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diff --git a/28028-8.txt b/28028-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e30a710 --- /dev/null +++ b/28028-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6165 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Scottish Football Reminiscences and Sketches, by +David Drummond Bone + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Scottish Football Reminiscences and Sketches + +Author: David Drummond Bone + +Release Date: February 9, 2009 [EBook #28028] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SCOTTISH FOOTBALL REMINISCENCES *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Susan Skinner and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +book was produced from scanned images of public domain +material from Google Books.) + + + + + + + +RECOGNISED ATHLETIC WAREHOUSE + +ALEXANDER DUNCAN, Wholesale Jeweller + +GOLD AND SILVER BADGES. + +Holds the Largest Stock of Prize Specialities and Presentation Goods in +the City. + + +NEW DESIGNS IN BADGES. UNIQUE AND ARTISTIC. + +[Illustration] + +All Government Stamped. + + +AT WHOLESALE PRICES. + +FOOTBALL AND OTHER CLUBS + +Supplied at Prices considerably less than any other House in the Trade. + +Patronised by all the Leading Clubs throughout the country. + +Specimens and Prices Post Free on Application. In ordering say whether +Football or Golf Badges are wanted. + +Special Designs to Order. + + +Over 100 Cups always In Stock, 10s. to £30. + +Over 200 Gold and Silver Badges in Stock at Wholesale Prices. + +Compare with others. + +(One Stair Up.) 75 BUCHANAN STREET, GLASGOW. (One Stair Up.) + + * * * * * + +COMFORT FOR THE FEET. + +Corns and Bunions may be removed, and Enlarged Toe Joints reduced, by +using Thompson's French Corn Plaster. + + "It is as thin as silk, and comfortable to the foot. Since using + thin Plaster I can walk almost any distance." Lady Maude ----. + +Packets 1s. 1½d. each; post free, 14 stamps. + +ASK FOR THOMPSON'S PLASTER. --> AND SEE YOU GET IT. + +[Illustration] + + * * * * * + +"GOOD NEWS." + +Thousands of sufferers will welcome the "Good News" that NERVETONINE is +a positive, permanent, and safe cure for all nervous affections, nervous +exhaustion, nervous debility, mental depression, loss of memory, +sleeplessness, and weakness of all kinds. + +NERVETONINE will also cure indigestion, constipation, and piles. Nerve +pains, neuralgia, sciatica, lumbago, rheumatism, etc., instantly +relieved and permanently cured with NERVETONINE + +Bottles 1/9, 2/9 and 4/9, post free, from _Sole Proprietor_, + +M. F. THOMPSON, Chemist, +17 GORDON STREET, GLASGOW. +97 PRINCES STREET, EDINBURGH. + +CAUTION. Each Genuine Bottle of NERVETONINE has M. F. THOMPSON'S name on +label. + +Sponges, Bath Gloves, Friction Gloves, Flesh Brushes, Tooth, Nail, and +Hair Brushes, and every Toilet Requisite at the above address. + +The Trainer of the Rangers Football Team writes: + + "SIR,--I use HERBULINE extensively, and find it of great value. I + have never been disappointed in my results from using it. It is + superior to any preparation I have hitherto tried, and I strongly + advise those in want of a safe, reliable liniment to give it a + trial.--I am, yours respectfully, + + "IBROX, _February 6th, 1890_. JOHN TAYLOR." + +Neuralgia and Tic cured by HERBULINE in 20 Minutes. +Lumbago " " " 24 Hours. +Toothache " " " Momentary. +Cold Feet " " " 5 Minutes. +Rheumatism " " " 24 Hours. + +HERBULINE is superior to Mustard for Poulticing. Salient points--clean, +easily applied, a more endurable heat. No liability to chill after +using. It is a wonder to those who use it, and never disappoints in its +results. + +_Of Chemists and Patent Medicine Vendors_-- + +Price 1s. 1½d. Net. If Posted, 3d. Extra. + +The HERBULINE Manufacturing Coy., +67 RENFIELD STREET. + + * * * * * + +WATERPROOFS. + +Gentlemen's Coats in all the Newest Styles and Patterns. Inverness +Capes, Sleeveless Coats, etc. Waterproofs for Tourists, Cyclists, etc. + +[Illustration] + +Travelling Requisites. + Fishing Requisites. + Shooting Requisites. + +LAWN TENNIS, Cricket, Footballs, Shin-Guards, etc. + +_Lists on Application._ _Prices strictly moderate._ + +NORTH BRITISH RUBBER Co., Ltd., +106 BUCHANAN STREET, +Glasgow. + +Works: Castle Mills, Edinburgh. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration] + +ASK FOR + +Henry + +Thomson + +& Co.'s + +OLD + +IRISH + +WHISKY. + +AS SUPPLIED TO +H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES, +H.R.H. THE DUKE OF CONNAUGHT, +AND THE +HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT. + + +SOLE AGENT FOR SCOTLAND-- +ROBERT BROWN, 17 Hope St., GLASGOW. + + * * * * * + +THOMAS COOK & SON, + +GENERAL RAILWAY AND STEAMSHIP + +PASSENGER TICKET OFFICE, + +FOREIGN MONEY CHANGERS, &c., + +(Tickets for Personally-conducted Parties and Independent +Travel issued to all parts of the World). + +162 ARGYLE STREET, + +GLASGOW. + + * * * * * + +ALLAN & STEWART, + +163 & 165 ARGYLE STREET. + +OUR SPECIALTIES IN GENTLEMEN'S OUTFITTING DEPARTMENT +ARE-- + +HAWICK MADE HOSIERY, + +IN ALL WEIGHTS AND SIZES, + +GENT.'S KNICKERBOCKER HOSE, GENT.'S WHITE +and FANCY SHIRTS, and + +OUR FAMOUS SERGE CLOTHING. + + +CORNER OF ST. ENOCH SQUARE, +GLASGOW. + + * * * * * + +THE EMPORIUM + +For Portmanteaus, Bags, Trunks, and all kinds of Travelling +Requisites. Lawn Tennis, Cricket, Football. + +[Illustration] + +GLADSTONE BAGS, warranted Cowhide, 16", 13/4; 18", 15/; +20", 16/8; 22", 18/4; 24", 20/. + +SADDLERY, HARNESS, HORSE CLOTHING. +FOREIGN SADDLERY A Speciality, +Highland Dress Sporrans, Dirks, Skene Dhus, Brooches, etc. + +PRICE LISTS ON APPLICATION. + +LECKIE, GRAHAM & CO., 116 Union St., Glasgow. + + * * * * * + +IMPORTANT TO CLUB OFFICIALS AND PLAYERS. + + +GEORGE BELL, + +PHOTOGRAPHER, + +57 ARGYLE STREET, + +GLASGOW. + + +Every description of Portrait and Group Work executed in +the best style, and on the shortest notice. + + +Copies of the 3rd Lanark and Renton (record) teams can be had +on application. Price, 3s. plain; 3s. 6d. enamelled. + + +NOTE THE ADDRESS-- +57 ARGYLE STREET. + + * * * * * + +H. & P. M'NEIL + +CRICKET AND LAWN-TENNIS. + +Shirts, White, 3/6, 4/6, 5/6, 7/6, and 10/6 each. +Shirts, White, Laced Fronts, 5/6, 7/6, and 10/6. +Shirts, Silk Stripes, 8/6 and 10/6 each. +Trousers, White Serge, 7/6, 10/6 and 12/6. +Caps, Velvet and Flannel, 6d., 9d., 1/, 1/6, and 2/. +Belts, all Colours, 6d., 9d., 1/, and 1/6. +Racing Knickers, 2/, 2/5, 3/6, 4/6, and 6/6. +Racing Shirts, 1/, 1/6, 2/, 2/6, and 3/6. +Racing Shoes, 7/6 and 9/6. +Flesh Gloves, Lawrence's, 5/ per pair. +Boxing Gloves, 7/6, 8/6, and 10/ per set. +Swimming Pants and Costumes. + +SEND FOR PRICE LISTS. + + * * * * * + +FOOTBALL. + +Celebrated Footballs, Buttons and Buttonless, +Guaranteed best Cow-Hide, 16/6 each. +Free. +M'Neil's Celebrated Footballs, 8/6 each. +M'Neil's Match Footballs, 7/6 each. +M'Neil's Practice Footballs, 6/6 each. +Boys' 1, 1/11; 2, 2/11; 3, 3/11; 4, 4/11. +Knickers, White, 1/6, 2/, 2/6, 3/6, and 4/6. +Knickers, Blue, 2/6, 3/6, and 4/6. +Shin Guards, 1/, 1/6, 2/, 2/6, and 3/6. +Football Boots, 8/6, 10/6, and 12/6. +Football Bags, 4/6, 5/6, 6/6, and 7/6. +Jerseys, all Colours, 1/, 1/6, 1/11, 3/6, and 4/6. + +SEND FOR SAMPLES. + +91 UNION STREET, GLASGOW (Opposite "Mail" Office). + + * * * * * + +FOOTBALL SPECTATORS + +Should wear nothing in STYLISH HATS + +BUT THE + +PURE FUR FELTS, + +which never CRACK OR BREAK, no matter how many times they are taken off +to assist the Cheering when + +A GOAL IS SCORED. + +Sold at 4s. 6d., 5s. 6d., and 6s. 6d. + +They are admitted to be the best Value ever offered to the Public. + +THOMAS STEWART, +THE POPULAR CITY HATTER. +71 ARGYLE STREET (Near Dunlop Street). +Sign of the Clock Hat. +Branches--73 TRONGATE (Tron Steeple), and at +Temporary Premises, 134 NORFOLK STREET. + + * * * * * + + + + +SCOTTISH FOOTBALL REMINISCENCES + +AND + +SKETCHES. + +BY D. D. BONE + +_GLASGOW._ + +GLASGOW: +JOHN MENZIES & CO., 15 DRURY STREET. +HAY NISBET & CO., 25 JAMAICA STREET. +EDINBURGH: JOHN MENZIES & CO., HANOVER STREET. +1890. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration] + +Union Billiard Rooms, + +42 ARGYLE STREET, + +GLASGOW. + + * * * * * + +LARGEST BILLIARD ROOM IN THE KINGDOM. + +20 Full-Sized Billiard Tables. 1s. per Hour. + +POOL EVERY EVENING + + * * * * * + +Handicaps. + +During the season, Handicaps, open only to frequenters of the Rooms, +will be held, and Handsome Prizes in Cash will be given. NO ENTRY-MONEY. + + * * * * * + +Football Rendezvous. + +Results of all important matches received by telegram. Secretaries of +Clubs are invited to forward these. + + * * * * * + + + + +PREFACE. + + +In bringing my first edition of Football Reminiscences and Sketches +before the public, I do so with a sense of profound regard for the game +and its players, and heartfelt gratitude to numerous friends--some of +whom, alas! are no more--for advice and assistance. If my readers +consider it worthy of one who has devoted a quarter of a century in +attaining that experience necessary to criticise the players of the dead +past and those of the living present with fidelity, I will have gained +something to be remembered, and be amply repaid for what I have done to +assist the spread of the Association game in Scotland. Many of my +sketches, under different names, have already appeared in various +journals, including the _Daily_ and _Weekly Mail_, _Bell's Life in +London_, and the "Scottish Football Annual," but I have remodelled some +of them very considerably, and indulge in the hope that they may while +away an hour or so at the fireside of the Player and Spectator after a +big Cup Tie or other interesting match. + +THE AUTHOR. + + + * * * * * + +WATERPROOFS. + +CAOUTCHOUC. + +[Illustration: THOROUGHLY WATERPROOF] + +_We are Noted for_ +Superior Quality, +Moderate Prices, +Unrivalled Selection. +Every Garment Guaranteed. + +CURRIE, THOMSON & CO., +(LATE THORNTON, CURRIE. & CO.). +43} JAMAICA STREET, {43 +45} {45 +47} GLASGOW. {47 +No. 56. | BUCHANAN STREET BRANCH | NO 56. +LADIES' SALOON. (Opposite _Herald_ Office,) + + * * * * * + +TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS--"MOSES," GLASGOW. + +The old-established Booking +Office for Tourists, Travellers, & Emigrants. + +Through tickets issued to all parts of the +World, by best Lines and at Lowest Rates. + +AGENCY for "Guion," "National," "Cunard," "White Star," "American," +"Inman," "Dominion," "Anchor," "Allan" Liners, etc., for the United +States and Canada at special low rates; also, "Currie," "Orient," and +other Lines, for South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, India, and South +America. + +Through Railway Tickets issued at reduced fares to the principal Cities +and Towns in Canada and the United States. Free Land Warrants of £20 +value granted to Queensland passengers. + +List of Sailings, Dates, Fares, and all Particulars on application to + +MOSES BUCHANAN, +62 BUCHANAN ST., GLASGOW. + + * * * * * + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + + I.--FOOTBALL: ANCIENT AND MODERN, 17 + + II.--THE FOOTBALL WAVE, 20 + + III.--A "SWEEP FOR THE CUP;" OR, HOW PATE BROWN KEPT HIS ENGAGEMENT, 21 + + IV.--FAMOUS ASSOCIATION PLAYERS--PAST AND PRESENT, 26 + + V.--THE PIONEERS OF ASSOCIATION FOOTBALL IN SCOTLAND; + OR, "THE CONQUEROR'S FOOTBALL BOOTS," 63 + + VI.--HOW CLUBS WERE STARTED LONG AGO, 71 + + VII.--THE GREAT INTERNATIONAL; OR, NED DUNCAN'S DREAM, 73 + +VIII.--THE PATRONS, SPECTATORS, AND POPULAR PLAYERS, 79 + + IX.--A DREAM OF THE PAST, 82 + + X.--THE DUEL NEAR THE FOOTBALL FIELD, 86 + + XI.--THE FINAL TIE FOR THE ASSOCIATION CHALLENGE CUP--1889-90, 93 + + + * * * * * + +AERATED WATERS + +(CORRY & CO.'S). + + +Medal--PARIS, 1878. + +Gold Medals--LONDON, 1873; PARIS, 1875. +Medals and Diplomas-- +PHILADELPHIA and BRUSSELS, 1876. + +[Illustration] + +Since offering to the Public in 1850 these delicious and unrivalled +Aerated Beverages, the sole and lasting aim to which Messrs. CORRY & CO. +have directed all their efforts has been, not to force sales by +venturesome and questionable efforts, but by the real fact of the +superiority of the Beverages they offer to merit universal patronage. +Judging from the world-wide favour, which they find yearly increasing, +and the unprecedented success which has attended their efforts at all +the Universal Exhibitions, or wherever they have competed, this aim (so +far attained, and which their experience has proved to be a fundamental +principle of success) will be steadily pursued. Since 1850 many mere +imitators have come and gone, and many still remain; but the Public are +requested to insist on having CORRY'S Waters, not imitations. + +To be had at all the First-class Hotels, Restaurants, and from Family +Grocers, Wine Merchants, Chemists, also on board all First-class River +and Ocean-going Steamers, etc., etc. + + +JOHN MERCER & CO., +16 ANN STREET, GLASGOW, +AGENTS FOR SCOTLAND. + + * * * * * + +WALLACE, + +The ONLY LARGE MAKER of SAUSAGES in Glasgow who has always used First +Quality only of Beef and Pork. Certified, but NOT by Dr. CLARK, City +Analyst. + +NOTE ADDRESSES-- +273 ARGYLE STREET, 19 BRIDGE STREET, +19 WELLINGTON ARCADE, 123 CROWN STREET, +And 77 PAISLEY ROAD (West). + +ESTABLISHED 1843. + + +JOHN WALLACE, +(Late THOMAS BARR), +PROVISION MERCHANT, +271 ARGYLE STREET. +ESTABLISHED 1835. + + * * * * * + +Telegraphic Address--"Football," Glasgow. +Connected by Telephone. + + +GEORGE GILLESPIE, + +WINE AND SPIRIT MERCHANT, + +170 Dumbarton Road, + +242 Berkeley St., and 9 Stobcross St., + +GLASGOW. + + * * * * * + +BROWN BROS., + +New Central Hat Warehouse, + +195 ARGYLE STREET + +(A FEW DOORS EAST OF JAMAICA STREET), ONE STAIR UP. + + +FELT HATS, + +The very Latest Shapes and Shades to +suit Gents., Youths, and Boys. + +Prices, 3/6, 4/6, 5/6, 6/6, and 7/6 + +SILK HATS, + +Newest London and Paris Shapes, + +8/6, 10/6, 12/6, 15/6, and 18/6 + + +Also at 25 MAIN STREET, +ANDERSTON CROSS, GLASGOW. + + * * * * * + + + + +FOOTBALL REMINISCENCES. + + + + +_I.--FOOTBALL: ANCIENT AND MODERN._ + + "Then strip, lads and to it, though cold be the weather, + And if, by mischance you should happen to fall, + There are worse things in life than a tumble on heather, + For life is itself but a game at Football." + --_Sir Walter Scott._ + + +In Scotland, so closely associated with traditional lore, and the +acknowledged birth-place of romance and patriotic song, it would be +almost dangerous to incur displeasure by attempting to refer to the +early history of anything associated with the amusements or recreations +of the people, without actually touching on tradition--a point held by +some in far greater regard and reverence than actual fact. Under these +circumstances, then, I do not want to run the risk of complete +annihilation by ignoring the traditional, and even territorial, aspect +of Football. That the game was played as early as the tenth century +there is any amount of authentic evidence to show, and that it continued +to be one of the chief recreations of the people there can be no doubt. +Coming much further down, however, the game of Football is referred to, +both by historical and romance writers. In Sir Walter Scott's "Lay of +the Last Minstrel," we find that the English and Scotch soldiers, in a +few hours' actual cessation from skirmishing on the eve of a battle, +engaged in "the merry Football play." Our forefathers, however, must +have played the game in rather a rude and undignified fashion, if we can +believe certain authorities--actual brute force and superiority in point +of weight being the indispensable concomitants of a successful side. The +matches, too, must have been played utterly regardless of science. Just +fancy a couple of crack teams meeting on a heather-covered field, with +the "hailing spots" about a mile and a-half apart, and playing a match +lasting four or five hours! Could any of our young men nowadays stand +such rough-and-tumble work? Happily it is not required. It has been +found that a match lasting an hour and a-half, with the ball ever and +anon passing in front of one on a level field, is quite enough, even for +the strongest back, half-back, or forward. Experience has sufficiently +proved that, even in this age of scientific play. So much for the past, +and I will proceed to touch briefly on the spread and popularity of +football. + +To those who only know football as promoted by the Queen's Park, and +subsequently by the Vale of Leven, Clydesdale, Granville (now defunct), +3rd L.R.V, and lastly, though not leastly, by the Scottish Football +Association, we are almost compelled to offer some information. A +quarter of a century ago a Union was formed in Edinburgh to draw up a +code of rules to encourage the game of Football, and matches were played +between schools and other clubs. These rules were a combination of the +present Association and Rugby, dribbling being largely indulged in, but +the goal-posts were similar to those now in use under the latter code of +rules, and a goal could not be scored unless the ball went over the +posts. This game made considerable progress in Edinburgh, being +vigorously promoted by scholastic clubs and students attending college. +Some years later, when the number of young gentlemen sent over from +England to be educated in Scotland, particularly Edinburgh, began to +increase, these old rules were subjected to considerable alteration, and +eventually assimilated to those of the English Rugby Union, and all the +known clubs in Scotland at that time adhered tenaciously to these rules, +and under them many exciting games were played between Eastern and +Western clubs, the Glasgow Academicals and Edinburgh Academicals being +the leading ones. Eventually, however, the new clubs springing into +existence in the Western District of the country did not care to play +these rules, and, following the example of similar clubs in England, +adhered to what they considered an improvement on the old system of +Football, and joined the English Football Association, formed in 1863. +The first to do this was the Queen's Park, the mother of Association +Football in Scotland, in 1867, and the example was soon followed by the +Clydesdale, 3rd L.R.V., Vale of Leven, Granville, and others, a few +years afterwards. Well can I remember witnessing several exciting +tussles on the Queen's Park recreation ground (then the only +meeting-place of the Premier Association Club), between the Vale of +Leven, Hamilton, East Kilbride, Clydesdale, Granville, and 3rd L.R.V. +Since then the spread and popularity of the Association style of play +has been so often written about that it is, so to speak, bound up in the +actual history of the Western District of Scotland. In Edinburgh, +however, the new rules have not made so much headway, the Rugby code +being there as extensively played as of yore. Some advances, however, +have taken place, and the Edinburgh University has an Association team, +and that city several promising clubs, including the Hibernian, Heart of +Midlothian, and St. Bernard, and, in Leith, the Athletic, that made such +a plucky fight with the Queen's Park in a recent cup tie. + +No one, except a close observer, can believe the earnestness and +enthusiasm imparted into the game by the formation of young clubs, but +there is one danger which should be avoided. There is such a thing as +overdoing; and, depend upon it, if this is continued, the game will +suffer. To those who love and appreciate everything in season, the +advice I am about to impart will be doubly significant. Football is a +winter game, and while it may be all right to practice in spring and +autumn, the line is bound to be drawn somewhere, and why attempt to +force it down the throats of cricketers, athletes, yachtsmen, and even +lawn-tennis players, in the heart of summer? It must not be forgotten +that some of our best and most influential football clubs have also +cricket clubs and kindred summer recreations attached, and, in the +interests of football, these should be encouraged; and to this end I am +confident my remarks will be treated with some respect. I am also sure +that no one who has taken a deep interest in the game from its +comparative infancy, but can look back with extreme pleasure on its +development, and even go the length of registering a vow that he will do +his utmost to make and uphold it as an honest and manly game, despite +isolated assumptions by a few traducers who question such earnestness, +and I will endeavour to point them out, and draw comparisons. + +"What came ye out to see?" might often be asked by an uninterested +spectator who had ventured forth to look at some of the matches. A crowd +of young men pursuing a round object, called a ball, with great +earnestness of purpose. To the young cad, who can think of nothing but +the colour of his latest pair of kid gloves, or the check of his newest +acquisition in the shape of fashionable trousers, all out-door amusement +is considered an interminable bore, the game of Football has, of course, +no charm. There is too much hard work for him, and the training required +to put one in condition, fraught with all that is called self-denial, he +could never endure. The musty old duffer, too, looks