On saturday evening Klb Camanachd returned home tired but victorious as champions of the Minch Medal Tournament for the 2nd year running.  Leaving Klb on Thursday afternoon we made a stop to get our breakfast ingedients before getting the ferry from Ullapool across to Stornoway.  It was a bit of a rocky journey but the Coastguard doing a winching exercise off the back of the ferry proved to be a great distraction and source of excitment for everyone on board.  We stayed in the fantasic Heb Hostel again and it was as welcoming and cosy as it had been last year.  This is the best hostel we've stayed in on our many travels and we can't wait to go back next year.  On Friday morning we toured Lewis seeing all the historical areas of interest such as the Callanish Standing Stones, the Carloway Broch, Gearrannan Blackhouse Village, the Whale Bone Arch and Dall Mor beach.  It was a whirlwind morning but thoroughly enjoyable and interesting.  In the afternoon the players enjoyed some time in the swimming pool or on the climbing wall at the Sports Centre followed by some free time to look around the shops in Stornoway.  A large group spent the evening in the cinema and then it was an early night to get ready for the tournament on Saturday.  On Saturday morning we all woke excitred and nervous and ready for the matches ahead of us.  We played Uist first and they played some fantastic shinty.  Throughout the match they were strong in defence and stiffled our midfield and forwards with some brilliant cleeking.  Their forwards also had great shooting skills and we found ourselves down 2-1 at half time with Dodi scoring our goal.  In the 2nd half we had to come out stronger and more determined and really battle to get some goals and we got our next one through a 63 yard belter from Iain.  Dodi and Nathan then scored to make it 4-4 and we had to wait nervously until the end before Kyle scored his first and won the game for us.  It was an amazing nail-biting match to watch and Uist worked really well as a team  throughout the whole game.   In our 2nd game we played Lewis and we started off strongly despite being tired from the effort needed to overcome Uist.  The team worked well and by half time we were 4-0 up thanks to goals from Connor, Dodi and 2 from Oliver who also managed to take out the goals when he couldn't stop his run!  The 2nd half continued to be hard work but with some fantastic saves from Mark and huge goal hits from Iain it meant our forwards had plenty of chances to score and did so through Kyle and then Oliver to complete his hat trick.  Our last goal was an unfortunate own goal by one of the Lewis boys but the Lewis team continued to work hard until the end and kept the pressure on us.  After the matches had all finished organiser Ian praised the teams for the progress they had made since last year before handing out medals to the teams and Klb Camanachd got their 2nd gold medal from the Minch Medal Tournament.  Well done everyone, you all showed fantastic teamwork, skill and determination until the very end.  Lets go for 3 in a row next year!!!

The victorious team!

Mark videos the coastguard exercise on the ferry.