Shinty

Inverness shinty club have taken the innovative step of making one of their most promising young players a full-time development coach responsible for nurturing the potential talent in the biggest single population catchment area of the Highlands.

David Glass, 20, an under-21 shinty/hurling internationalist, is the man charged with the responsibility of introducing the game to the town's primary schools and restoring the Inverness club to its former glories. It is almost half a century since they last won the Camanachd Cup, defeating Oban Celtic in Glasgow in 1952. With the modern game's spiritual home the Bught Park as his base, Glass could not ask for more prestigious surroundings in which to operate.

For many years, local schools have failed to produce a stream of talent, largely due to a shortage of expertise, and the inability of the Camanachd Association to fund and staff development officers. Inverness have as a result been reliant on the occasional player with natural talent nurtured by a former playing father, or players drawn to the area by employment.

The appointment of Glass, who recently applied for the North area development officer's job which was secured by Ronald Ross, is a hugely imaginative move and one which will leave other clubs envious in the extreme. Glass will tour local primary schools coaching and sowing seeds for what will hopefully be the reinvention of Inverness who play in north division one but have far greater ambitions.

Club spokesman Pettier Gow said: ''This is a huge decision for a club to take considering we are an amateur sport, but the atmosphere at our meeting this week was electric. We all felt that David was an outstanding candidate and given time, he will now be able to tap into the potential we have always felt existed. We will give him every support and we all know that the club stands to gain an enormous amount from this in the long term.''

Glass will have to convince schools of the benefits of his appointment, which should not be difficult in that the lack of coaching expertise, particularly with regard to safety, has long been a problem. Parents, too, have taken some convincing of safety aspects, but with this appointment, Inverness have given the game a major boost.

The scale of Glass' task is illustrated by the fact that Inverness do not qualify for today's senior cup action with Kingussie's first round tie against Skye in the Bank of Scotland Cup first round, the pick of the action in the north. In the south there are just two ties in the equivalent competition for the Celtic Society Cup, Ballachulish going to Kyles and Tayforth entertaining Glenorchy at Perth.