upon the game in +the light of a deadly sin, which can never be associated in his mind +with anything short of idiocy and the most virulent fanaticism. To some +of his young men he remarks--"And you call that a grand game, running +about a field trying to put a ball near a pair of upright posts, and +knocking the first lad down who attempts to retard your progress! Do you +call that manly, eh? Would anyone but a pure lunatic run the chance of +getting his shins cut, or collar-bone dislocated, indulging in such +work, and donning coloured stockings and fantastic shirt the while to +make the matter all the more absurd!" He seems to forget that "all work +and no play makes Jack a dull boy," and the real meaning of a dull boy +and a dull man is irregularity and vexation in the counting-house and +office. There are amusements and amusements, and recreations and +recreations, but I know of none adapted for the winter months which can +be so cheaply indulged in, with so much profit to health, as Football. +Accidents do happen occasionally, I admit, but they are exceedingly few +when the number of young men engaged in the game is taken into account, +combined with the fact that, last year, some of the leading Association +matches were played much more roughly than in previous years, it is an +astonishing fact that no fatal accident occurred in Scotland. There are, +of course, many, if the whole truth must be written, whom the exciting +and manly game has failed to touch by its magic and fascinating +influence, but they should not be courted, and fortunately their +patronage is neither sought nor needed, for they are the men most to be +avoided on a wintry Saturday afternoon while one is on his way to see an +exciting "cup tie." Depend upon it, they will allure you to some haunt +where the language is not even so choice as where the "final" is being +played between two leading clubs. + +I am fully convinced that when the game was first improved and adapted +to stand side by side with others requiring both pluck and skill, the +thought never entered the heads of its promoters that some of the laws +might be abused, not used. Unfortunately, such is too true, and the +sooner these things are discouraged the better. The old precept about +warriors feeling a stern joy when they knew they were opposed to foemen +worthy of their steel, should never be forgotten by the biggest back, +half-back, or the smallest forward. To put it in another way, +gentlemanly conduct towards an opponent in the field is pleasing to see, +and, indeed, civility is worth much, and costs nothing--only a small +effort of self-denial. In this enlightened age, the nation who crows too +much over a vanquished foe is naturally detested, and why should not +this spirit regulate the game of Football? If this were carefully +remembered during the season, there would undoubtedly be such a close +bond of fellowship and good feeling amongst Football players that +nothing could disturb. + +And again, I cannot allow the present opportunity to pass without +protesting against a practice, now, unfortunately, too largely followed +by a section of the spectators who turn out to all the big events--viz., +betting. About as long as I can remember, and it may be before +Football, perhaps, was played, many an honest wager was made by the +leaders in all out-door sports that they would be the victors, but the +practice, I have been assured, never went further. Now it is quite a +common thing to see cash dancing about a ring of spectators at a big +match, and often the loss of cash to certain individuals means a +proportionate loss of temper, and the practice is all the more to be +deplored. It is for this end, it is for this avowed purpose, that one +and all connected with its development and culture, will strive to their +utmost to ennoble and raise Football to a higher and purer level, and +consequently discourage, by every legitimate means, betting in all its +phases, and the slightest tendencies amongst the players who take part +in the various matches towards rough play, and a disposition to indulge +in unnecessary charging. + + + + +_II.--THE FOOTBALL WAVE._ + + +Like Dogberry's idea of certain kinds of novel writing, both Association +and Rugby Football seem to come to the Scotchmen by nature. My readers +can, perhaps, easily remember the clever _jeu d'esprit_ on the antiquity +of the Gaelic tongue which appeared several years ago advocating the +claims of that race as lisping the first "speech" heard in Eden in a +manner that must have stirred the blood of Professor Blackie. As the +history of Association Football, with which I have only to deal under +the present circumstances, is so well-known and a thing of yesterday, +its origin, like that of the Gaelic language, is not shrouded in +mystery, but actually known (or should be known) to all who take an +interest in the game. In my previous article, I tried to trace the +origin of football in its rudest form as played by our forefathers, when +goal-posts and bars, to say nothing of corner-flags, were unknown. +Football now, however, has been reduced to something like a scientific +game, and to the credit of England be it said, the Association Rules +there first saw the light. Scotch players in the Western District soon +emulated their Southern brethren, and from the Parent Club, which had a +humble and unassuming origin on the recreation ground at Queen's Park, +sprang hundreds of clubs, spreading over the length and breadth of the +land with remarkable rapidity. The wave soon rolled all over Glasgow and +suburbs, submerged the whole country, and eventually invaded the Heart +of Midlothian itself, where the Rugby code had hitherto reigned supreme. +The schoolboys who played cricket and rounders in the summertime came +out on a wintry afternoon to see their seniors engaged in Association +football, and soon felt the desire creep over them to be members of a +club containing lads like themselves. The young men engaged in the city +all day thought on the health-imparting exercise it afforded, and had +the necessary funds raised to form a club. The artisans, too, from the +dusky foundry, the engineer shop, and the factory, soon began to dribble +about. The young ones, and even the seniors themselves, had many a +collision with mother earth ere they could rely on keeping their pins +with any degree of accuracy, and it was rare fun to see a bearded man +turning a somersault as he missed the ball in trying to make a big +kick. Football is easily acquired in so far as the rudimentary part is +concerned, but a great deal of probation is required to convert one into +a crack player. Among those who now practice football, and their name is +legion, the superior players can be numbered in (to give it a wide +scope) hundreds. In fact, to be able to master all the details requisite +to win a first-class match, one has to be capable of dribbling, +middling, heading, and passing in a way that would do credit to solving +a complicated problem in Euclid. It is all very well to talk about brute +force and lasting power, but unless these are accompanied by scientific +application, they are worth little, and cost much. "The race is not +always to the swift," says the old proverb. In at least eight cases out +of ten, the match is to the scientific and careful, but of this more +anon. There is one thing that can be said about football which in the +nature of things must recommend it to all lovers of out-door exercise. +Of late years bicycling has obtained a great deal of popularity all over +the three kingdoms, both for its usefulness as a speedy means of +conveyance, and exercise to the limbs, but that it has its drawbacks has +just been made apparent by undisputed medical authority. "The bicycle +back," the effect of hard work on the "iron horse," is beginning to +appear on the handsome young man who thinks nothing of doing his 50 +miles a day, and while walking occasionally with the young lady with the +"Grecian bend," the contrast in his case is amusing. To say that there +are no dangers of any kind attached to football would be making an +assertion which I cannot substantiate, but these are comparatively few. +All sports, of whatever kind, have the elements of danger attached to +their pursuit, but, with great care, these can be reduced to a minimum. +Although I have certainly never observed the round-shoulders of the +bicyclist in the football player, I have not unfrequently seen the +"football leg." That is a series of cuts about the shin bone, +administered by a vicious opponent while (as it generally happens) +playing a "cup tie," and last season they were more plentiful than ever. +In fact, I heard from the lips of a member of one of the crack clubs +that in not a few of the ties they retired from the field "greatly +impressed with the unmistakable signs of muscular ability shown by their +opponents." This means most undoubtedly hacking and tripping, under the +guise of tackling, and if Association football is to go on and prosper +such disgraceful acts of tyranny on the football field must forever +cease. These "accidents" can, of course, be avoided, and as there are +distinct rules forbidding them, clubs would do well to see that these +are rigidly enforced. + + + + +_III.--A "SWEEP FOR THE CUP;"_ + +OR, + +_HOW PATE BROWN KEPT HIS ENGAGEMENT._ + + +"What do you say, old fellow, about a 'Sweep for the Cup.' Why, a 'sov.' +is nothing to the like of you, and there will be such fun at the +lifting." This was said to me one morning about nine, just as I was +preparing to get my shaving utensils into working order before turning +out to the warehouse. Pate Brown used to make fun of me about my scanty +hirsute appendages, and many a time caused me to blush before sundry +members of the Druids when he emphatically declared that I was one of +those effeminate individuals who shaved, not because they had whiskers, +but because they hadn't. This was in September, and a more open year for +the respective chances of the clubs in the Cup had, perhaps, never come +round. + +I was unattached then. I was, in fact, neither a member of the Druids +nor the Nomads, but simply a friend of both, and an enthusiastic admirer +of the game. My big brother Angus, it is true, was one of the best men +in the Conquerors, and he and I sometimes had animated discussions about +the respective merits of the clubs. "Why, Jack, this is only September, +it will be more sensible for us to postpone the affair till after the +preliminary ties. A lot of chaps to whom I have spoken consider it next +to nonsense to draw the 'sweep' so soon." + +After a great deal of talking and another meeting, it was agreed to go +right ahead with the "sweep," and accordingly the necessary arrangements +were duly made, and subscribers' names taken, as well as their cash. + +The warehouse of Ball & Field was the largest in the whole city. Their +trade connection extended to every known country on the face of the +globe. There was a decided charm about the way in which the firm did +business, and the kindly, not to say considerate manner, in which they +treated employés, who really deserved it. The two leading members of the +firm, in fact, were not insignificant prototypes of Dickens' Cheeryble +Brothers (with the exception that they were both married). I verily +believe that in an hour's notice a couple of excellent teams could have +been picked from the house to make a decent match of it anywhere. + +The senior himself was an enthusiastic admirer of the game, and one way +or another did much to encourage it by his presence on the field at all +the big matches, and if any of the lads, such as myself, Brown, Rose, +Wilson, or M'Nab wanted away to play in a big affair, a hint reaching +the governor's ears to that effect was amply sufficient. The manager, +however, was of a different sort, he hated football like poison. He even +relegated the grand game to a pastime suitable for pure and +unadulterated lunatics, those, as he put it, "who were too daft to get +into Gartnavel." Fancy that! Woe betide the unfortunate half-back or +forward, who in a weak moment relied on the magnanimity of "Sour Plums," +as he was called, to let him off to a match, without first consulting +the governor himself. Sometimes M'Nab forgot to do so, and as his club +were frequently in great straits to get him to play, he had to steep his +brains to think on a strategic movement to get free, and succeeded; but +sometimes with the aid of a "crammer." + +Brown, for reasons best known to himself, but which will duly come out +as my story advances, was very anxious to be at the "draw," and +accordingly duly appeared at the Marie Stuart Hall, Crosshill. There +were a lot of pale faces in the room when Pate drew the Queen's Park, +Dick Wallace the "Vale," Bill Weldon, Dumbarton, and Sandy M'Bean the +Rangers. A rosy-cheeked, country-looking lad belonging to the Q.P. drew +Cowlairs, and a general titter ran through the august assembly when that +same lad remarked, "he was quite satisfied with his draw, the other +crack clubs notwithstanding." Tom Vincent got Kilmarnock Athletic, Alf. +Grant the Clyde, Blower Fleming drew the Heart of Midlothian, and Bill +Fairfield the Hibernian. I was unlucky enough to secure one of the many +insignificant clubs who never survived the first round, and so my "sov." +was a dead letter. + +The entire "sweep" came to a fine round sum, as the subscribers included +a good many of the rank and file of football enthusiasts, and even two +"football-daft" members of the upper strata of the Glasgow Police Force, +and three of the Fire Brigade, went the length of taking a couple of +tickets. There was also Luke Wood, the representative of the "Kick-off," +who knew a thing or two about the game. He was in for a pair of tickets, +too, and drew the Invincible and Morning Star. He was thoroughly +disgusted at the prospect (more particularly as he had been one of the +leading hands in getting up the "sweep"); but, as the Yankees say, he +gradually "cooled himself down," and got thoroughly reconciled to his +loss. + +The Cowlairs had to play the Queen's Park in one of the ties, and a +determined tussle it turned out to be. The "boys" bore a wild look that +afternoon as they emerged from the pavilion at Hampden Park. You could +read the anxious and determined character of their mission on every +face. They had fully made up their minds to fight hard for the Cup, and +really they did. Several of the team were big powerful fellows whom not +a few cautious half-backs would think twice before "going for," and two +of the forwards were very smart on their pins, but wanted that true +mastery of the art of passing and dribbling at the proper time which +make up the refined and superior Association player. As for endurance, +they did not toil among iron wheels, steel axles, and brass fittings for +locomotives, to say nothing of generating steam on the shortest notice, +without being "hardy." No, no. They were in the best of condition for +the game. The Queen's took them too cheaply, and nearly paid a lasting +penalty for their carelessness. The game, in fact, was so closely fought +that the teams were unable to overcome one another, and two goals each +was the result. Meeting a second time, however, the Q.P. made short work +of them, and won by nine goals to none. + +The evening before the memorable tussle which put the half of +Dumbartonshire into a state of excitement, bordering on the football +fever, "Mary, the Maid of the Football Inn," came to the door of the +little hotel repeatedly, and after casting sundry glances at the roadway +and scanning the passers-by, muttered something about being jilted, and +how shamefully she had been used by Bob. Her own Bob, who was always so +punctual, and occasionally treated her to a nice walk along the Leven, +past Ewing's big work, and even went the length of composing verses in +her honour. + +"What had become of him? Had Nancy Pringle waylaid him, as she +positively swore she would do, on the first opportunity, and start the +probationary stages of a drama in real life?" The fact was Bob never +came, and no wonder. He was collared by the Dumbarton captain, and +carried off to the field to practice for the great fight of the next +day, under pains and penalties. He pleaded for Mary, but it was of no +avail. "He had," he went on to remonstrate, "promised on his word of +honour to meet her that evening and take her to Luckie M'Latchie's +booking." Luckie and Tam M'Murtrie (an old footballer) were to be +spliced a fortnight afterwards, and the "cries" were in. + +With a serious air the captain lectured Bob till he was blue in the +face, and told him if he did not put himself in condition for the great +battle of the morrow he would be stoned by the town enthusiasts. He +remembered when a boy at school scribbling as best he could on his +copybook, "Discretion is the better part of valour," and the sentence +flashed across his heated brain with all the force of actual conviction. +"What was he to do?" "Was it to be football first, and Mary afterwards?" +Something whispered "yes; Mary could afford to wait, but the 'Cup' was a +transitory article, and the splendid chance his club had of winning it +might pass away like a dream." "Why, there was Joe Laidlay, he was in +something like the same dilemma so far as his 'lass' was concerned, and +if Joe, he thought, could afford to put off his sweetheart, Maggie +Jackson, in the same way, he (Bob) considered that he should be able to +conclude the arrangement, and make the best excuse to Mary." + +Quietly speaking, Bob had an ambition in his football, and it consisted +in being a member of the eleven who would at one time or another "lick" +the Queen's Park, and went into the practice game with his whole heart, +and played all through in good form. + +Just a year or so before this the "Vale" would have given the same +Dumbarton lot short shift and no favour on any of the grounds, but +matters were altered. They wanted a lot of their old blood, which had in +years gone bye carried them through many a doubtful battle. They had +lost their grand goalkeeper, and the crack half-back had vacated his +favourite position to keep the ball from going between the uprights in +"time o' need." + +Some of the daring forwards had also bade farewell to the game, and were +scattered over the length and breadth of the land. The match, however, +had to be played--it would brook no delay--and the spirited captain +resolved to make the best of it, although a score of misgivings passed +through his mind as to the issue. There was one thing in favour of the +"Vale," they had their own ground to play upon, and that was reckoned as +worth a goal any day. + +Before the start Johnny Freer told his old chums to keep their "weather +eyes" open for sudden rushes by the Dumbarton forward division, and +before the game was very old, they discovered that the advice did not +come a moment too soon. Keeping close on the touch lines till well down +among the half-backs, Maclure and his light companion, "the Bird," +assuredly did not allow the grass to grow under their leather bars. The +ground was a little sloppy from the recent rain, but, strange to say, +the Dumbarton men seemed to keep their feet in a remarkable manner. +M'Luckie and big Walton tried their very best to intercept the +dribblers, but at times they were completely mastered, and Dick Wallace +had to come away from his place at back and assist. + +The most of the Dumbarton lads were much faster on the ball than the +"Vale," and this, added to a slice of luck, aided them in scoring twice, +and they consequently won a hard battle by two goals to none, and earned +the proud distinction of being the champions. + +After the great crowd had dispersed, and lots of silver had changed +hands, a solemn silence reigned in that part of the pavilion utilised by +the "Vale." "There is no use denying the fact, chaps," said the captain +of the defeated team, "these fellows have beaten us on our form this +season, and we'll have to make the best of a bad bargain." + +Not so, however, in the other end of the house. The victors were +"blowing" a good deal of the bad luck they had had, and how they ought +to have scored a dozen goals if "Sandy had not repeatedly allowed the +ball to graze the goal-posts, instead of attempting to kick it out. They +had, however, beaten the 'Vale,' and that was all they cared for, in +the said tie. The Rangers they declared they did not fear, and from all +they could hear, they were now quite able to meet the Queen's Park face +to face." + +With the Rangers, however, they had just sufficient to do on their own +ground in the first match, but in the second came off victorious by five +goals to one. + +One Saturday evening we took forcible possession of Jack Cook's +lodgings, which were situated near the Marie Stuart Hall, Crosshill. +Jack was very fond of billiards, and sometimes pocketed several "pools" +of an evening, when a few choice spirits congregated in "The Rooms." +Jack's landlady had frequently threatened him with pains and penalties +for treating anything approaching "elders' hours" with contempt, and +once intensified it to instant dismissal, bag and baggage, for +encouraging a lot of his chums in leading the chorus of Dickens' +Bacchanalian song: + + "We won't go home till morning, + Till morning, till morning, + We won't go home till morning, + Till daylight doth appear," + +at four o'clock A.M., under her kitchen window after a big cup tie, +which the Conquerors had won. Jack, as a matter of precaution warned us +that we were to comport ourselves with decency, and not rouse the +aforesaid lady. Our friend had something in the bottle. We were +comfortably seated, and the room filled with tobacco smoke, when a dim +shadow was noticed at the door, and turned out to be Willie Fairfield, +of the Flying Blues, who had just called to let us know he had received +a telegram from Edinburgh announcing the defeat of the Hibernian in the +protested match with Dumbarton, by six goals to two. + +Willie, it may be mentioned, had drawn the Hibernian in our "sweep," and +was, I may inform all concerned, well pleased with his luck when the +ticket came out the bag; but now much crestfallen. Bill Weldon, however, +who had secured Dumbarton in the same drawing, jumped off his chair at +the success of the club he had secured, and remarked--"Look here, boys, +Dumbarton are just about good enough to win the Association Cup, and +I'll take evens on't." "Done," said a chorus of voices, and Mrs. Blank's +parlour was for a few minutes transformed into a betting house on a +small scale. + +We had a long chat as to the respective merits of the Rangers and +Dumbarton, who were to play their tie over again, in consequence of some +informality, and after draining Jack's bottle, were accompanied to the +door with solemn injunctions not to kick up a row on the stairs. + +Weeks passed after this little incident, and the clubs left in our +"sweep" were getting small by degrees and beautifully less. The Rangers, +Partick, South-Western, Northern, 3rd L.R.V., Arthurlie, Kilmarnock +Portland, Alexandra Athletic, Thornliebank, Heart of Midlothian, and +even the plucky little Clyde were cleared off the list, and the Queen's +Park had their own ado with Kilmarnock Athletic, and only beat that +sturdy Ayrshire Club by three goals to two. All that now remained in the +tie, in fact, were Q.P. and Dumbarton. + +It was Weldon and Pate Brown for it now, and both began to dream of a +good pocketful of "sovs." + +Pate, who was engaged to charming little Lizzie Green, had been living +very carefully for a time in prospect of shortly calling Lizzie his own, +was only now a casual visitor to Cook's lodgings. One evening, on his +way home from Ball & Field's, Pate began to reckon up his chances of +winning the "sweep." + +"One hundred and five subscribers at a 'sov.' a-piece," said he, "why +that makes £105. The odd 'fiver' will pay all the expenses, and if the +Q.P. win the Cup, why all that will be mine. Oh! glorious Q.P., +invincible Q.P., you must and shall win the Cup," raved excited Pate. +"Lizzie, my own dear lassie, I have not told you about my speculation, +nor will I till the tie is over, and we'll get married this summer yet." + +I do not intend to weary my readers with a detailed account of the final +Cup ties, for everybody knows there were two played. In the first, when +the clubs tied, and Dumbarton had the best of the game, little Pate +Brown nearly lost his senses with excitement, and had frequently to lean +heavily on the shoulder of Lizzie Green to prevent him from falling +under the grand stand. + +"What is it, dear, that makes you so terribly pale at a match?" she said +to him in a gentle whisper. "You must be ill, for I have never observed +you so excited before." Little did the young lady imagine what was at +issue, and the cause of Pate's nervousness; but she knew afterwards, and +had a jolly laugh over it in her own tidy little house at Govanhill. + +Who does not remember the real final tie on Cathkin Park? Such a match +will, perhaps, never be seen in Scotland again. How both Queen's Park +and Dumbarton played with all the force and dash they could command, and +how at length the Queen's Park were the conquerors, and Pate Brown won +the double prize. + +A few nights afterwards Pate received one hundred sovs. (there were no +second and third prizes) in the "Marie Stuart," and when he told the +young fellows assembled that he was about to get wed to Lizzie Green, +every soul of them (not even excepting Bill Weldon himself, who had +drawn Dumbarton in the speculation, and lost a few "sovs." on them too), +congratulated him on his choice, and called Pate a "lucky dog." + +They all knew and admired the neat little girl who, among other blithe +and gentle faces, turned out to see the leading football matches, to +cheer the players when they won, and chaff them when they lost. + +They were married--Pate Brown and Lizzie Green--and in presence of his +old club companions, whom he had invited to spend an evening at his new +house, Pate told the simple story of how he had got married to his +little darling a year sooner than he expected, all through drawing the +Queen's Park in a "SWEEP FOR THE CUP." + + + + + +_IV.--FAMOUS ASSOCIATION PLAYERS--PAST AND PRESENT._ + + +Little did the comparatively small but orderly group of enthusiastic +spectators who met around the ropes at Hamilton Crescent Ground, +Partick, eighteen years ago, to witness the first International +Association match, imagine the ultimate development of the Association +style of play in Scotland, and in after years the triumphs which awaited +her sons in contests with England. I was present, and shall never +forget the manner in which the teams--both Scotch and English--acquitted +themselves, and made a drawn game of it. + + +~The Five Dead Internationalists.~ + +The ranks of the past crack players are beginning to get thinned by the +common enemy of mankind. When I think of the busy feet, blithe and happy +faces, and merry voices that joined in the game twenty years ago, a +sense of sadness comes over me which it is difficult to dispel. "The +first International, sir;" yes. Five of the gallant eleven who fought +Scotland's battle are dead. Poor Gardner, Smith, Weir, Leckie, and +Taylor, football players, have cause to remember thee! It was a hard +struggle to keep up football in those days, and as there were no club +funds all the items of expenditure had to be brought forth from the +capacious pockets of the members. They loved the game, however, those +primitive players, and engaged in it for its own sake, without ever +thinking of reward. In the words of a great poetess, "We shall sing +their praise ere long;" and while it may be thousands of dribblers of +the present never heard their names, it is but right that the young ones +should not forget what they owe to the Association football pioneers. +Yes, the boys of the old brigade are falling out of the ranks in which +they served so well, never to muster again on this side the grave; while +others, still toiling on, are "scattered far and wide, by mountain, +stream, and sea." + + +~Joseph Taylor.~ + +The admitted chief of the five who have gone to their rest was Joseph +Taylor. Of a quiet and unassuming disposition, blended with remarkable +firmness, no man who captained the Queen's Park was so much respected +both on the field and in private life. None hated unfair or rough play +more. He could not endure it in a club companion, and this was +particularly so if his team were playing a comparatively junior +combination. Taught in the early school of Association football, when +the rules were much more exacting than they are now, he had, along with +his colleagues in the Queen's Park, to fight their preliminary battles, +and overcome the prejudices consequent on introducing the "reformation," +so to speak, in football. Taylor developed into a first-class back when +comparatively young, and was chosen to play for his club against England +in 1872, when the Queen's Park met that country single-handed, and +played a drawn contest. Considering his light weight, he was a fine +tackler, returned very smartly to his forwards, and, possessing +remarkable speed, completely astonished an opponent by clearing the ball +away before the forwards of the opposing club were able to obtain any +advantage. He had always a kind and encouraging word to young players, +and in 1875 and 1876 was chosen captain of the Scotchmen, and played, in +all, five times against England. He died in Govanhill about three years +ago. + + +~Robert Gardner.~ + +As the first captain of the Queen's Park in the International of 1872, +and also chosen to that post next season in London, Gardner, who has +also joined the great majority, was the most extraordinary player of his +day. He was so versatile that I have seen him at work in all the +different positions of the field--goalkeeper, back, half-back, and even +forward--but it was as a goalkeeper that he excelled. A very +indifferent kicker out in front, when the ball came up, he sometimes +made mistakes with the feet; but when I remember the brilliant men who +have since stood between the posts in Internationals and final cup ties, +each in their line famous, I must confess that none ever used their +hands and weight to greater advantage than Gardner. Possessing a +peculiarity of temper which had much of the Scotchmen's sturdy +independence, he had a difference with some of his friends, and left the +Queen's Park to join the Clydesdale, and did much to assist that club to +attain at the time the second position in Scottish Association football. +Members of both clubs will not easily forget the manner in which Gardner +kept goal for his new combination against the Queen's Park in a cup tie, +when three matches had to be completed before the senior club won. He +retired from the game some time before his death, which took place at +South Queensferry a year and a half ago. + + +~James E. Weir.~ + +Who could dribble and keep possession of the ball like Weir? In a +football sense he was in everybody's mouth sixteen years ago, when crack +forwards were few, and neat dribblers fewer. In all the contests the +Queen's Park engaged in for ten years, none was more popular among the +spectators, and emulated by the then young generation of players, than +Weir. He always worked on the right side, and with William M'Kinnon, +Angus Mackinnon, H. M'Neil, T. Lawrie, and T. C. Highet for companions, +the exhibition of dribbling and passing, with the six forwards, was +finer than is the case now with the five. The ball had then to touch the +ground after being thrown in straight from the line before being played. +Under those circumstances, heading by the forwards was never seen in the +field, unless after a corner-flag kick. Well can I remember the match at +Hampden Park against the London Wanderers, whom the Queen's Park +defeated by six goals to none, when Weir, being tackled by the Hon. A. +F. Kinnaird and C. W. Alcock, put his foot on the ball, shook off the +two powerful Englishmen, and made a goal. The sad news only arrived +lately from Australia, whither Weir had gone some years ago, of his +demise. Deceased played in two Internationals, including that of 1872, +and no finer dribbler ever toed a ball. He was, in fact, at the time +designated the "Prince of Dribblers." + + +~Joseph Leckie.~ + +In every condition of life, no matter the sphere in which one is placed, +he has his own peculiarities, and, in a football sense, Leckie, above +all the gallant throng who have disappeared for ever from the field, had +his. Comparatively short of stature and powerfully knit together, with +splendidly moulded limbs, Leckie was one of the most tenacious forwards. +While dribbling past an opponent with the ball at his toe, his +peculiarity asserted itself in such a way that, once seen, could never +be forgotten. Weir, Smith, W. M'Kinnon, H. M'Neil, and, later on, +Fraser, Highet, and Richmond, among the army of forwards brought out by +the Queen's Park; to say nothing of M'Lintock, M'Intyre, and Baird (Vale +of Leven), J. R. Wilson and Anderson (Clydesdale), T. Vallance and P. +Campbell (Rangers), and A. Kennedy and J. Hunter (3rd L.R.V.), of whom I +will say something later on, had all their imitators in the younger +clubs, but Leckie had none. He was, in fine, a player by himself. When +he obtained possession of ball, he guarded his body with extended arms +drooping from his side, with the back of his hands in front of the +thighs, and thus formed a barrier to an opponent who attempted to tackle +or take the ball from him. He took part in the first International. He +died about three years ago in South Africa. + + +~James Smith.~ + +The least known, perhaps, of the original International men, but one +whose name will ever be honoured by many of the older school of players, +and locally Queen's Park members, is Mr. James Smith, who died some +years ago in London. Mr. Smith was, in conjunction with his brother +Robert, early associated with the game in Scotland, and was an original +member of the Queen's Park. Mr. Archibald Rae, the first secretary of +the Scottish Football Association, and at one time an active member of +the Queen's Park (and a beautiful dribbler in his day), tells an amusing +anecdote of Smith, while playing against the Hamilton Club, leaping on +the top of a hedge to win a touch-down, which in those days counted a +point in the game. This entirely coincided with poor Smith's play, as he +was sometimes very impetuous. He played in the International of 1872 as +a forward. + + +~William M'Kinnon.~ + +Dealing now with the past players who are with us in the body, for a +long series of years, and, indeed, till within a short period of +retiring from the field, no centre forward of his day, and very few +since, have equalled M'Kinnon in that trying position. When the 3rd +Lanark Rifle Volunteers started the dribbling game on the old drill +ground at Govanhill, or rather when that small burgh was "No Man's +Land," M'Kinnon was one of its most active players. It is in connection +with his membership of the Queen's Park that I wish to recall incidents +in his career. In 1874 I made my way over to the South-Side Park to +witness a match between the Queen's and the Vale of Leven. Association +football was then a very insignificant affair--the Rugby code, with such +fine clubs as the Glasgow Academicals and West of Scotland as +exponents--engaging all the public attention. The game was free to all. +"Ladies and gentlemen, no charge for admission. Come and see our game. +Kick-off, 3.30." Well, M'Kinnon, along with the rest of the team, +emerged from the old toll-house, close by, to meet their gallant +opponents, and Mr. Parlane, of the Vale of Leven (who kept goal so well +for that club in many of her best matches), "chaffed" the Q.P. man in +amusing manner about his boots (See "The Conqueror's Football Boots"), +which were new, and differed considerably from the style then worn by +players. All through the contest, which, by the way, was drawn, with no +goals on either side, M'Kinnon was a little stiff, and scarcely played +so well as was his wont. He never discarded his old companions, however, +and those very boots in after years kicked many a goal both in +Internationals and final cup ties. As an indication, in fact, of his +genuine ability, he was chosen to play against England oftener than any +man in Scotland, with the single exception of Mr. Charles Campbell, who +was selected no fewer than ten times as a half-back. Mr. M'Kinnon was +engaged in eight, including the first, and in these his country was +victorious four times, and two were drawn matches. As a centre forward +has to bear the brunt of an attack from the opposing side first, +M'Kinnon was the very man to lead on the advance guard. His pluck was +immense; and while he rather delighted to dodge an opponent and leave +the charging to his backer up, he was a close and beautiful dribbler; +could play a hard match without any outward signs of fatigue, and no man +before or since could take a corner-flag kick like him. He used to +practice this kick, and could place the ball within a few inches of the +spot aimed at. Mr. M'Kinnon is still in our midst hale and hearty, and +when a good thing in football is announced he generally turns out to see +his favourite game, and is not afraid to criticise the form shown by his +successors. + + +~David Wotherspoon.~ + +Mr. Wotherspoon was early associated with the Queen's Park; indeed, one +of the original members, and did much in his day for football. When the +senior club found it a matter of difficulty to get up an eleven to play +in the country, some times at East Kilbride (for you must know that +important agricultural centre had a club nearly twenty years ago), +Alexandria, and Hamilton, Wotherspoon and Gardner were generally the +first volunteers. There were no fares paid in those primitive days out +of club funds, and each individual had to square up his own account, +like the Scottish cricketer of the present. Although retired now for a +number of years, and out of the run of the game, Wotherspoon, who is in +business in the city, is always delighted to hear of its development, +and proud of what he did in his youth for it. If ever a man had neatness +of style, combined with gentlemanly conduct to an opponent on the field, +it was Wotherspoon. Considering the fact that he was a light-weight, +under 10st., he many a time astonished both opponents and spectators by +his magnificent returns at half-back, and I may mention, in passing, +that in a match at Hampden Park I actually saw him kick a ball from the +centre of the field right through the goal--a feat that very few of our +younger half-backs could accomplish now. As I saw him in two +Internationals (1872-73), however, it was not as a half-back, but as an +accomplished forward, dribbling with great judgment, and passing in a +most unselfish way. Mr. Wotherspoon left the Queen's Park to join the +Clydesdale a short time after his old companion Gardner, and the two +were associated with that club when it numbered among its members such +fine players as Messrs. F. Anderson, G. M. Wilson, J. R. Wilson, W. +Wilson, J. P. Tennent, J. M'Pherson, W. Gibb, J. T. Richmond, and +David's brother, J. Wotherspoon. In the first of the long string of +matches which have been played between Sheffield and Glasgow, dating +back to 1874, Mr. Wotherspoon was one of the players; and it may be +mentioned that, in the same contest, the Glasgow representatives were +made up entirely of Queen's Park and Clydesdale men, and that each city +scored a couple of goals. + + +~James J. Thomson.~ + +No player among the half-backs of the old school was so much thought of +in Association football as Thomson. Once seen and met by an opponent, he +could never be forgotten. Tall and stern in appearance, he carried every +pound of his heavy weight with the greatest ease, and, what was of more +consequence to his club in a hard battle, used it well. He tackled with +consummate skill, and had remarkable confidence in himself. For the +first three years of his membership no player ever turned out more +regularly to practice, and, for a stout man, none could show an opponent +a cleaner pair of heels. All the time he was available in the Queen's +Park, an International without Thomson as one of the half-backs was out +of the question, and for three seasons (1872-73-74), he was selected for +that post against England. In the last event, when Scotland won at +Partick by two goals to one, the brilliant manner in which Thomson +played will not easily be forgotten by those who witnessed the contest. +While F. Anderson (Clydesdale), and A. Mackinnon (Queen's Park), scored +the goals for Scotland, Thomson never worked harder in his life, and +when the English forwards got near his side, he rarely, if ever, failed +to take the ball away from them. Just before leaving for Manchester, Mr. +Thomson was chosen captain of the Glasgow Eleven against Sheffield. Some +years ago he went to Liverpool, and is now secretary of the extensive +butcher business of Eastmans Company (Limited). In addition to his +ability as a football player, Mr. Thomson was a splendid sprinter, and +carried off a large number of prizes both in Glasgow and Edinburgh. + + +~William Ker.~ + +Mr. William Ker was captain of the Queen's Park when they leased their +first private ground, and did much by his tact and ability to bring on +our senior club to seek new conquests in England. Mr. Ker--of whose +brother George I shall have occasion to refer by and by--was a most +gentlemanly young fellow, and made himself respected by club companions +and opponents alike. In the early history of the game a half-back, and +even back, did not consider it _infra dig._ to dribble a bit and bring +up the ball to goal, provided the match was against a much weaker club, +and while Ker was a grand back and beautiful kicker with his left foot, +he was also an accomplished dribbler. In a match he never lost sight of +the ball for a moment, and when any of his team made a mistake in +following up, Ker frequently stepped into the breach himself, and did +his best to get the player out of a difficulty. He was too gentlemanly +to upbraid a member of the team on the ground, like some captains +now-a-days, but awaited an opportunity, and the advice imparted +generally did the careless player a world of good. In the famous match +at Partick in 1872, Ker showed some very fine play, both in clever +tackling and returning the ball; and, if I mistake not, he was opposed +on the opposite side by the English captain (Mr. C. J. Ottaway, since +dead), and the manoeuvring between the pair was something to be +remembered. Mr. Ker did not play very long after this game, as he left +Glasgow for Canada. + + +~Robert Smith.