Auld n Grey Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 I've often wondered why nowadays there have been no teams from the Orkneys, Shetlands or the main Outer Hebrides entered into the Highland League set up. Surely there are centres of populations on these islands to sustain teams to play in the HFL. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmontheloknow Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 All three have dipped their toes in competition though, have they not? Certainly Orkney & Shetland and am I imagining a Lewis & Harris select? Cost and ease of travel will doubtless be a limitation. Orkeny are involved in North Caley and play games on mainland. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitburn Vale Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 All three have dipped their toes in competition though, have they not? Certainly Orkney & Shetland and am I imagining a Lewis & Harris select? Cost and ease of travel will doubtless be a limitation. Orkeny are involved in North Caley and play games on mainland. Aye Orkney play in the North Caledonian League and all it's cups,playing all their home games in Orkney. Shetland plus Lewis and Harris play in some of the North Caley's cup competition's but they have to play any home ties on the mainland. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 (edited) Orkney joined the North Caledonian League last season and almost won it. Not doing so well this season - winning all their home games and losing all their away games is an illustration of the travel factor. Shetland played in the North Challenge Cup in its last season. They beat Fort William and lost v Cove. Orkney, Shetland and Lewis & Harris have played in various North Caledonian cups for several years and done well. Sometimes even won them. Of course they've Island Games experience, too. EDIT: I forgot that Orkney were also invited into the North of Scotland Cup this season. Unfortunately they drew fellow invitees Halkirk - looking likely NCL champions - and lost on penalties after drawing. So they didn't meet HL opposition. Travel is always going to be the big challenge to Orkney joining HL - or Shetland or Lewis & Harris joining mainland football - particularly since SFA do not support island teams financially. It is SRU support which enables a variety of island teams to play in the main rugby pyramid (Orkney currently play in a nationwide division). There have also been a couple of bad - and avoidable - occurrences this season, which will not have helped things. Shetland arrived at Thurso only to find the pitch was waterlogged and no alternative park arranged. Halkirk were aboard a ferry to Orkney when news of a postponement arrived, albeit it may not have sailed, tbf. Edited March 21, 2016 by HibeeJibee 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongTimeLurker Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 On top of what has already been pointed out all three tend to play summer seasons in their local leagues because they get the full brunt of storms coming in off the Atlantic. I seriously doubt a full 30+ game league season could ever be played over the winter by an island select team but you have to wonder if club licensing opens the door to Scottish Cup entry. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waspie Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 (edited) The Lewis and Harris team are in the Jock Mackay Cup final against Golspie Sutherland this Saturday. They previously won the North Caley Cup in 2014. There are no plans to enter the North Caley League, however, with the cost and logistics obvious problems. I think they are currently pretty happy with the set up they have. Lewis Camanachd have done really well since entering the shinty league system in 2011. They have to make considerable sacrifices though, playing a block of away games initially until the ferry timetable changes to allow visiting teams to do a day trip. Lewis themselves put in a tremendous amount of travelling to be able to play in the league. The difference, of course, is that they have to do so to be able to get regular games. That isn't the case for footballers in Lewis and Harris where there is a thriving local league. Edited March 24, 2016 by Waspie 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lubo_blaha Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 I seriously doubt Shetland will ever play in a mainland league. Travel is obviously the main issue with the need to sail to either Aberdeen or Thurso via Orkney and even then, these routes are notorious for disruptions, particularly in winter. For Orkney, one away game takes up a day, for Shetland it would be a weekend. Cost is not so much of an issue as I believe the Shetland rugby team get reduced rates of around £20 return for the ferries to away games. The big difference is that the rugby team have often travelled down with around 10 players, having to rely on mainland-based islanders, favours from other clubs or just playing with less than 15 players. There would be a much bigger playing pool for football but there aren't the same leniencies in terms of registrations that exist in rugby and form would really suffer if the team was changing every week. Another key problem would be that a Shetland side would essentially be a league select team. I'm not sure how you would work around this if a big squad was needed but players also weren't allowed to play in the island league. Standard is definitely not an issue with Shetland recently holding their own against Highland League sides and performing well in the Island Games. They also won the Jock Mackay cup last season, only to pull out this season due to numerous call-offs which resulted in turning up at Thurso with no game to play. It's mainly time that is the issue and without a hell of a lot of leeway from the league/SFA (or significant private funding to enable the team to fly to games) it won't happen unfortunately. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 Bump. Unusual game tomorrow - Edinburgh United v Shetland at Dalkeith school. Shetland ex-pat mainlanders? "Islanders on tour"? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AsimButtHitsASix Posted February 23, 2022 Share Posted February 23, 2022 I was wondering if the Island Games were this year and it coulda been a warm up but that's not til next year 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted February 23, 2022 Share Posted February 23, 2022 Unfortunately game off for a waterlogged pitch. Perhaps in the circumstances would have been better to use an artificial surface. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranaldo Bairn Posted February 23, 2022 Share Posted February 23, 2022 Hell of a trip for a PP match for the Shelties! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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