The Ba' Game - Season 2006-2007

'e Fox gets top Orkney award - 25/12/06

Legendary Orkney Badminton player, Stuart 'Fox' Slater wins the Christmas Ba'

THERE was a poignant moment at the end of the Christmas Day Men's Ba', won by the Uppies in just over three and a quarter hours, as players and supporters respected a minute's silence in memory of Ba' stalwart Brian Kemp, who passed away on Christmas Eve.

Uppie winner Stuart Slater, who won the ba' after a tussle with several other claimants, said it was a fitting tribute for such a dedicated Ba' player, Brian, who was 66, having won a men's ba' for the Uppies on New Year's Day 1974.

Stuart said he was delighted with his win, having put in a shout for the ba' on Christmas Day last year.

The game was well contested by the Doonies, with a fluid game on Broad Street seeing several downward surges, but the ba' never went below the cross.

Once the Ba' was into Victoria Street around 2.10pm, it was rarely delayed, the longest hold being in the drive of the garage at 21 Main Street, where the Doonies forced it into a corner at around 3.40pm.

The last-ditch Doonie tactic didn't come off though, and the game was out on the street 40 minutes later, and along to Mackinson's Corner by 4.05pm, eventually touched on the wall at 4.17pm, with 37-year-old Stuart, of 8 Quoybanks Place, Kirkwall declared the winner about six minutes later.

report and picture from Orkney Today website.

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