~ + +Unlike his brother in the manner of his style, Mr. Robert Smith was not +by any means an impulsive player, but took in the situation quietly; and +while no man ever worked harder in the field, or did more for a club, he +was not what could be called a brilliant forward. The brothers, however, +did well in the International I have referred to, and considerably +helped the eleven to make a drawn battle of it. It may be mentioned that +both were then also members of the South Norwood Club (one of the best +in England at that time), as they had previously left Scotland for +London. Mr. Robert Smith, so far as I am aware, is now in the United +States. + + +~Alexander Rhind.~ + +A rare but light dribbler was Mr Rhind. One of the old members of the +Queen's Park, and associated with men whose names I have already +mentioned in its early struggles, he knew, if I may be allowed to use a +simile which is likely to force a smile, what football poverty was, for +is it not a fact that he was a member of the Q.P. Finance Committee +when the annual subscription was _sixpence_, the yearly income £3 9s. +8d., and as the expenditure amounted up to £4 2s. 4d., the deficit of +12s. 8d. had to be made up by a levy? I never remember Mr. Rhind playing +in a match after the International. He is now in Aberdeen. + + +~The First Final Cup Tie.~ + +The First Final Association Cup Tie, on Hampden Park, I remember well. +The clubs fated to meet each other were the Queen's Park and Clydesdale, +and the match, considering the fact that the players were comparatively +young in the practice of the dribbling game, proved a very fine one +indeed. It was on a Saturday afternoon in the middle of March, 1874, and +a crowd of fully 2000 spectators attended. The Hampden Park of to-day, +with its splendid pavilion and accessories, and beautifully laid-off +turf, was not then conceived in the minds of the Match Committee. It was +the Hampden Park of yore, now cut up to form a railway embankment. Mr. +Hon. Secy. Rae and his companions in office never for a moment imagined +that in sixteen years afterwards the new ground, which is crowded nearly +every Saturday afternoon with excited spectators, would be made to +satisfy the cravings of a football public, and the exigencies of +athletic life. There was no such thing as a pavilion then, only a kind +of "wee house" at the gate end of the field, for all the world like an +overgrown sentry-box, did duty instead. The grass on the field was not +even cut in some places, and at the top corner-flag was long and turfy. +The spectators, however, of whom a large number were ladies, enjoyed it +very much, and the enthusiasm imparted among the youths who were present +had a wonderful effect on the spread of the game. It was thought that a +draw was inevitable, so well did both sides play till within twenty +minutes of the finish, when Mr. Wm. M'Kinnon scored a goal for the +senior club, and this was followed by a second from the foot of Mr. +Leckie, not long before no-side was announced, leaving the Q.P. the +winners by two goals to none. I must, however, go back a little way and +say something about the + + +~Association Challenge Cup,~ + +which has caused a new order of things to arise in Scottish football. +Well, during the previous year, and, in fact, not long after the first +International at Partick, new clubs were formed in many quarters, but +more particularly Glasgow and Dumbartonshire, and it was on March 13, +1873, that the Queen's Park convened a meeting of representatives of +clubs, and what is now known as the Scottish Football Association was +formed. Eight clubs responded, and created the great Association. The +eight, who deserve much honour at the hands of players, were:--Queen's +Park, Clydesdale, Vale of Leven, Dumbreck, Eastern, Rovers, 3rd L.R.V., +and Granville, and those clubs were represented on the committee by Mr. +Arch. Campbell (Clydesdale), president; Mr. W. Ker (Queen's Park), hon. +treasurer; Mr. Archibald Rae (Queen's Park), hon. secretary; with the +following committee:--Messrs. Ebenezer Hendry and Wm. Gibb (Clydesdale), +J. Turnbull (Dumbreck), D. Macfarlane (Vale of Leven), W. E. Dick (3rd +L.R.V.), T. Mackay (Granville), J. M'Intyre (Eastern), and R. Gardner +(Queen's Park). Next in order came the Challenge Cup, and the +competition for that trophy was in full swing. The necessary funds were +soon forthcoming, and a very neat, but plain, specimen of the +silversmith's art was brought forth. The subject for ornamentation was +taken from a cut in the _Graphic_, representing a player in the act of +dribbling at the first International, and made by Messrs. George Edward +& Sons. There you have it now, gentlemen, rather dry reading and +technical, though, but nevertheless the infant life of a great +competition. By a strange coincidence in the respective matches, and one +which the players of a former era will look upon with a sense of +sadness, consists in the fact that of the twenty-two who took part in +that game seven are dead. Of these the senior club has the misfortune to +claim five--Messrs. J. J. Taylor, J. B. Weir, J. Leckie, J. Dickson, and +A. Mackinnon; while the Clydesdale, so far as I am aware, has only two, +Mr. J. R. Wilson and Mr. Robert Gardner. As I have already given short +sketches of Messrs. Taylor, Weir, Leckie, and Gardner, under the head of +"Dead Internationalists," and J. J. Thomson and W. M'Kinnon under +another, I have only to deal with R. W. Neil, J. Dickson, T. Lawrie, C. +Campbell, Angus Mackinnon, and H. M'Neil (Queen's Park), and the whole +of the Clydesdale, with the sole exception of R. Gardner. + + +~Charles Campbell.~ + +Mr. Campbell seems to have had no real starting point in his football +career. The love of the game and its early associations came to him as +if by nature. I am told that when he was quite a boy he used to appear +on the ground at Queen's Park to see his brother Edward playing with old +club companions. He soon began to dribble about, and afterwards show +splendid ability in long-kicking and tackling, and in 1873-74 played for +the Queen's Park in her best matches. The final cup tie, however, was +his first big event, and no doubt the lessons and confidence he obtained +in that match served him well in after years, when he was destined to be +the greatest favourite both among players and spectators that ever took +part in any cup tie or International. Mr. Campbell has now retired from +active duty on the field, but his love for the game, and the welfare of +the players engaged in it, induced him to accept the presidentship of +the Association for 1889-90, and one and all are alive to the fact that +he discharges his duties with the greatest fidelity. As a brilliant +tackler and neat kicker at half-back, it might honestly be said of him +that he had no equal. Men who played against him on great occasions (for +Mr. Campbell always rose to his best form in these) have good cause to +remember how he could "head" the ball away from goal at a critical +moment, and get it through quite a forest of legs. As he was not one of +the cracks in the final cup tie of 1874, I must honestly confess I can't +remember how he played, but as his club scored a victory, and he was one +of the half-backs, he must have done well. Mr. Campbell rarely, if ever, +spends a Saturday afternoon away from Hampden Park in the winter time; +takes a lively interest in his mother club, and, what is of more +account, can still play in his favourite position with great dash and +precision. He has the unique distinction of playing in ten +Internationals with England, and been an office-bearer of his club since +1873. + + +~Thomas Lawrie.~ + +Mr. Lawrie has done much for football in connection with his club and +the Association, both by example and precept. In the early days of the +Queen's Park he was one of their most brilliant forwards, and in several +of the cup ties, notably that between the Queen's Park and Renton, +proved the best man on the field. He never shirked his work, or left +hard tackling to the half-backs, but sprang on the ball and opponent at +once, and generally had the best of it. Of all the fine forwards who +received their football education under Mr. J. J. Thomson's, and later +on Mr. C. Campbell's and Mr. Joseph Taylor's captaincy, none could keep +his feet better on the field; and it was quite a rare thing to see +Lawrie grassed by an opponent. Although not much above the middle +height, he was a perfect football Hercules, and not long before retiring +from the field opponents in some of the matches would frequently make +earnest inquiries about whether he were to be included in the Q.P. team +on that day. But for an accident to the knee which made him retire, +after being chosen to play in the International against England in 1874, +Mr. Lawrie would have then represented his club. After giving up active +duty in the field, he has rendered noble service by being president of +the Scottish Football Association, and loves the game as dearly as ever. + + +~Harry M'Neil.~ + +The first final cup tie brought into prominence one of the neatest +little dribblers and passers that ever played on the left wing of any +club. Methinks I see him now, with his quick action, short step, and +unselfish play, gliding down the side of the field, dodging an opponent +close on the touch-line, and causing the spectators to laugh +immoderately. Spectators are prone to make favourites, and while Mr. +Campbell was assuredly one at half-back, Mr. M'Neil was none the less +loved among the forwards. While playing in the leading games he was +always ready with his joke, and I'll back him to be the best man in the +world to explain away a defeat and magnify a victory for the club he +loved so well. Mr. M'Neil was chosen seven times to play against England +and Wales, and I remember his efforts and their results with pleasure. +The only time he was sorely beset was in the International of 1876, when +Mr. Jarrett (Cambridge University, I think), one of the English +half-backs--a powerful young fellow--tackled him severely. The gallant +little Queen's Park man, however, withstood the charges well, and came +up from mother earth smiling. That match, however, ended in favour of +Scotland by three goals to none. Mr. M'Neil was a member of the 3rd +L.R.V. at the start of his career, and also of the Rangers, but joined +the Queen's Park in 1872. + + +~Robert W. Neill.~ + +Mr. Neill kept the late Mr. J. J. Taylor company at back in many of the +most trying and critical Q.P. matches of 1876, '77, '78, and '80, and in +all those years was a familiar figure in the Internationals against +England and Wales. As we have previously said about the deceased Mr. +Leckie, players have their peculiarities, and Neill had his. He was a +really brilliant back and pretty sure tackler, but relied too much on +his feet while defending goal, instead of using the breast and head. His +individuality consisted in meeting the charge of an opponent with bended +knees, and he had the knack of taking the ball away and making a +brilliant return in a style that roused the cheers of the spectators. He +was a very hard worker to the last, and only retired from football to go +abroad some years ago. He has, however, returned to Glasgow, and may +frequently be seen at some of the best matches of the season. His play +during 1877 and 1878 was exceptionally good, and in those years was in +the best form of any back in Scotland. + + +~John Dickson.~ + +Poor fellow! Mr. Dickson had but a short career, not only in football, +but in everyday life. He caught a severe cold one bleak evening coming +from Hampden Park after a practice match, and succumbed to the malady of +inflammation of the lungs at the age of 28. He started his football life +as a back; but when the Queen's Park lost Mr. Gardner he was tried as +goalkeeper, and did very well. Tall and gentlemanly in appearance, with +neatly trimmed sandy whiskers and moustache, Dickson kicked out in front +of his goal very neatly, and was not afraid to meet the charge of an +opposing forward. An incident in his career caused a great deal of +amusement at the time, however, and is worth recording, just to show the +immense faith he had in the infallibility of his old club. It was in a +cup tie with the Vale of Leven, when that club beat the Queen's Park by +two goals to one. Dickson appeared at goal with an umbrella, as the rain +was falling fast, but when the Vale scored their first goal he was +obliged to throw away his companion, and work harder than ever he had +done before. + + +~Angus Mackinnon.~ + +A powerfully-made young fellow, above the medium height, Mr. Mackinnon +was a very fair forward, and always played in the centre with Mr. +William M'Kinnon, his namesake, and the pair were a "caution" to meet in +a hot tussle. The six forwards took part in the play then, with two on +each wing and a couple in the centre, and it was a treat to see how well +the Mackinnons worked in their places. Mr. Angus, however, was rather +short in the temper, and often had a "few words" with both companions +and opponents during a game. He played a very indifferent game in the +final tie and some of the matches previously, but was really in +excellent form at that same year's International against England, and +scored one of the goals. Mr. Mackinnon died about four years ago in +Canada. + + +~Frederick Anderson.~ + +If there is one player more than another that deserves to be remembered +by his old club, the Clydesdale, for the manner in which he brought it +before the public by scoring one of the goals in the third International +at Partick in 1874, it is Anderson. He was a very fine dribbler, and +about the most difficult man in the Clydesdale forwards to get the ball +away from after he had obtained possession. Although not one of the +original members, he was early associated with the Clydesdale, and +played in the best games of seasons 1874, '75, and '76. He was a bit of +a sprinter, and very fast on the ball, with very fine staying power. +Many of the backs who played against him during his best days were +afraid of Anderson when he got near the sticks. He is now in Manchester. + + +~John M'Pherson.~ + +Mr. John M'Pherson, of the Clydesdale, is a much older player than his +namesake of the Vale of Leven. When the Clydesdale went into the game +with a dash that astonished even the Q.P., he was one of their finest +forwards, and, possessing great speed, was not easily tackled by the +best backs of the day. He always played on the right wing, and was a +dangerous man at goal. Mr. M'Pherson did much both for football and +cricket in Inveraray, and even now takes an interest in his favourite +pastime in Rothesay, where he assists his father in the management of +the Queen's Hotel. It may be mentioned that, in addition to his other +qualifications, for "he was so versatile," M'Pherson has acted on more +than one occasion as outrider to Her Majesty when she visited the +Highlands. In 1875 he played against England. + + +~William Gibb.~ + +I am sorry to say Mr. Gibb is dead, and that the sad event severs the +link that bound the whole of the Clydesdale eleven together, with the +exception of the blank left by the loss of their accomplished +goalkeeper. Mr. Gibb was a tall and powerful young fellow, and I have +frequently seen a few of his opponents feeling rather shy before +attempting to oppose his progress towards goal. During the winters of +1873, 1874, and 1875, the Clydesdale forward play was good. So brilliant +was his form in 1873 that he was taken to Landon to play against +England, and scored one of the goals got by Scotland, who were defeated +by four goals to two. Mr. Gibb's only fault on the field was a +disposition to over-run the ball. He died about two years ago in India. + + +~A. H. Raeburn.~ + +In the first final cup tie Mr. Raeburn was one of the half-backs, and +played up with great dash and pluck. If my memory serves me right, he +was one of the original members of the Granville Cricket and Football +Club when the ground was at Myrtle Park, about a couple of stone-throws +from Hampden Park. He was very fond of the game, and no man in the +Clydesdale had more enthusiasm. Mr. Raeburn was a fine tackler, and not +easily flurried when meeting an opponent, and with such men as the +Mackinnons to face in the centre and Weir on the right that day of the +final, he had his own ado. He did not play very much after this game. + + +~Ebenezer Hendry.~ + +Mr. Hendry was more of a cricketer than a football player, and made many +fine scores for his side during the early years of his career. With the +exception of Mr. Gardner and Mr. Anderson, all the members of the +Clydesdale could play cricket, and it was more for the purpose of +keeping members together during the winter months that the dribbling +game was started on Kinning Park (the old home of the senior cricket +club of Glasgow). Mr. Hendry was a slow tackler, and took too long to +get on the ball, but when he got a fair chance, was a very neat kicker, +and showed good judgment. + + +~J. R. Wilson.~ + +During the past season, Mr. Wilson, who had been abroad for a number of +years, made a visit to his native city, and was welcomed back by his old +friends of the field with remarkable pleasure. No man in the club was +more highly beloved and respected, and, in after years, when his brother +Walter joined the club and played in several of the leading matches, the +pair rarely if ever missed a practice evening. Mr. Wilson was very fast +on the ball, and went right ahead when he got possession. In 1874 he was +chosen to play for Glasgow against Sheffield. In the cup tie which is +now under notice he made some very fine runs, and did much to make a +name for the old Clydesdale. It is with much regret I have to announce +that Mr. Wilson died in Glasgow only a month ago. + + +~James M'Arly.~ + +A hard worker and plucky tackler was Mr. M'Arly. For a long series of +years he was one of the finest batsmen in cricket that Glasgow produced. +Contemporary with Mr. Thos. Chalmers (Caledonian), the pair often met on +the field for their respective clubs; but so far as football is +concerned Chalmers played the Rugby game for the Glasgow Academicals, +while his contemporary was half-back in the Association Clydesdale. +About a dozen years ago he went to Manchester, where he is engaged as +partner in a large calico printing business; and the other day I had a +chat with him about old times, and he enjoyed it immensely. + + +~John Kennedy.~ + +Pressed into the service of his club on very short notice, Mr. Kennedy +played in the tie as a substitute. He had only been a few weeks at the +game when the match took place, but the young and rising generation of +players must remember the substitutes were few in those days, and it is +not the first time I have seen a match played with one of the clubs a +man short. Kennedy played as a forward, but afterwards developed into a +very fair back, and showed capital judgment in that position. + + +~J. J. Lang.~ + +Originally a member of the 3rd L.R.V., Lang left that club and joined +the Clydesdale in 1874. He played in the final, I think, as centre +forward, and backed up Mr. J. R. Wilson. Possessing splendid dribbling +powers, he was a very "showy" player, but his short steps did not make +anything like the progress with the ball one imagined at the time. He +was a somewhat heavy charger when he got the chance, and frequently +preferred to take his man before the ball. + + +~A Final Charity Cup Tie Eleven Years Ago.~ + +Bringing my reminiscences down to 1879, the year above all others when +Association football was, so to speak, in a kind of transition stage, +the clubs that earned the greatest fame, and justly so, were the Queen's +Park, Rangers, and Vale of Leven. Who, among all the gallant throng that +played in those clubs--and, for that part of it, the spectators--can +forget the exciting tussles engaged in by the trio? In this year the +Rangers met the Vale of Leven in the final tie for the Association +Challenge Cup, and also in the final for the Charity. Party, or shall I +say club, feeling ran as high, if not higher, than now, the excitement +was great, and intensified by the fact that the Leven men had been +eventually awarded the Association Cup without playing off the drawn +match, in consequence of the Rangers not turning up. Later on, too, the +crack Dumbartonshire eleven overthrew the Queen's Park in the semi-final +of the charities, on Glasgow Green, by four goals to none. Well, it was +on Tuesday evening, 20th May, that the battle came off on Old Hampden +Park, and both the Rangers and Vale of Leven mustered in strong force. +Lovely weather helped to swell the crowd, and some 12,000 people were +inside the ground. The Vale of Leven scored almost at once by Mr. +M'Dougall, and this looked like the prelude to victory. The Rangers, +however, set their teeth, and before the contest closed vanquished their +powerful opponents by scoring a couple of goals--one by Mr. Struthers, +and another out of a scrimmage. Since then eleven years have come and +gone, and with them a new generation of football players. Seeing that +the Rangers were the victors, I shall proceed to give sketches of their +eleven who played on the occasion, and deal with the Vale of Leven +afterwards. + + +~George Gillespie.