinty club she started from scratch in 2001; and to the Highlands, where the sport that"s become her life comes as naturally as breathing.

When it comes to her beloved shinty, however, there"s no half measures. She first picked up a stick nine years ago and she"s been beating barriers to playing the sport ever since.

Then, the notion of a seaside village like Aberdour, in Scotland"s central belt, playing shinty at national level and providing three players for Scotland"s national under-17 shinty team would have been fanciful.

Almost as fanciful, in fact, as suggesting that a team of Scottish women could travel to shinty"s heartland in Ireland and win.

Both are now reality, courtesy of Scotland"s stunning 20-9 win in Ratoath a fortnight ago. And both had Lisa (27) involved right at the heart.

So what is it with shinty?

'I don"t know, I think it"s just one of those things you get hooked on and I just love seeing the game develop I suppose,' she told Press Sport.

'Being from Aberdour and close to water I taught sailing and wind surfing for eight years in Pighnabruaich on the west coast. Because you"re there for about six months at a time, you get to know the locals and see them play this strange new sport that you"ve never heard of.

'A guy I taught wind surfing with was into it and there"d be a couple of sticks and I just started mucking about, practising keepy-ups and it just went from there. I thought, "Hang on, I might quite like to try this."

'At that stage there wasn"t much for girls playing shinty beyond 12 but a few women"s teams were emerging and I was in the right place at the right time. I never looked back.

'I went to university that summer and the University of Strathclyde had an emerging girls team which a lot of the girls from Pighnabruaich joined. We set the team up properly and I played for Kyles Athletic for about a season and the university for a couple of years.

'Then, with the help of some of the boys we"d met playing at Strathclyde, we formed a women"s section and I started playing for Glasgow Mid Argyll in 2001, around the time I started the shinty at Aberdour.'

What she started was something of a sporting revolution since Aberdour Shinty Club now boasts around 60 kids, 30 adults and a national profile previously unheard of for an area so far removed from shinty"s traditional Highland heartland. As well as being its head coach, she continues to play for Glasgow Mid Argyll, who won the Women"s Camanachd Cup in October and just missed out on the league title. And she"s international co-ordinator for the sport"s governing body, the Women"s Camanachd Association.

It"s a hands-on role – she recently won her third cap for Scotland in the groundbreaking win in Ireland.

She accepts it"s a lot of commitment – 'My partner Ian hates the game, and you can probably understand why!' – but she"s sticking around, thrilled at the part she"s playing in the sport"s development.

'From the women"s and youth side of things, the sport is growing,' she stated.

'Our success in Ireland was a bit of a landmark for us in women"s shinty. I think it will be a real turning point in the game. Women"s shinty has only been around for the last six years but I can see involvement in the women"s game having a sharp increase on the back of this.

'Girls, particularly up north, are still fighting against attitudes that women shouldn"t be playing shinty. Things like that make me think, "I"m going to hang around".'

Reflecting on Scotland"s famous win she recalled, 'It was just incredible. Talking about it now, it"s still hard to believe we actually won.

'The Ireland girls had their centenary in 2004, so they"re nearly 95 years ahead of us in terms of development and skill. There"s a whole different culture that revolves around local clubs. The girls in our team have worked hard to get to the same level fitness-wise and skill-wise.

'Youth and women is a big part of why I am still involved in the development of it (shinty). It"s easy to stay involved in something that is moving forward.'