IT WAS Billy Connolly who once suggested shinty should be Scotland’s national sport.

Its history in Glasgow goes all the way back to 1893, when Glasgow Cowal met Kingussie and helped shape the rules of the modern game.

Commentator and historian Hugh Dan McLennan, in an interview with our sister newspaper The Herald in 2017, explained that a whopping 17 teams, including Glasgow Mid Argyll, Glasgow Caledonian, Glasgow Camanachd and Glasgow Police, have all played out of the city.

Glasgow’s greatest day in the sport, however, was arguably in 1973, when Glasgow Mid Argyll beat Kingussie 4-2 in a match which pitched the mighty northern team against the city dwelling minnows.

In a colourful account of the occasion, sportswriter Stanley Shivas included the verdict of Lachie McDougall, a Maryhill police sergeant who was part of the winning team.

Apparently, Stanley had interviewed Sergeant McDougall at 3am, at the after-game festivities.

“This is not just a sport. It’s part of the whole fabric of life in the north. It’s just something you feel,” said Lachie, apparently none the worse for wear from the partying and the late hour.

The eloquent report ended: “Around 6am public celebrations tailed off. In hotel bedrooms and in houses around the town however, they were only getting their second wind as fresh parties got underway. When they celebrate Camanachd Cup wins in the north they make Hogmanay look like an exchange of dry sherries.”