~ + +In connection with the dribbling game in Glasgow, it should be generally +known that Mr. Gillespie supplies the link which binds the players of +the dead past to those of the living present. He is still to the fore, +and does duty as well as ever. Early in his football career Mr. +Gillespie was not a goalkeeper, for I am certain I saw him play at back +in some of the early matches of the "Light Blues." Nature, +metaphorically speaking, never intended him to be anything in the game +but a goalkeeper, and a brilliant one, too. How he kept goal in this +great match, and dozens of others, is still fresh in the memory both of +old players and spectators. He is the only man on the active list who +played ten years ago, and had the distinction of appearing against +England twice and Wales three times. From the Rangers he joined the Q.P. +about six years ago. + + +~Thomas Vallance.~ + +The early history of the Rangers--their triumphs, misfortunes, joys, and +sorrows--have all been shared in by Mr. Thomas Vallance, and he still +sticks to them like the veritable leech. Who could captain a young team +like he? When Vallance led the Rangers to victory in this final Charity +tie, I am sure he was barely out of his teens, and I don't think would +even yet hesitate to don the blue jersey of the club were it hard up for +a back. Vallance was a back, indeed, and for several seasons, but more +particularly that of 1879-80, none in Scotland showed better form. His +returns near goal were neat and clean, and without being in any way +rough with an opponent. Vallance's length of limb and good judgment +often saved his club from losing goals. The whole of the Rangers "lo'ed +him like a vera brither," and at practice his word was law. He played +four times against England. + + +~Alexander Vallance.~ + +With quite as much pluck, but awanting in finish and style, the younger +of the brothers, Mr. Alexander, was nevertheless a fine back. Lighter +made and more easily tackled than Thomas, he had a way of his own in +running out the ball before making the final shy, and when this was done +well, as it frequently happened in a first-class match, young Vallance +received a perfect ovation from the crowd. Alexander was in fine form in +this tie, and some of his returns were splendidly made. Instead of going +at an opponent with the air of an infuriated bull, as some backs are +prone to do now-a-days, he kept close to his man, and waited for an +opportunity, which was at once taken advantage of. Like his brother, he +is still in the city, and takes a kindly interest in his mother club. + + +~Hugh M'Intyre.~ + +Mr. Hugh M'Intyre and Mr. J. Drinnan were the half-backs in this +contest. No such new-fangled device as three half-backs was ever thought +of in Scotland at that time, and you may be sure the pair had hard work. +Of all the players sent out by the Rangers, M'Intyre was in many +respects the most powerful. He was, however, to be outspoken, the +coarsest. Woe betide the light and gentle forward who tried to pass Mr. +Hugh! He pounced on his man at once, and with raised back--for he was +somewhat round-shouldered--gave the excited spectator the idea that he +meant to have the ball at any cost. His weight gave him an immense +advantage in tackling, and I think old players will be at one with me +when I say that he was the best at that kind of work in Scotland. He was +about the first to leave Glasgow and accept an engagement in England. He +played against Wales in 1880. + + +~James Drinnan.~ + +In the list of the Rangers' eleven who took part in the match under +review, the name of Mr. Drinnan does not occur, and I am obliged to +proffer an explanation. In the report of the contest one "R. Jackson" is +credited with keeping H. M'Intyre company on the occasion. As the +incident is past, and Mr. Drinnan no longer amenable to the laws of +engineer apprenticeship, he did in this match what a great many men have +done before him--viz., played under an assumed name. He was a very fair +back, but not sufficiently brilliant to obtain notoriety, and never had +the distinction of playing in an International. He was, nevertheless, a +very useful all-round player, and could take his place as a centre +forward at a moment's notice. + + +~Peter Campbell.~ + +The Rangers a dozen years ago without Mr. Peter Campbell would have been +like the Queen's Park now with Mr. William Sellar left out. He was the +life and soul of the forward division, and it is not too much to say of +him that a finer dribbler and harder worker never kicked leather. Poor +Campbell, like so many more of the old lot, is gone to his account! In a +terrible storm in the Bay of Biscay, which left many a home desolate, +seven years ago, the steamer in which he was chief engineer foundered, +and not a soul was left to tell the tale. Quiet and unassuming in +manner, Mr. Campbell was beloved by all, and his untimely death is still +mourned by the Rangers, for whom he did so much. In 1878-79 he was in +such good form that he was chosen to play against Wales, and in 1876 and +1878 did duty for Glasgow against Sheffield. + + +~Moses M'Neil.~ + +The M'Neils are quite a football family, and, what is of more account, +have gained distinction in the game. Is it not a fact that Mr. Peter was +one of the founders of the famous club nineteen years ago, and that +Messrs. Harry, William, and Moses kept the ball rolling on Kinning Park +with credit for many a day? Moses is the youngest of the lot, and +consequently what may be termed the most modern. He was quite a boy when +this cup tie came off, and played with a dash and finish on the left +wing that completely astonished all who were present on Old Hampden Park +that May evening. Mr. Moses, too, was more than a mere local player, and +through sheer force of ability was chosen to play against England in +1880, and acted in the same capacity for Scotland against Wales in 1876. +He is still young and active, and resides in the city. + + +~William Struthers.~ + +An original member of the Partick, when that club could boast of having +as good a team as now, Struthers was associated with the old pioneers +in Messrs. Boag, James S. Campbell, Love, Sutar, Bell, and Smith, and +joined the Rangers the previous year before the tie. He was a beautiful +dribbler, after the style of Mr. T. C. Highet; went right ahead with the +ball close at his toe, and was the most difficult man to tackle in the +Rangers. He left Scotland some years ago for England, where he played +for the Bolton Wanderers. In brilliant form in the match, he made some +fine runs in company with Mr. Campbell and Mr. Hill, and was successful +in scoring the first goal got for the Rangers. Mr. Struthers is now in +England, where he has settled down. + + +~David Hill.~ + +A most unselfish player was Mr. Hill. He was slow, but sure, and if ever +a man showed an example in the field by at once passing on the ball when +necessary, and never opening his mouth from kick-of to time call, it was +he. One of the prominent figures all through quite a decade of seasons +for his old club, Mr. Hill rendered the Rangers valuable service, and +never failed to turn up when he was wanted. In the final Association +Challenge Cup match with the Vale of Leven, played shortly before the +one I am touching upon, and which ended in a tie, some splendid passing +was witnessed between him and Mr. Wm. Dunlop, who, by the way, could not +play in the Charity event in consequence of an injury sustained a week +before. + + +~Alex. Steel.~ + +Like the other members of the Rangers, Mr. Steel was very young when he +joined that club. His enthusiasm for the game, however, was unbounded, +and I have been told by an old Rangers' man that he was one of the +original "moonlighters" of the club. This phrase gentlemen, requires +some explanation. It does not refer to Ireland and its agrarian +grievances. No, no. It was only a few choice spirits of the Rangers who, +determined to win all matches, used to practice at full moon, and +frequently frightened some of the belated lieges in the vicinity of +Kinning Park, who swore the place was haunted. + + +~Charles M'Quarrie.~ + +Although retired from active duty on the field, Mr. M'Quarrie is even +now in football harness as the treasurer of the Partick Thistle. He did +not play in many of the first eleven matches of the club, but being a +promising lad was always available as first reserve forward. He was +rather a neat dribbler and good backer-up, but a little slow in +tackling. He was always a steady player, and did very well in this game. +He did not play very much after this tie, but gave up football +altogether, till his old love for the game returned some years ago, when +he joined the Thistle, and is one of their most earnest committee +workers. + + +~Robert Parlane.~ + +I now proceed to the Vale of Leven men who played in this tie, and +goalkeepers, beware! and, let me tell you, don't think too much of +yourselves nowadays! We had a great man who stood between the posts a +dozen years ago, quite equal at all points to you, and his name was +Parlane. Who did not know Mr. Robert Parlane a decade ago? In the early +history of Association football some of the best players ever Scotland +produced were also good cricketers, and Parlane was one of these, and a +grand wicketkeeper. Without saying too much of the men who have over and +over again distinguished themselves, I cannot help saying that a better +goalkeeper never chucked out a ball. Mr. Parlane did very well in this +match, his only fault being a disposition to go away too far from his +charge. He kept goal for Scotland against England in 1879, and is now in +Belfast. + + +~H. M'Lintock.~ + +For six years no man ever did better work for his club than Mr. +M'Lintock. In fact, the Vale of Leven would as soon have scratched +altogether in a cup tie as entered into a doubtful contest without him +and their other great back, Mr. Andrew M'Intyre. M'Lintock did more than +any of the old school now living to popularise a style of back play +which ten years ago was emulated to a large extent all over the country. +He had a most graceful way of turning the ball when it came dangerously +near the goal, and running it out by dodging an opponent. He used both +feet with equal freedom, and was decidedly the cleanest kicker that ever +played in the Vale of Leven. It is a curious fact, and one worth noting, +that Mr. Forbes adopted much the same style. M'Lintock played against +England in 1875 and 1876. + + +~Andrew M'Intyre.~ + +Mr. Andrew M'Intyre was a terrible fellow to meet in a hot scrimmage, +and no matter the forwards who opposed--and I have seen three at him in +a close tussle in front--M'Intyre generally had the best of it and got +the ball clear. His powerfully-knit frame served him in good stead in +all the great matches in which he took a prominent part. In the one +under review M'Intyre was sorely beset by the pick of the Rangers' +forwards, but was always in the right place. No player of his day could +work as well in so little space, and get the leather away safely. His +only fault was to be a little demonstrative in the field with opponents, +and tell them a bit of his mind during the game. In 1878 he was chosen +to play against England. + + +~J. Macintyre.~ + +The play of the two namesakes was as different as the poles asunder. Of +a fair height and good appearance, Mr. J. Macintyre was one of the most +excitable men that ever stood in front of a goal. He generally warmed up +at bit, however, and even showed more daring when his old club were +playing an uphill game, and I know for certain that in the great drawn +matches for the Association Challenge Cup, between the Vale of Leven and +Rangers, no man ever did harder work. He was slow to get on the ball, +and at times very erratic, but rarely if ever lost an opportunity. Very +rough in tackling, he, above all others in the club, was severe on the +opposing forwards. + + +~J. M'Pherson.~ + +Among the Vale of Leven back division, which was so powerful long ago, +none was more devoted to the game than Mr. M'Pherson, who held his place +for several years as one of the backs of whom Caledonia felt proud. +Without the least show or fussiness, M'Pherson did his work quietly, and +had the credit (and a good one, too) of being next to Mr. John Ferguson, +the best-natured footballer in Dumbartonshire. He could play a +magnificent game when he liked, and one season particularly--that of +1883--when he was one of the Scottish Eleven against England at +Sheffield, ably assisted his team to win a hard match by three goals to +two. + + +~J. Macfarlane.~ + +The Vale of Leven at the time this tie was played had a rare forward +combination, and in some of their best matches the dribbling and passing +among them were something to be remembered. Macfarlane, however, was +certainly not the best of the lot, but a very safe man, and could play +equally well on the left wing or the centre, and, if I mistake not, work +excellently as a backer-up to J. M'Gregor. Now, when I think of it, he +was severely tackled in this match by H. M'Intyre, and was not in such +good form as some of the other forwards. + + +~R. Paton.~ + +There are few, if any, old players in Dumbartonshire, and, I should say, +spectators as well, who cannot remember the familiar figure of Mr. +Robert Paton. A nicely-featured little fellow, with a joke for every +acquaintance, he was full of vivacity, and an intense love for his old +club, the Vale. Yes, "The Vale." Nobody ever called it anything else. +Paton, above all the other forwards who did so much to make the Leven +men beloved at home and feared "abroad," even to the next parishes and +the big city of Glasgow, was a fine player, and never kept the ball +longer than was necessary if he saw a chance. He played against England +in 1879. + + +~J. Baird.~ + +Mr. James Baird was a fair average player, without anything very +remarkable about him. The combination, as I have already said, was so +good among the Vale of Leven at the time when this great contest took +place that an inferior or selfish player would soon have found his +level. The forwards, in fact, were all pretty much alike, but with +clearly defined degrees of brilliancy, and Mr. James Baird was one of +the lesser lights. He was a good runner and smart at following up, but +his dribbling was sometimes too wide for the others when following up on +the enemy's lines. When hard pressed he often lost the ball, but in a +scrimmage in front of the posts he was a rare shot at goal, and scored a +good many for his club. + + +~J. C. Baird.~ + +Of all the forwards who learned the game at Alexandria, on the old +ground belonging to the Vale, perhaps, in many respects, Mr. J. C. Baird +was the most distinguished, and, at the same time, the most gentlemanly. +When the Vale of Leven beat the Queen's Park for the first time in one +of the ties for the Association Challenge Cup, on Hampden Park, Mr. J. +C. Baird played a perfect "demon." On the slippery ground he kept his +feet against all comers, dribbled and passed on splendidly, and fairly +took the breath away from John Dickson when scoring the goal which gave +his club the victory. Mr. Baird was chosen to face England in 1876, and +again in 1880. + + +~J. M'Gregor.~ + +If one had met Mr. M'Gregor off the football stage, so to speak, they +would never for a moment have taken him for a brilliant and accomplished +player at all points. He was all nerve and sinew, and always in grand +form. His disadvantages in appearance and weight, however, were kind of +blessings in disguise to his club, for the opposing backs sometimes +treated him with indifference, and even contempt. This was M'Gregor's +opportunity, and never man used it better. If ever he made his way past +the backs, and was alone with the goalkeeper, ten to one but his team +was a goal to the good in a few minutes. He played against England in +1877, 1878, and 1880. + + +~J. M'Dougall.~ + +Two years previous to this final tie, Mr. M'Dougall was the most +brilliant forward in Scotland, and he and Mr. J. T. Richmond (Queen's +Park) were the first two forwards selected to play against England. A +fine figure on the field, and a capital dribbler, without being showy, +M'Dougall was always near the ball when wanted, and it sometimes took a +couple of opponents to get the leather away from him. For three years in +succession he was selected to appear against England. In the tie with +the Rangers, Mr. M'Dougall was captain of the team, and scored the only +goal made for the defeated club. + + +~The Great International of 1882.~ + +The eleven who were chosen to do battle for Scotland in this contest, +close upon nine years ago, were considered in many respects the best +that had ever donned International caps in any tussle before or since, +and a better illustration of the wisdom of the Association Committee in +their selection could not have been given than the result itself--viz., +Scotland, five goals; England, one. Hampden Park was the meeting-place, +and as one of the football giants of the day (E. Fraser) is, like some +of my dear old friends, now lying in the grave, and others who took part +in the memorable event divided by thousands of miles from those with +whom they fought and won for Scotland, I should like to pay a tribute of +respect to their football ability, and let the young and rising +generation of players know that such men appeared in the arena, and +played the game as well as it is done now. The match took place on the +11th March, 1882, and as England mustered a very powerful eleven, the +issue was doubtful. About a quarter of an hour, however, after the +start, Mr. Ker and Mr. Harrower had a fine run, and Harrower made the +first point for Scotland but at half-time the score stood--Scotland, two +goals; England, one--Ker having added the second, and Vaughton the one +for England. In the last round, the Scotchmen, although playing against +a good breeze, had it all to themselves, and scored other three points +by Messrs. M'Pherson, Ker, and Kaye. In giving short sketches of the +International eleven, I have only to deal with eight of the players, as +Messrs. Charles Campbell, A. M'Intyre, and G. Gillespie have already +been noticed in previous articles while engaged in other matches. I +shall accordingly begin with + + +~Andrew Watson (Queen's Park).~ + +Mr. Watson did a great deal for football in the Glasgow district a dozen +years ago, both with his ready purse and personal ability in the game. +It was in a great measure owing to his interest and energy that the +young Parkgrove Club obtained proper ground, and was fairly put on its +way rejoicing. The Parkgrove had a lot of very fine young fellows in its +ranks, and for several years made a capital record in numerous matches +under the captaincy of Mr. Watson. In this International he played as +right-side back in company with Mr. Andrew M'Intyre, and, as an +indication of how he and his companion behaved, it is necessary to say +that only one goal was got against them. Mr. Watson was a rare +"header-out," and was famed for his fine tackling and neat kicking. He +had one fault, however, and this consisted in kicking over his own lines +occasionally when hard pressed by a dashing forward. In the previous +year he was the Scottish captain against England, in London, and led his +team to victory by 6 goals to 1. + + +~Peter Miller (Dumbarton).~ + +When Mr. Miller played in this match, the Dumbarton Club was a power in +the land, and not easily beaten. He was left half-back, and had as his +companion Mr. Charles Campbell, who captained the victorious eleven. Mr. +Miller was remarkable for his magnificent tackling at close quarters, +and possessed weight, which told against England in the contest. Again +and again I saw him shake off both Mr. Cursham and Mr. Parry, two of the +Southrons' ablest forwards, and once Mr. Mosforth and he had an amusing +bit of play near the Scotch goal, in which the Sheffielder came off +best. Mr. Miller was, altogether, a very fine back, and when he retired +a few years ago the Dumbarton Club had considerable difficulty in +getting a good man properly trained to supply his place. Next season +(1883) he was also chosen to play against England and Wales. + + +~E. Fraser (Queen's Park).