As the Shinty Club recently celebrated its 130th anniversary, we spoke to Lauren from the Shinty Club to find out how they marked the occasion.

What have you done to mark your anniversary?

We particularly emphasised outreach for our alumni weekend which occurred in October.  We reached out to the Camanachd Association to help us advertise the event, particularly to improve contact with older graduates.  Due to the success of this event, we were particularly inspired to start out club archive this year and have received some fantastic submissions so far.

What have been the highlights so far?

I think receiving the copy of the 1978 Club Photo will always have a special place in our heart. It was our first submission and really inspired us to persevere with the club archive (plus I think the members definitely had some of the best haircuts out of any year we've looked at!).  We've also had some great submissions from the 1890s, which are very cool to compare to know over 100 years on and have managed to get some copies of match reports from 'The Student' in the 1980s!

Another highlight was our alumni ceilidh in October.  After a two-year break due to covid it was amazing to see a really big turnout.  Additionally, this year our Edinburgh University alumni team came second in our Three Sisters Tournament; it was great to see them return in top form.

How do you hope to involve alumni in the future?

Continuing to grow the club archive of course, however we'd also love to continue improving communication with our members after the leave university (as this is somewhere we have lacked in the club).  We've been considering initiatives such as regular alumni newsletters or establishing an alumni team to participate in some of the university sixes tournaments, so I'm excited to see what the incoming committee will do with this!

Where do you see the club in the future?

In the future we'd definitely like to increase links between Edinburgh University Shinty and local clubs in the area, particularly youth teams.  However, I'd be completely satisfied if the future of the club retained the spirit of what makes EUSC so special: an incredibly welcoming environment and a real sense of a shinty 'family'.