THE National’s shinty correspondent has been presented with the Mowi Media Award for 2019

Fraser Mackenzie was presented with the award at a ceremony in Inverness on Saturday for his “outstanding coverage given to shinty on a weekly basis” in the pages of The National.

He picked up the prize at the Camanachd Association Awards ceremony in the Kingsmills Hotel. He was presented with the award by Ian Roberts, the director of communications at fish farming giants Mowi Scotland, who sponsor the event.

Fraser, who first started filing shinty for the Sunday Herald in 1999, has contributed a regular column, entitled The Pick of the Sticks for The National since shortly after its launch in 2015. A former player with Glenurquhart, he also had a four-year spell doing the Saturday night shinty round-up on BBC Radio Scotland’s Sportsound, as well as being the writer of the popular shinty blog Keeping Out Of The D.

“I am delighted to receive this award obviously on a personal level, but more particularly because it recognises the commitment of editor Callum Baird and his team at The National in promoting Scotland’s indigenous sport,” said Fraser.

“Shinty is sometimes not given its rightful place in the pantheon of Scottish sport and though this is not true everywhere it struggles at times to be treated fairly particularly at school level where often it is not integrated formally into the PE curriculum even in traditional shinty areas.

“The presence of a regular shinty article in the National is widely welcomed in the shinty community and helps boost the profile of the sport throughout Scotland.”