England national shinty team


The English Shinty Team is the team selected to represent The English Shinty Association and the sport of shinty in England. It has competed at International level against the United States and Alba, and also competes in Scottish cup competitions at club level.

History

The English Shinty Team was formed along with the English Shinty Association in 2013 to represent the association in fixtures.
They took on the Shinty in [the United States|USA] in what was dubbed as the first ever Shinty International at St Andrews in 2013, winning 2–0.
Since then, The English Shinty Team have entered the Bullough Cup annually and played friendly matches when possible as noted below. To celebrate their 10th Anniversary and Tayforths 40th Anniversary, 20 May 2023 saw ESA's historic first "senior" home match v Tayforth in the second round of the Bullough Cup played at Greenford in London, preserving ESA's then unbeaten home record with a 1-0 win for ESA. ESA had been drawn at home just once before, beating Ballachuillish 4-2 at St Andrews in 2019 in their only other win at that point.
2024 saw ESA Women fail to progress on penalties in the WCA Challenge Cup first round and the "seniors" losing their 2 game 11 year "home" unbeaten run again the Bullough Cup eventual winners Lochside 8-1. A first shinty-hurling club international with European Champions Paris GAA saw ESA well beaten by the European Champions on St Andrews Day in Greenford, London.
2025 saw 3 ESA 6s teams enter the largest ever Jack Asher 6s tournament in Glasgow in January, with ESA progressing to the semi-finals. ESA enter the Chieftain's Cup for the first time as well as the Bullough and WCA Challenge Cups. Whilst the women narrowly lost out in the first round of the WCA Cup, the "Seniors" won both first round "home" ties against Tayforth- with a 3-1 win played at Peterson Park, Glasgow 12/4/2025 in the Cheiftains Cup and a tight 1-0 win played at St Andrews 20/4/2025 in the 1st Round of the Bullough Cup. Ballachuillish proved too much in the second round of the Chieftains, but a 7-1 win over Stirling Camanchdh- at "home" at Peterson Park May 24th, set-up another "home" clash with Lochside in the semi-final of the Bullough, where Lochside came away 7-2 winners.

Eligibility criteria

Players are generally considered eligible to play for the ESA team if they are registered with one of the shinty clubs based in England and not playing with any other club at the time. Most of the players are permanently resident in England, but there have been cases of players who have a historical link with England and are not registered with another club registering and joining the team for matches.

In popular culture

The song "When you hear the lions' roar" is an ode to the English Shinty Team and makes reference to the dying out of shinty in England and its replacement with hockey. It also makes reference to England's history and the difficulty some Scottish players have playing for the team.