~ + +Lost to his club and the thousands of delighted spectators who witnessed +his brilliant ability as a right-wing forward, but not forgotten by the +members of the old Q.P., Fraser, "though dead, yet speaketh." I question +very much if any forward of that time among the mediæval class of +players, so to speak, exercised such a potent influence over the +spectators, and no style of play was more followed by the younger +dribblers than that of Fraser. A son of the manse, he was a highly +cultured young fellow, and loved football so devotedly that no amount of +hard training was ever shirked by him when under probation for the first +eleven. Dribbling beautifully up the side of the field, he had the knack +of "middling" the ball at the proper time, and for six years no man ever +assisted at the scoring of more goals. He was also included in the +following season's eleven against England, and in 1880 did duty for +Scotland in the Welsh match. Poor Fraser died in Australia, a few years +ago, shortly after arriving there. + + +~William Anderson (Queen's Park).~ + +In the International of 1882 Mr. Anderson and Mr. Fraser played on the +same side, and made a very good pair. The former, although not above the +medium height, was powerfully built, and few, if any, of his formidable +opponents were able to bring him down to mother earth. When he did fall, +however, he was never in a hurry to rise, and took matters easy. If one +could imagine such a thing as an easy-going football player, it was +Anderson, but his failing sometimes came in handy, for he would +occasionally make a gallant spurt, and pilot his way through the +opposing backs in a way that completely astonished his team and their +friends. He showed very well in this match, and the manner in which he +and his companion dodged the Englishmen, not even excepting Mr. Bailey, +the crack Clapham Rover half-back, will be easily remembered by those +who were present. Mr. Anderson is now abroad, and it is something to his +credit to say that he played four times against England. + + +~J. L. Kaye (Queen's Park).~ + +Like a good many fine players of the glorious past, Mr. Kaye received +the best of his football training in the ranks of the 3rd L.R.V., and a +couple of years, I think, before this big event, joined the forward +division of the black and white stripes. Of a good-natured disposition, +and a genial fellow to meet both on the field and at the social board, +Mr. Kaye was a great favourite all round, and much sought after outside +the pale of his own club. He was a very fine forward; a good dribbler, +but was much more easily tackled than Anderson, and occasionally felt +shy at meeting an opponent who had frightened him in a previous match. +He must have done well in this contest, as he is highly spoken about in +the newspaper reports, and scored the fifth and last goal got for +Scotland. He was also an old and tried hand at Internationals, as he +faced the English division three times, and Wales also in the same +number of matches. + + +~R. M'Pherson (Arthurlie).~ + +What might be honestly termed the illustration of a fair field and no +favour, Mr. M'Pherson's name was added to the International players of +that season through sheer force of ability. I saw him play in several +matches that year, and his style and smart passing up from the left wing +was justly admired. He was Mr. Kaye's companion in this contest, and +ably assisted that player to bring up the ball in several splendid runs. +Since M'Pherson's retiral from active duty, and also the fact of Mr. +Turner, their famous goalkeeper, giving up the game, the Arthurlie have +gone back a bit in football ability, but during two seasons they were +able to have two nominations for International honours, as Mr. Turner +kept goal against Wales in 1882. Possessing great speed and judgment, +M'Pherson was a very neat and steady player, and for two seasons at +anyrate, a star among all the Renfrewshire forwards. + + +~George Ker (Queen's Park).~ + +A sketch of an International, cup tie, or, in fact, a first-class +contest of any kind ten years ago, would be altogether incomplete +without some reference to Mr. George Ker, now abroad. From 1880 to 1883 +he was Scotland's best centre forward, and the originator of what is now +known in football parlance as the "cannon shot" at goal. Many players +have since tried it, and made fairly good attempts, but Ker alone could +do it to perfection. In this International he gave the Englishmen a +taste of his ability in this line. He passed Mr. Greenwood, the English +extreme back, and when fairly in front watched how the goalkeeper (Mr. +Swepstone) would take in the situation. Ker spun the ball hard from his +toe at the proper moment, and sent in a "flyer," which took effect. I am +all but certain that if a vote were taken among players and spectators +about the place to be assigned to centre forwards, Ker would come out +the admitted chief. International honours were his thrice against +England. + + +~W. Harrower (Queen's Park).~ + +The Queen's Park had no fewer than five forwards in this season's +International, and Mr. Harrower was one. He played in the company of Mr. +Ker, and the central division of the Scottish team was unusually +strong. In fact, I distinctly remember some remarks made at the meeting +of the Association, at which I was present, about the combination at +that point being the most powerful ever sent out by Scotland. Mr. +Harrower was really a beautiful dribbler, not easily knocked off his +pins, and the most unselfish player I ever saw. He has the credit of +earning the first goal got for Scotland in the match under notice, and +was in the best of form the whole of that season. He took a leading part +in the hard work of the Queen's Park for five years. + + +~A Narrow Shave in the 1885 International.~ + +There are yet other two Internationals, which introduce new faces into +the field of play, and the first is that of 1885 at Kennington Oval, +London, and ended in a tie, each side scoring one goal. Kennington +Oval--in the winter time, at anyrate--is to football in London what +Hampden Park is to Scotland in general and Glasgow in particular. The +weather was delightful on that afternoon (Saturday, 21st March), and the +spectators mustered in considerable force. Not, of course, so largely as +we can show in Glasgow, for it takes an enormous amount of attraction to +gather a big crowd in London. There was little or no wind to interfere +with the play, and as both teams were in the pink of condition, it was +an illustration of Greek meeting Greek in the open. The Scotchmen, +however, were the first to make matters exciting by scoring a smart goal +from the foot of Mr. Lindsay, and this was all the effective work done +in the first round. The second forty-five minutes of the play was also +of a very give-and-take order, and once Mr. Allan hit the English goal +bar with a hard shot, but the ball rebounded into play, and was +eventually sent behind. Towards the close, however, the Englishmen, led +by Messrs. Bambridge, Cobbald, and Brown made a fine run, and the former +put the game square for England. The contest, therefore, as I have +already indicated, ended in a tie. As in all the other events that I +have already touched upon, many of the players are now scattered far and +wide. Some have given the game up altogether, while others are still +playing on, and doing football duty as well, if not better, than ever +they did before. Taking the eleven in the order of positions, I shall +begin with + + +~J. Macaulay (Dumbarton).~ + +Among the brilliant array of goalkeepers who have sprung up to +distinguish themselves during the past ten years, none deserves a more +kindly notice in any football reminiscences than Mr. Macaulay. The +present match was the third he stood sentinel before Scotland's +stronghold, and he also played in '86 and '87. His first was at +Sheffield in 1883, when I saw him save several splendid shies from the +feet of the English forwards, and it is something to add of him that he +was included in the Scotch teams who never lost a match with England. In +the 1885 contest he kept goal in his best form, and was frequently +cheered for the manner in which he got out the ball and dodged the +English forwards. Mr. Macaulay was very quiet and unostentatious in his +manner, and did his work brilliantly. He returned to Scotland the other +day from abroad, and may yet play for some of our leading clubs. + + +~Walter Arnott (Queen's Park).~ + +Second in the order of teams, but premier in all that pertains to back +play, comes the name of Mr. Arnott. Out of all the fine players who +acted as extreme backs, none has done better work for his club and, let +me say, International matches. It is all very well to say that there +were giants in those days, but you all know what befell Goliath, and I +cannot help saying that if you were to ask me candidly (taking the +question in an all-round way) who was the best back you ever saw, I +should have no hesitation in answering that it was Walter Arnott. In the +words of the old English ballad, "he feared no foe," and never in the +history of football of the present time has such a brilliant man arisen. +He has so many remarkable points that I cannot tell them in a brief +notice, but as he is still playing well, spectators are at one in +admitting his grand ability. + + +~M. Paton (Dumbarton).~ + +The match under review was Mr. Paton's second appearance against +England, and he acquitted himself very well. Somehow or other the +committee of selection in International matches, while they honestly do +their duty, sometimes move in a mysterious way, and the selection of Mr. +Paton to stand alongside Mr. Arnott in this contest was, at the time, +considered somewhat risky. Not by any means because Mr. Paton was not a +good back, but in consequence of the diversity of play shown by the +pair. Mr. Paton was nothing if he was not allowed a little latitude, and +in some of the matches he came off with flying colours. Arnott and he, +however, acted well together. To give Mr. Paton his due, he was a most +gentlemanly young fellow, and did his very best for the game. + + +~J. J. Gow (Queen's Park).~ + +It has just occurred to me, and I can't see how the illustration might +not with equal force be applied to football as in the honest range of +every-day life, that if a "round-robin" were sent about the clubs that +tackled the Q.P. in their best matches in the past decade, I am certain +that the verdict about the man who was most feared in all the elevens, +the name of Mr. J. J. Gow would come out first. He was, in fine, a +half-back that the Q.P. had reason to feel proud. Half-backs might come +and go--as they undoubtedly did--but Gow seemed in his football career +to go on for ever. The most mysterious thing about him was that he was +always in the same form, and never had any practice. Football at +half-back seemed to come to him by nature, and cost him no effort. He +could return splendidly, but at close tackling, and in clearing the ball +away, he was sometimes a little slack, and had to make it up by sheer +force of hard work. + + +~Alexander Hamilton (Queen's Park).~ + +Not long ago, while "doing" a match at Hampden Park (I think it was Q.P. +v. Battlefield, in the Glasgow Cup), I met my old friend in the pavilion +looking on and enjoying the sport. Like the M'Neils, the Hamiltons are a +football family, and while Mr. James, who is now an active member of the +present Q.P., will come under my pen later on, I have only at present to +deal with Mr. Alexander. Well, he was something in his day, and by no +means to be despised as a forward. He was not a fast dribbler, but when +hard work was required, and wasn't it just in the great match against +the professional Preston North End, when the Q.P. were able to hold +their own, Mr. Hamilton never played better in his life. + + +~William Sellar (Queen's Park).~ + +I have for the most part been dealing with the past, and it is no force +of imagination to come straight to the living present, and add that a +better left-wing player never appeared in any club or combination of +players than Mr. William Sellar. He has a style of his own which is, to +give the Battlefield its due, peculiar to that club's ability in the +dribbling game. Mr. Sellar did not learn all his football in the Queen's +Park, but really perfected his style on Hampden Park, and he is +undoubtedly, at the present time, the most brilliant forward in +Scotland. Gentlemanly in every sense of the word, Sellar is the fairest +player that ever faced an opponent, and no man is more respected on the +field. In addition to this contest, he played against England in 1886, +1887, and 1888. It may be mentioned that in 1890, in playing against the +3rd L.R.V., he played from the left in a style never excelled by any +forward. + + +~Joseph Lindsay (Dumbarton).~ + +Before this date, Mr. Joseph Lindsay was what might be called an old +hand at Internationals, as he had appeared before England in 1881 and +1884, and Wales in 1880, 1881, 1884, and 1885. It is not too much to say +of him that he was the most dangerous forward (to an opponent, I mean) +of his day, and if the backs were in any way slack, Lindsay "spread +dismay around," as he was a dead shot at goal, and rarely, if ever, +missed a chance if he got within a dozen yards of the sticks. Lindsay +was the best forward in many respects that ever toed a ball for +Dumbarton. He was, however, sorely tried in the finishing year of his +football life, and in many of the leading matches so closely watched by +the opposing backs that he was sometimes fairly done for, and could not +get the ball away. + + +~David S. Allan (Queen's Park).~ + +Like Sir Roger de Coverley's definition of a great ethical question to +one of his numerous friends, "that much might be said of one point," the +illustration holds good when applied to Mr. David Allan. Popularity has +its duties as well as its privileges, and there is not a single forward +in broad Scotland who is so popular and so much beloved by club +companions and opponents alike as Mr. Allan. He is, in fine, the most +useful man in the Queen's Park, and while all of us seem to grow older +as each season comes round, Allan has always that juvenile look which +undoubtedly betokens an easy and contented mind. He is not what might be +called a brilliant and showy forward, but I'll back him to do the best +hour and a half of heavy work in the world without any outward sign of +fatigue. I verily believe if Allan were forced to do it, he could play +in any part of the field with a few minutes' notice. + + +~R. Calderwood (Cartvale).~ + +In consequence of Mr. R. M. Christie, who had played in the +International, of the previous year, meeting with an accident in one of +the trial matches, Mr. Calderwood did duty as left-wing forward in this +match, and played very creditably. He was by far the best man in the +young Cartvale, and a finer country player never came under the eye of +an International referee. He was a veritable dodger among the opposing +backs, and in this contest gave the Englishmen, but more particularly +the Walters and Amos, a lot of trouble. He played a fine game in +combination with the rest of the Scottish forwards. In the same season +Mr. Calderwood played against Wales in the Principality. + + +~The Final Association Cup Tie of 1886.~ + +The clubs left in the final tie for possession of the Blue Ribbon of +Association football glory in this season were the Queen's Park and +Renton. Queen's Park led off by scoring from the foot of Mr. Lambie, and +this was all the effective work till ends were changed, when the Renton +team made a brilliant charge on the Queen's Park goal, and forced the +ball through in a scrimmage. The play immediately after this was so even +that a draw looked certain, but the Queen's Park eventually assumed +command, and scored other two goals (one by Mr. Hamilton and another by +Mr. Allan), and won a hard contest by three goals to one. As most of the +Renton players who took part in the match were considered famous in +their day, and have not been already introduced to you, I shall give +short sketches of their style of play. So far as the Queen's Park team +are concerned, however, I have only to deal with new faces in Messrs. R. +M. Christie, G. Somerville, and J. A. Lambie, as all the other eight +(Messrs. Campbell, Watson, Gow, Harrower, Hamilton, Arnott, Allan, and +Gillespie) have already been disposed of in the present volume. + + +~J. A. Lindsay.~ + +Somehow or other the Renton Club were never very strong in goalkeeping +when the perfect form of their forward division was taken into account, +but Mr. J. A. Lindsay was decidedly their best. He had what might be +called his good and bad days, however, and while he was always clever +with his feet, he sometimes misjudged the ball and allowed a "soft +thing" to take effect. In the present contest he had hot work in keeping +the Q.P. forwards clear. Mr. Lindsay showed such brilliant form in the +trial matches of 1888 that he was chosen to represent Scotland on +Hampden Park. He was somewhat unfortunate there, however, as England +revenged Bannockburn to the extent of five goals to none. + + +~A. Hannah.~ + +Who does not remember Mr. Hannah's fine fly-kick and powerful tackling? +In meeting and judging the ball in the air he rivalled the great Q.P. +back himself, but wanted the ability to follow up an advantage. In +nearly all the matches in which he took part that season, Hannah worked +hard and earnest. He had a peculiar way of turning round to an opponent +and taking the ball away from him with the side of the foot, and no man +in the Renton team was more feared by an opponent than Hannah. He never +played against England, but in 1888 was picked out to represent Scotland +against Wales. + + +~A. M'Call.~ + +In this tie Mr. Hannah had as his companion at extreme back Mr. A. +M'Call. In some of the earlier matches in which the latter appeared he +was a wild tackler and erratic in charging--rather going for the man, +and never minding the ball--but by and by he mellowed down, and +returned the leather beautifully from a besieged goal. I remember seeing +him in several of the leading games that same year, and he showed a +neatness of style which won for him golden opinions. He played against +Ireland in 1888. + + +~R. Kelso.~ + +Mr. Kelso was a tower of strength to the Renton team at half-back, and +did his duty in this contest. Rather a shade rough on an opponent at +times, Mr. Kelso could also be generous to the foe when he liked, and +sometimes made a brilliant hit at half-back by clearing away the ball +from the feet of an opponent, just when the latter was poising for a +shot at goal. Like Mr. Leitch Keir, of Dumbarton, he was, and is, a +magnificent half-back, and had International honours against England in +1887 and 1888. + + +~D. M'Kechnie.~ + +In connection with Mr. M'Kechnie's name in juxtaposition with Renton's +crack half-back, I must honestly confess I am like Cuddie +Headrigg--"Between the deil and the deep sea." I can only remember +seeing him twice. I come to the conclusion, then, that he must have been +a substitute, and if I am wrong in my supposition I shall be glad to +stand corrected. He was at any rate not sufficiently brilliant to get +his name handed down to posterity, although it must be said of him that +he was a fair average player, and did very well in this game. + + +~J. Thomson.~ + +Although he had a disposition to "poach" a little now and again, as some +forwards are apt to do, for you all know it is human to err, Thomson was +a grand player, and made the most of his speed. He never kept the ball +longer than was necessary, and if he thought his club would benefit by +it, shied quickly in from the touch-line no matter where his companions +or opponents alike were stationed on the field. He was really a fine +shier, and his dribbling powers beyond dispute. + + +~J. M'Call.~ + +The Renton team had now risen to the acme of their fame, and no player +helped them more to attain that position than Mr. J. M'Call. Some clubs +carry their position through sheer force of medium ability all round; +some have rare luck with their goalkeeping and backs; but, there is no +doubt about it, Renton was strong in front, and I question if any man +during that season played a better game than the younger M'Call. He +represented Scotland in the contests with England in 1887 and 1888 as +left-wing forward, and played a fine game. + + +~A. Grant.~ + +When the Renton men carried off the Glasgow Charity Cup that same +season, the forwards showed great ability. Mr. Grant was a very neat +player. If my memory serves me right, he backed up Mr. Barbour in this +game, and did it very well. He was, however, rather slow on the ball, +and was often sent to the right-about by Messrs. Gow and Watson. Like +Mr. M'Kechnie, he does not seem to have played in many of the Renton's +first-class matches, and his name is not found among Internationalists. + + +~A. M'Intyre.~ + +Mr. M'Intyre was one of the best forwards in the county which has +produced so many fine Association football exponents, and acted as +centre forward. Like Mr. D. Gow, of the Rangers, when he got fairly on +the ball there was no getting it from him and he excelled in hard +tackling. Possessing considerable speed, M'Intyre used it to the best +advantage, and he had such a liking for dodging round the backs that he +sometimes fairly carried away the spectators, and was loudly cheered for +his manoeuvring. + + +~A. Barbour.