Within two days of starting my undergraduate degree at the University of St Andrews, I got in with the Shinty team - both male and female. My best friends were boys on the team, my soon-to-be academic mother and aunt and later also best friends were the team Captain and Social Organiser (or Chieftain). And it didn't take very long before I was playing, drinking and dressing up with both teams.
Now the interesting thing about the St Andrews shinty team is it has a formidable reputation. At some point over the last thirty years they have been kicked out of every pub and bar in St Andrews, their introductory rites were kept secret and greatly feared, and the girls' team in particular was considered by the uninformed to be made up of hulking slutty crazy she-beasts. How wrong they all were.
In the four years that I spent at St Andrews, and even in the time since I've left, some of the best experiences of my life have been either with Shinty girls or at Shinty events. And St Andrews Woman's Shinty has evolved into one of the most respected teams in Scotland, due mostly to the calibre of girls now joining the team. They're fun, hard-working and can draw a killer moustache.
It would be impossible to recount all my adventures with the shinty team but now and again, whenever the mood hits, I will regale you all with a story that I feel indicates how brilliant it is to have friends such as these people.
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