Kingussie | |
Full name | Kingussie Camanachd |
Gaelic name | Comann Camanachd Chinn a' Ghiuthsaich |
---|---|
Nickname | The Kings |
Founded | 1893 |
Ground | The Dell, Kingussie |
Manager | Dallas Young |
League | Premier Division |
2016 | 5th |
Reserve Manager | Norman Dickson |
League | North Division One |
2016 | 3rd |
Kingussie Camanachd is a shinty team from Kingussie, Scotland and according to the Guinness Book of Records 2005, is world sport's most successful sporting team of all time, winning 20 consecutive leagues and going 4 years unbeaten at one stage in the early 1990s. The club most recently won the Camanachd Cup in 2014, but was almost relegated in 2015, a final-day playoff victory against Kilmallie their salvation. The second team plays in North Division 1 and won the Sutherland Cup in 2011.
The club was founded in 1893. It won the first ever Camanachd Cup in 1896 and the club has won the cup more times than any other team, apart from Newtonmore. However, despite early success in the competition for much of the twentieth century the club struggled to win the trophy, with a victory in 1961 the club's first in forty years.
The senior team once held a 63-game unbeaten record and the junior team achieved 100 games unbeaten in the early 90s. That unprecedented domination of the sport led to them becoming the World's most successful sporting team. In 1991, the club was forced to play one season at Dunbarry, as the Dell was under repair.
Between 1996 and 2004, they only lost two games at the Dell. Both of these were against Newtonmore. Lochcarron became the first team to bring this run to an end when the beat them 7–4. All the more surprising as Kingussie had thrashed them 10–3 a couple of weeks previously.
In defeating Fort William in the 2003 Camanachd Cup final, Ronald Ross drove home the point about the club's total dominance of the sport, "Is there a team out there that can beat us? Well, I don't think so. We did not play all that well, but we destroyed them."
The Club's world record of domination in sport was finally brought to an end on 2 September 2006 when old rivals Newtonmore defeated Oban Camanachd. This meant that Kingussie could not catch the team at the top of the league.
Fort William won the league in 2006 but Kingussie gained a modicum of revenge by defeating Fort in the 2006 Camanachd Cup Final.
In 2007, they signed Fraser Inglis from Oban Camanachd who helped Kingussie regain the league again, the club also won the MacAulay Cup in 2007 against Inveraray.