~ + +In this event Mr. Barbour was the best man on the Renton side, and kept +his feet on the slippery ground in a manner that completely astonished +all who saw the contest. He was sometimes fairly puzzled by the clever +heading of Mr. Campbell and the terrible tackling of Mr. Arnott, but +fought gamely to the last. In close dribbling he was the nearest +approach to Mr. William M'Kinnon (Q.P.) I have ever seen, and while he +was quite as tricky, wanted the tact to lead an opponent astray. He +played against Ireland in 1885. + + +~J. Kelly.~ + +What Mr. Marshall is to the 3rd L.R.V., Mr. Berry to the Queen's Park, +and Mr. Groves to the Celtic, Mr. Kelly was to his old club, the +Renton--viz., a grand man. Kelly, I think, first came out as a forward, +and played as such for his county against Renfrewshire in 1885, and also +in this tussle on Cathkin Park, but he eventually developed into a very +fine half-back, and played against England as such twice--in 1888 for +his mother club, and last season for his new love, the Celtic. His +proper place, however, is undoubtedly at half-back. + + +~R. M. Christie.~ + +Slowly but surely Mr. Christie passed all the probationary stages in the +Queen's Park on the way to develop a brilliant player, and in 1884 +appeared in the International with England. He was in the best of form, +and caused the strangers a deal of trouble. He was very strong on his +legs, and about the most powerful opponent of his day to meet in a close +match. The passing between Christie and Harrower that day was splendid, +and fairly astonished the Renton backs and goalkeeper. + + +~G. Somerville.~ + +Mr. Somerville was a very fine all round forward, with a good deal of +ability in backing up and middling the ball in front of goal. Mr. +Hamilton and he used to make the spectators laugh at the way in which +they annoyed the opposing backs by passing the leather to one another in +a tantalising way, right in front of the uprights. He was a sturdy +player, something of the same make as Mr. David Davidson, of 3rd L.R.V. +and latterly Queen's Park fame, with a nerve of iron and, shall I say, a +frame of steel. He played against England in 1886. + + +~J. A. Lambie.~ + +A comparatively short career had Mr. Lambie on Hampden Park, but it was +fraught with much distinction. He was a grand forward among a fine +division, and scored a lot of goals for the Queen's Park. He was, +indeed, at it again in this match, and, as I have already said in the +introduction, took one more for the black and white stripes. When +nearing the keeper, if he were fortunate enough to pass the backs, he +generally looked about for one of his companions to follow up, and was +quite an adept at the "screw-kick." Lambie appeared against England in +1888, and is now an active member of the Corinthians. + + +~The Association International of 1887.~ + +As the International of 1887 is, so to speak, a thing of yesterday, I +have only introduced it here for two reasons. The first of these is to +give me an opportunity of bringing new faces into my reminiscences, and +shortly criticising their styles of play, and the second to show you how +the admittedly best eleven sent out by England in all her matches with +Scotland were vanquished on their own soil by three goals to two. The +event came off at Blackburn in presence of some 10,000 spectators--a +much larger crowd than ever appeared in London to see the International. +The weather was dry overhead during the early stages of the tussle, but +a heavy shower of hail fell later on, and this, added to a mud-covered +ground, made matters anything but pleasant. The Scotchmen were the first +to score, which they did through Mr. M'Call against the wind, +half-an-hour from the start; but the Englishmen soon bore down on the +Scottish lines, and Mr. Lindley equalised, so that at half-time both +nationalities were on terms of equality. Not long after ends were +changed, the Scotchmen made one of those determined charges for which +they have been famed in many of the International games, and shoved both +goalkeeper and ball through between the posts. No sooner, however, had +the leather again been started than Mr. Dewhurst, the crack English +forward, sent in a shooter, and once more squared the game. It was now +"night or Blucher" for Scotland, and after a grand run between Messrs. +Marshall and Allan, which was loudly cheered, even though an enemy did +it, the young Queen's Park forward made Scotland one goal up. Till the +close the Englishmen had several brilliant sallies on the strangers' +goal, but the backs--Messrs. Arnott and Forbes--held their own, and +Scotland won by three goals to two. Mr. Macaulay kept goal in fine +style, and was the captain of the victorious team. The Englishmen chosen +to meet the Scotchmen on the occasion were--Messrs. Roberts, A. M. +Walters, P. M. Walters, N. C. Bailey, G. Howarth, J. Forrest, E. C. +Bambridge, W. N. Cobbald, J. Lofthouse, F. Dewhurst, and T. Lindley. +Besides the six who are mentioned below, Messrs. Arnott, Macaulay, +Kelso, J. M'Call, and W. Sellar (who have already been noticed) also +appeared against England in the same contest. + + +~J. Forbes (Vale of Leven).~ + +Like certain cricketers who can only cut, and are weak on the leg-side, +there are several backs playing for fair medium clubs just now who can +only return the ball properly if they have plenty of room to work, but +Mr. Forbes, who played in this match along with Mr. Arnott, was none of +these. You were, in fact, not five minutes in his company as a spectator +at a match before you were captivated with the style and finish of his +play. In the excitement of the game you imagined it was "all up with the +Vale," when a crowd of opposing forwards were observed getting the ball +nearer goal. All the time, however, Forbes was maturing his mode of +attack, and like the unsuspecting animal that darts upon its prey, the +crack Vale of Leven back dashed in, and you were sure to see the ball +flying away down the field, with a magnificent return. While kicking he +always got his toes well under the ball, and it was quite a rare thing +to see Forbes kicking high into the air. A great favourite with his club +and opponents as well, Mr. Forbes first appeared against England in +1884, when Scotland won by one to none, so that in both Internationals +in which he took part his team were on the winning side. He is now in +business in England. + + +~L. Keir (Dumbarton).~ + +When in the spring of 1887 Mr. Leitch Keir was chosen as companion to +Mr. Kelso (Renton), and Mr. Auld (3rd L.R.V.), in this great event at +Blackburn, almost everybody had confidence in them as half-backs, and I +am happy to say that this confidence was not misplaced, for no better +trio ever did duty in an International at that important position in the +field. For good, even-down tackling, and hard work, both in heading and +clean kicking, Keir was one of the very best men who ever played +football. So proficient was he at a "free kick," that when a "hand" was +given against the opposing team, in most of the Dumbarton matches, Keir +was invariably intrusted with the ball; and when the infringement took +place near the goal, the opposing team always dreaded his shot. He was +also a very fine dribbler for a half-back, and could run out the ball in +fine style from a hotly-pressed goal, and send it spinning down the +field. In the succeeding year he was chosen to appear against England on +Hampden Park, but, like the rest of the Scottish representatives in that +fatal contest, he did not show to the best advantage. + + +~J. Auld (3rd L.R.V.).~ + +During the past four or five years, Mr. Auld has been one of the best +half-backs in Scotland, and was a decided success in this contest. No +club in Britain has produced a string of better backs and half-backs +than the 3rd Lanark Rifle Volunteer Athletic and Football Club. Long +ago, many of their most brilliant victories were won by back play alone, +and this means preventing their opponents from scoring, and keeping what +they had got in the earlier stages of a contest. Among these old and +tried hands I must remember poor John Hunter (who is dead), Mr. +Alexander Kennedy, who still goes out to see his old club, and delights +to give the young ones an advice; Mr. William Somers, the gigantic +high-kicker, now in America, and many more, whose names shall long be +remembered in football history: but to Mr. Auld. He is yet a brilliant +half-back, and while by no means a heavy kicker, one of the most +judicious men in front of a hard-pressed goal I have ever seen. He is a +terrible tackler, and sometimes hugs an opponent so tenaciously that he +forces the ball away and saves his side. The 1887 match was the only one +in which he played for Scotland against England, but he appeared that +same season against Wales. + + +~J. Marshall (3rd L.R.V.).~ + +For two seasons, at any rate, and, I think, I might almost say three, +Mr. Marshall has maintained the honoured position of being about the +best right wing forward on any field. Gifted with an amount of speed, +which he uses to the best advantage, combined with rare dribbling +powers, he is the pride of the 3rd L.R.V. forward division, and no man +is more missed from a match. In connection with the last observation, +the Volunteers had to play the Rangers in the third round of the Glasgow +Cup without Mr. Marshall, and at the committee meeting before the +contest, when this became known, it was like a funeral lodge of +Freemasons--nobody cared to speak except the R.W.M. and M.C. Mr. +Marshall and Mr. Robertson (Dumbarton) were the right wing forwards on +the occasion, and several brilliant runs were made from their side. At +the present time he is about the best at middling the ball in front of +goal of any player going, and is one of those forwards who never seem to +get into a fagged state near the close of a match. + + +~W. Robertson (Dumbarton).~ + +Some players are fortunate in easily securing their positions among +crack teams, while others have to struggle on before their genuine +ability is properly recognised. Long ago, ability in selecting a team +went for very little, and positions, like kissing, by favour. Mr. +Robertson, however, received no favour from any combination, and was +selected on his merits. In that same season, I am almost positive, I saw +him play in brilliant form in the Final cup tie, when the Hibernian +overcame the Dumbarton on Hampden Park by two goals to one, and several +of the other matches about the same time. He was a very fine backer up, +possessing first-rate dribbling powers, and although a little shy in +meeting his opponent when he saw a charge inevitable, rather preferring +to use stratagem, was by no means afraid to go into the heart of a +scrimmage and face up to much heavier men than himself. This was Mr. +Robertson's first game against England, and he has no reason to be +ashamed of the way in which he helped Scotland to obtain victory. On the +Monday following this match he played against Wales at Wrexham. + + +~J. Allan (Queen's Park).~ + +When Mr. Allan made his appearance in the first match of any consequence +for the Queen's Park, he did so well that both club companions, +opponents, and spectators were completely astonished at his beautiful +dribbling and speed. In Ayrshire, when he played for the Monkcastle +Club, he was looked upon as a very fair young forward, but a few +practice games on Hampden Park seems to have had a remarkable effect on +him, and in one short season he was such a good man that International +honours were given him at once. In this tussle, which was one of the +most trying of the meetings between Scotland and England, Allan played a +grand game, and scored the third and winning goal for his country. The +run that resulted in the score was started by Mr. Marshall, and was one +of the finest ever seen in any contest. In a football sense, however, to +use a simile, Mr. Allan was like Octavian's prosperous star, but with +this difference, he vanished from the scene as quickly as he came, so +far as first-class matches were concerned, and only re-appeared on Ibrox +Park recently against the 3rd L.R.V. and his old club, Queen's Park. + + +~Glasgow Charity Cup Final Tie of 1888.~ + +The Renton Eleven are to-day in the proud position of winning the +Glasgow Charity Cup four times in succession--from 1886 down to season +1888-89, and even now the holders of that handsome trophy. In these +finals they polished off the Vale of Leven in 1886 by three to one; next +season the same club by one to none; in 1888 (the year which I have +singled out for review) vanquished the Cambuslang by four to none: and +last spring overcame the Queen's Park by three goals to one. In 1888 the +Renton men held both cups, and what was of more account, won them by +long odds against precisely the same opponents, viz., Cambuslang. In the +final for the Association Challenge Cup the victory was one of six goals +to one, and in the Glasgow Charity Cup four to none. This was, indeed, +the largest score made in the former, and was equal in the latter to +that made in 1877 (the first year of the competition) by the Queen's +Park, when they defeated the Rangers. Cambuslang, however, were at this +time a power in the land, and had previously carried off the Glasgow +Challenge trophy in its first season. In addition to this, they are also +credited with the record of fast scoring--having taken four goals from +the Queen's Park in the last ten minutes of the fifth round of the +Scottish Challenge Cup in 1886, but as the Queen's Park had five points +on previously, they saved the game by one goal. The event of which I +have presently to deal came off on Hampden Park on the 12th May, 1888, +and ended in favour of the Renton, as has already been indicated, by +four to none. The Cambuslang men played well at the start, and a close +match was expected. Through some cause or other, however, they fell away +considerably as the game advanced, and J. Campbell scored the first goal +for Renton, and this was soon followed by a second from the foot of J. +M'Call, the record at half-time being two goals to none in favour of the +crack Dumbartonshire club. The second round, strange to say, was also +well contested at the outset, but the grand forward combination of the +Renton told the tale of defeat to the Cambuslang men, and other two +goals were added. As none of the Cambuslang team have previously come +under my pen, I give them first, and will include three of Renton who +have not been noticed. + + +~Mr. Dunn.~ + +More genuine progress has been made in goalkeeping among the Scottish +Association clubs during the last decade than the average spectator +cares to admit, but it is nevertheless a fact. Mr. Dunn played in most +of the best matches of that year, and while he did very creditably in +some of the ties, had the misfortune to lose four goals in this contest. +The Renton forwards, however, were too smart for the bulk of the +Cambuslang backs, and woe betide a goalkeeper when he is not properly +supported there! Mr. Dunn had a lively time of it in the contest, and +saved some splendid shies from taking effect. + + +~J. Smith.~ + +The Cambuslang team were never famed for the brilliancy of their back +play. It was what the forward division had done for that club in some of +the most severe and uncertain of their matches that forced them to be +looked upon in Scotland as one of the crack elevens. Mr. Smith was +rather of the quiet and unassuming order of players, who thought much +but said little, and did his work well. He was a fine kicker with either +foot, and his tackling was severe, but honest and clean. With a good +wind in his favour, few backs could equal him in a long kick, but he +sometimes made mistakes near goal when he was hard pressed. + + +~Mr. M'Farlane.~ + +The best back in the Cambuslang eleven that season was undoubtedly Mr. +M'Farlane. He reminded me very much of the style of Mr. A. H. Holm +(Queen's Park), who captained the Scottish team against England at +Sheffield in 1883. He had rare ability in close tackling; used to get +the ball away by clever heading, and was the most plucky young fellow to +go to the assistance of a half-back one could see anywhere. His only +defect--and it was a very bad one--consisted in getting up to an +opponent and trying to take the ball away from him in the rear. +Sometimes it came off well, but at others his club had to pay the +penalty with a free kick. + + +~Mr. Russell.~ + +In the present contest Mr. Russell was one of the three half-backs, and +in no match during that season had a trio such terrible opponents to +encounter as the two Campbells, M'Call, and M'Callum, who were perfect +demons among the Renton forwards. Russell held out bravely for a time, +but was eventually cornered, and, in the second half particularly, "lost +his head," and allowed the Renton men to get up to Dunn too often. In +some of the smaller matches of the club he played brilliantly, but did +not really rise to the occasion in this memorable cup tie, and in most +of the tackling came off second best. + + +~John Gourlay.~ + +It has often been said about Cambuslang that it was a club of three +names! Those names, however, both individually and collectively, were +fearless opponents to meet in any tussle, let alone a cup tie, and to +the credit of Cambuslang be it said, no combination of players ever +served a club so well, and had such pleasure in their hard work, as the +Buchanans, Gourlays, and Smiths. They were more feared than admired by +the members of the clubs twenty miles around, than the Elliots, and +Armstrongs, or, shall I say, the Græmes, of the "debatable land" long +ago. Both Mr. James and Mr. John Buchanan were famous players in their +way, but the back was decidedly the best man, and was selected to play +against Wales the same season. + + +~A. Jackson.~ + +Cambuslang's style of play, with their fast following up and jerky +kicking, suited, or, I might say, favoured the old style of six forwards +and only two half-backs, but they insisted on being in the fashion. The +three half-backs, however, were only names to conjure with, but nothing +in real practice, for Mr. Jackson was always made the kind of "flying +man" of the team, and was nothing more or less than a forward. He always +joined the latter division when they were attacking an opponent's goal, +and retired well up among the backs when his club were pressed at the +lines. In 1886 Mr. Jackson played against Wales, and was also included +in the team against Ireland in 1888. + + +~John Buchanan.~ + +Although Mr. John Buchanan developed into a very fair half-back, and was +selected to appear against Ireland last spring, he was included in the +present match under notice as a forward, and I think he then played on +the right. He was the fastest dribbler in the team, and a capital +tackler. The combination among the Cambuslang forward division, however, +on the occasion was completely spoiled by the superior tactics of the +Renton eleven, and that fine passing for which the village team were so +justly famed was awanting that afternoon on Hampden Park. + + +~James Buchanan.~ + +Although similar in name, the play of the other Buchanan was quite +different from that of Mr. John. He was always cool and collected, and +had a fine style of dribbling and passing which sometimes rose to +perfection itself, but in his runs he was fond of showing off, and was +easily tackled in consequence. But for this fault he would have been +chosen to play in one of the Internationals the previous year. No +player, however, loved the game and his old club so much, and practised +more self-denial to attend the field on the eve of a big match, and do +his best for victory. + + +~J. Plenderleith.~ + +Every club undoubtedly has its own ideal type of player, and I am almost +sure that Plenderleith was the favourite among the Cambuslang forwards. +He had speed--and rare speed, too--and with a kind of long kick that he +followed up in a style of his own, made great progress down the field. +He kept too close on the touch-line, however, and his great fault was +kicking out--a dangerous thing when too near goal in this age of smart +throwing in--for I notice a great improvement in this art during the +past few years. We are, however, still behind the Englishmen in this +respect, as most of them play cricket in the summer, and are +consequently good shiers. + + +~G. Smith.~ + +Mr. George Smith was what I might honestly term a fair forward, not +brilliant, but steady, and a good backer up. He was, however, always +getting too near the line, and often had to submit to the indignity of +being pressed into touch, and thereby losing the leather. The fact was +he took too much room to work in, and was slow in following up an +advantage. To give him his due, however, he was a very earnest worker, +could stand a deal of tear and wear during a season, and was always +available when wanted in a hurry by his club. + + +~James Gourlay.