Appeal for unwanted shinty sticks amid shortage of camans

The pandemic has disrupted production of camans

A call has gone out to former players to donate any unwanted shinty sticks to their local club due to a national shortage of camans.

The Camanachd Association, the sport's ruling body, says the lack of sticks has been caused by the pressures and uncertainty of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has resulted in production being extremely limited.

The sport was in abeyance for almost 18 months and, during that period, there were virtually no orders of camans from the handful of dedicated makers.

Since the league season began again in April, there has been a huge upsurge in demand for sticks but production has been unable to keep up with demand.

Aarron Macleod, of the Camanachd Association said, due to the downturn, caman makers concentrated on other work commitments.

"They spent full time doing joinery work or their usual business," he explained. "Then, when we returned to shinty in April, every club was looking for sticks and the demand has just proven too much at the moment.

"A lot of it is to do with the change in lifestyles as well. The price of hickory and the price of timber has gone up substantially, which obviously doesn't help encourage people to come back into making rather than doing their joinery."

'Caman making is officially an endangered craft'

The association are keen to avoid a similar situation in the future and are working on a business-led project with the University of the Highlands and Islands to determine the potential for caman makers to work in a co-operative to lower the costs.

Macleod hopes the project will determine "the true cost of making a caman is so they can be marketed and priced appropriately".

"Caman making is officially an endangered craft with only a handful of makers in the country," he added.

"For many caman makers the craft is simply not profitable enough and they are doing it for the love of the sport rather than a money making business.

"That's not really sustainable and that's not going to encourage us to get more people into caman making."