~ + +There is not a more steady player going at the present day than Mr. +Gourlay. He showed remarkable ability in passing and middling, and his +fast shies at goal were really splendid. In this event he was at his +very best. Once or twice he started well with the ball at his toe, and +made tracks for the Renton goal, but was badly supported in the +following up, and often got collared by the opposing half-backs. He +possessed great speed, like most of the other Cambuslang forwards, and +scored a lot of the goals for his club that season in their best +matches. + + +~H. Campbell (Renton).~ + +The two Campbells were young players in the Renton team three years ago, +and in this match were considered sufficiently good to be included in +the forward division that did so well against Cambuslang. Mr H. Campbell +was a very fine dribbler and passer, and good at close tackling. The +passing in this tie between Mr. J. M'Call and he was splendid, and went +a long way in winning the match. He was also a veritable dodger when he +got up to the opposing half-backs, and the partisans of the clubs who +played Renton in 1888 used to hold their breath when they saw Campbell +in front. + + +~J. Harvey (Renton).~ + +Unknown to fame as a regular player in the Renton eleven until the +season when this event took place, or it may be the preceding one, Mr. +Harvey was one of the victorious forwards. He showed fair judgment, and +middled the ball very neatly to the Campbells and M'Call. His dribbling, +however, was a shade too wide, and as he had excellent speed, sometimes +he over-ran the ball at a time when the other forwards were following +close up, and lost chances to score. + + +~J. Campbell (Renton).~ + +Of all the young forwards who graduated in the dribbling game at the +village of Renton, there never was a better shot at goal than Mr. J. +Campbell. Smart on his legs, with a good appearance, he dribbled +splendidly, and half-backs caught a perfect Tartar when they came close +up and attempted to take the leather away from him. His style near goal +reminded me very much of Dr. John Smith, who scored so many goals in the +half-a-dozen Internationals in which he took part against England. +Campbell never waited a second before making his parting shot, and +sometimes the goalkeeper failed to get the ball before it went spinning +through. + + +~The Final Association Cup Tie of 1889.~ + +This tie was decided at Hampden Park on the 9th February, 1889, between +the 3rd L.R.V. and Celtic, and ended in favour of the 3rd L.R.V. by two +goals to one. The same clubs, however, had previously met to decide the +contest, but both played under protest in consequence of the weather. +This naturally caused that additional excitement, which culminated at +the final meeting on Hampden Park that Saturday afternoon. The 3rd +L.R.V. had long worked for possession of the coveted prize, and twice it +was within their grasp, for they played and were defeated in the final +ties on two previous occasions--viz., in 1876 by the Queen's Park, who +scored two goals to none, and again in 1878 by the Vale of Leven, who +overcame the warriors by one to none. If ever a team deserved victory in +this event it was the 3rd Lanark Rifle Volunteers. The Celtic were more +than foemen worthy of their steel, and considering the fact that the 3rd +L.R.V. had come through the ties so creditably, and had that season +vanquished the crack English professional combination, the victory was a +most popular one all round. As for the Celtic, they are a young and +powerful club, and can afford to wait a season or so for victory, for +you know "everything comes to those who wait." The crowd was large, the +weather fair, and the enthusiasm great. The Volunteers played with the +wind, and made their first point out of a scrimmage about twenty minutes +from the start, and this was all the scoring in the first round. The +play after this was very even, and the Celts were showing off some grand +combined efforts, but were unfortunate at goal. At length, however, the +Irishmen made a brilliant sally on the Volunteers' stronghold, and Mr. +M'Callum put the ball between the posts. After this the play was so even +that a draw seemed inevitable, and it was only by the determined play of +the Cathkin Park team that at length the Celtic goal was taken for the +second time by Mr. Oswald, junior, who was ably assisted in the +successful run by Messrs. Marshall and Hannah. The Cup--that trophy +which had cost some kind hearts (now silent for ever), an unsatisfied +longing, and a constant anguish of patience--was safe to the old club at +last! I accordingly give the players who took part in the tie, and start +with the 3rd L.R.V. + + +~Downie (3rd L.R.V.).~ + +Mr. Downie deserves credit for the manner in which he has kept goal for +the "warriors" during the past two seasons, when his club played and +defeated some of the best in Scotland and England. In this event he had +terrible work to perform, and got through it with much credit. So far as +I can remember--and it is, indeed, no stretch of imagination--the goal +got by Mr. M'Callum could not have been saved by any keeper, as it came +out of a scrimmage from the Celtic man's foot like a rocket. Mr. Downie +is a very neat kicker-out in front, and shows fine judgment with his +hands in clearing the ball away from a crowd of opposing forwards. + + +~A. Thompson.~ + +Mr. Thompson is one of the best backs that last season produced, and had +it not been that the two Queen's Park men--Messrs. Arnott and +Smellie--had played together so well, and pleased the Committee of +Selection in most of the best matches, Mr. Thompson would have been in +the great International. As it was, he got the next best position, being +chosen to play against Wales. He is a rare tackler, sometimes a little +rough, but the finest kicker in front of a besieged goal I have ever +seen. Sometimes in the heat of a scrimmage he loses the ball, but has +the knack of recovering himself in an instant. + + +~J. Rae.~ + +The Volunteers were remarkably well served with their backs in this tie, +and Mr. Rae made a capital companion to Mr. Thompson. He is scarcely +such an accomplished tackler, but for neat kicking and feeding the +forwards when they are playing an open game, I know none better. He is a +splendid man for judging distances, and if he is certain the ball is +nearer one of his companions than himself, gets close behind and backs +up at once. To see Mr. Rae placing the leather in front of his forwards +in a good match is a treat of no ordinary kind, and it may be mentioned +that he played against Wales last season. + + +~A. Lochhead.~ + +The three half-backs in the present tie with which I have to deal were +Messrs, Auld, Lochhead, and M'Farlane. Mr. Lochhead has been long one of +the "shining lights" of the 3rd L.R.V., and while in some respects +inferior to Mr. Auld, has one grand virtue to recommend in a football +player--viz., patience. His perception is keen and decisive, and if he +imagines a daring forward on the other side can be successfully met +without close tackling, he never fails to out-manoeuvre him, and let +the spectators see some rare half-back play. Mr. Lochhead took part in +the Welsh International in the spring. + + +~Mr. M'Farlane.~ + +The 3rd L.R.V. were in perfect training condition in the tie, and well +can I remember both Auld and M'Farlane coming in for a large share of +hugging by excited partisans as they made their way up the steps towards +the pavilion of the Queen's Park Club that memorable Saturday afternoon. +Mr. M'Farlane is really a fine all-round player, and this season is +keeping up his form in a way that both astonishes and delights his old +friends. His "heading" in front of goal is very fine, and has saved many +a shot from taking effect. + + +~J. Oswald, Junior.~ + +No better pair of dribblers ever served a club than the two +Oswalds--senior and junior--last season, and had more genuine success in +the games in which they played. The forward combination, with these two +men at their best, was decidedly the most powerful in Scotland, and +undoubtedly won the match for the Volunteers against the Celtic. Mr. +Oswald, junior, however, was the better of the two, and the manner in +which he scored the second goal, which gave the Third the victory, was +quite a treat to all who saw the tie that day on Hampden Park. + + +~J. Oswald, Senior.~ + +The senior Oswald, as he was called, to distinguish him from his +companion of the same name, played against England in the spring, and +was as good a dribbler, but not so fine a judge of a goalkeeper's +ability to get at the ball when the forwards were crowding round, and +sending in shots thick and fast. The passing among the forwards of the +3rd L.R.V. that day was so good as to defy criticism, if that were +possible, and Oswald, senior, was no exception to the others. The pair, +however, loved the loaves and fishes of England better than the 3rd +L.R.V., and are now "o'er the Border and awa'." + + +~J. Hannah.~ + +In some of the best games of the 3rd L.R.V. last season the passing and +following up between Mr. Hannah and Mr. Johnstone were not to be beaten +anywhere for splendid judgment and properly matured forward play. There +are what is known to the player as certain degrees of pluck and +endurance, and while I have in my mind's eye some forwards in other +clubs, including Mr. William Berry, the Queen's Park light-weight, who +must of necessity come under the first, I am inclined to rank Mr. Hannah +among the second. He is, however, a first-rate man. + + +~W. Johnstone.~ + +Last in order of forwards, but by no means lacking in genuine ability, +with rare dribbling powers, comes the name of Mr. W. Johnstone. He +played a very steady game all through this tie, and was as fresh as +paint after the whistle sounded the finish. Although not such a +determined tackler as some of the other forwards not only in his own +team, but in the Celtic as well, he is the most earnest worker in the +whole club, and in his probationary days would practice unceasingly to +attain perfection in certain points of the game in which he was +deficient. He played against Wales in 1889, and in 1887 against Ireland. + + +~J. Kelly (Celtic).~ + +Although Mr. Kelly is, so to speak, unknown to the game as a goalkeeper, +he promises to become a good man below the bar. The ability of the +Celtic goalkeeper, however, is certainly not equal to the back and +half-back play; and, while Kelly did very well in this match, his duties +were rendered less difficult by the splendid defence shown at back by +Mr. M'Keown, and the grand half-back efforts of Mr. M'Laren. He has +several good points, including the clever fisting-out of the ball, but +is not a strong kicker, and sometimes goes too far away from his +charge. + + +~P. Gallacher.~ + +When the Celtic were hard pressed on several occasions, Mr. Gallacher +always fell back on his goal, like the prudent general who covers his +retreat, and no man did more heading and breasting in running the ball +out that day. He wants the judgment of his companion in the same +position, but makes up for it by fearless and unceasing work. He was +hard pressed several times by Marshall and Oswald, sen., and had the +worst of the tackling, but he generally came up smiling, and renewed +hostilities with Spartan bravery. + + +~M. M'Keown.~ + +Mr. M'Keown was decidedly the best back on the losing side that day, and +his defence near goal splendid. He is not, however, particularly careful +in his returns, and sometimes kicks over his own lines when hard +pressed, but there can be only one opinion as to his genuine ability in +close tackling--he can do it to perfection. During the game, even +Marshall, who is not afraid of anybody, sometimes steered clear of +M'Keown by passing up the ball to Johnstone instead of keeping +possession to the last. He played against Ireland the same year. + + +~W. Maley.~ + +The Celtic had as their three half-backs in the contest under review +Messrs. W. Maley, J. M'Laren, and J. Kelly (the latter of whom has +already been mentioned in a previous article). Mr. W. Maley, if I am not +mistaken, is a young member of a very young club that has made a name +for itself in a couple of seasons. He has, however, a deal to learn +before he can be classed alongside Kelly and M'Laren. He is kind of +slipshod in his mode of tackling, wanting finish, but nevertheless a +dangerous man to meet in a charge. + + +~J. M'Laren.~ + +The finest half-back of the Irish combination is undoubtedly Mr. J. +M'Laren, and in this tie his play was really magnificent. When the +Volunteers' forwards again and again got near the Celtic goal, he was +the first to checkmate them, and, not contented to work his own place +successfully, frequently went to the assistance of some of the forwards +when he thought they had more than enough to do. He played for his old +club, the Hibernian, against Wales in 1888, and in 1889 against England +for the Celtic. + + +~M. Dunbar.~ + +Mr. Dunbar was one of the most active men in the Celtic forward division +in this match, and showed very good dribbling, but was easily tackled +when getting near goal, and more than once "removed" off the ball by +Auld and Lochhead. He is, however, a steady worker, and most reliable +when backing up. Mr. Dunbar, if I am not mistaken, was at one time a +member of the Cartvale, and played for Scotland against Ireland for that +club in 1886. + + +~R. M'Callum.~ + +In his general style of play Mr. M'Callum was not unlike Mr. William +M'Kinnon (Dumbarton), who flourished from 1881 to 1885, and was one of +the best forwards in that county. He was not such a tricky and cunning +tackler, however, but faced up to his man with a confidence that +betokened superiority. He was, like the rest of the Celtic forwards, a +good dribbler, and possessed considerable speed. For a young player he +was also very judicious in passing the ball, and during this contest he +helped to start some of the best runs of the day. He played against +Ireland, at Belfast, in 1888, and is now located in Blackburn, where he +partners Harry Campbell on the right wing of the Rovers. + + +~W. Groves.~ + +It was in the final tie for the Scottish Challenge Cup between the +Hibernian and Dumbarton in 1887, which the crack Edinburgh team won by +two goals to one, that brought Mr. Groves into special notice, and it +may be, for aught I know, caused him to be carried off by the Celtic +later on. Like a good many other players, he varies a bit in his style. +Some days he is easily tackled; while at others not a single back or +half-back on the field has a chance with him, and it must be said of him +that he is one of the neatest dribblers of the day. He played against +Wales in 1888. + + +~J. Coleman.~ + +Among the forward division of the Celtic, Mr. Coleman was a decided +acquisition, and during that same season scored a lot of goals for the +new Irish combination, which came to the front with something like the +rapidity of "Jonah's gourd." A beautiful dribbler and runner, he made +several grand spurts towards the 3rd L.R.V. goal, but had a weakness for +keeping the ball too long, and was often tackled by the sure feet of Rae +and Thomson. In speed and general play he reminded me very much of Mr. +William Miller (3rd L.R.V.), an International against England as far +back as 1876. + + +~T. Maley.~ + +When the whole of the Celts were at their best, and this happened pretty +often last season in their Challenge Cup ties, Mr. T. Maley generally +rose to the occasion, and led his team brilliantly. His steady-going +style is much liked, not only by his colleagues, but spectators, and it +is quite a rare thing to see him grassed by an opponent. When +approaching the goal with the ball, he is like the priest who had a +"wonderful way wid him"--slipping through the backs in a manner that is +sure to make the goalkeeper gnash his teeth, and wish Maley was far +enough away. + + + + +_V.--THE PIONEERS OF ASSOCIATION FOOTBALL IN SCOTLAND;_ + +OR, + +_"THE CONQUEROR'S FOOTBALL BOOTS."_ + + +My football boots are getting what might be called shabby genteel now, +and no wonder. If they could speak they would tell you many a strange +episode in the life of an Association football player, and how he kept +his place in a leading club for nearly a dozen years. They have been old +and dear friends, those well-worn boots, and although now somewhat +curled up at the toes, have kicked many a good goal out of a hot and +exciting scrummage in front of an opponent's upright posts, and even in +an International tussle; but now that they, like myself, have retired +from active duty, and may reasonably be supposed not to be encumbered +with existing prejudices, which in the nature of things might more or +less interfere with expressing an honest opinion about the Association +football player of the past or his colleagues and successors, I will +introduce them to you, and in figurative language allow them to tell +their own unvarnished tale. My last advice, however, to you, my old +friends, before leaving you to the tender mercies of a scribbler, is not +to answer all the questions he thinks proper to put. Please don't tell +him what you heard or saw after leaving the football field clinging to +my sole and instep, of my love intrigues, my stolen interviews with +blue-eyed Annie, and when she jilted me and got married to Charlie +Quilter, who played "left wing" in the Flying Blues. Charlie must have +regretted what he did more than once. + +The Blues used to play us a couple of games in the year, and not long +before Charlie got married he was, as a matter of course, one of their +eleven. On that occasion I felt nettled to think that a big, +broosy-faced, lisping fellow like Charlie should have "put my eye out," +and could not resist the temptation of frequently crossing to his side +during the game, and "going" for him. Oh! how my old companions, my +boots, behaved on the occasion--the very laces almost burst with +indignation; but Quilter, poor soul, never gave a winch, and bore it +with becoming fortitude. He has now, like myself, got settled in life (I +am a confirmed bachelor), and we are still the best of friends, for that +"blue-eyed Annie loved him, too," was one of those things I could never +forget. It is too bad, however, in me to block the way with this +dissertation, and not allow Mr. Boots to begin. I shall leave the rest +to him with confidence. + +Well, once upon a time (began Mr. Boots), I was a combination of +circumstances. That is to say, I went through many processes even before +I became mature leather, and one afternoon I was brought to a small +shoemaker's shop in Crosshill tied up in a bundle. There were lots of +cuttings in that bundle--butt, ben, wrapper, cordivan, kid, calf-skin, +and even sheep-skin--but I was then a shapeless piece of wrapper, kipp, +and calf-skin. When I was trysted there were few, if any, football boots +made, and the old man who was entrusted with my construction was a +strange old "cove." He could make a pair of ordinary boots with any one, +but was not so sure about me. I was ordered by a genteel, nice-looking +lad, with red cheeks and clear black eyes. He addressed the +representative of St. Crispin in a musical voice, but I then formed an +opinion of my future master, that he would be a little conceited and +arrogant at times, and this has proved correct. The instructions about +covering my soles with bars was specially impressed on the old man's +memory, and every detail was carried out to the letter. When we were +completed, my brother and I, you would have admired us. If it were +possible to have anything handsome in the boot line, except, perhaps, a +tiny, fur-lined lady's slipper, it was us. We were sewed with +substantial rosen-end, the division between the inseam and soles was +filled up with real leather skivings, and not the trashy "jump" which +makes up the bulk of the soles of football boots nowadays. The more, in +fact, I think of it, the more I am convinced that the present make of +football boots is a new-fangled device in the shoemaking trade, for are +they not now got up of American leather, brass nails, and other +abominations, free of import duty! My master, I remember, came for me +(please consider that I am also representing my brother, for, like the +Siamese twins, the one can do nothing without the other) on a Saturday. +He told the old man that he was going to play a match with the Leven +Crowers that very afternoon, and must have me. I was barely finished, +but Tate's son got the bars put on all right, and I was handed over to +the tender mercies of my new master. He was quite delighted with my +appearance, and looked with pride, and even satisfaction, on my +well-polished uppers and wrapper soles. There was even a half-'un going +at the paying. + +The Leven Crowers were a young and powerful club, possessing more speed +in running than any real football ability at the time. The club to which +my master belonged was the first to introduce the new ideas in the game, +as they were then called, in Scottish soil, and as there were only three +clubs in existence at the time of which I am referring, the contests, as +a matter of course, were few and far between, and, consequently, looked +forward to with more than ordinary pleasure. The other two clubs were +the Greenvale and the Kilback, but they were not of much account (so my +master had often said, and he was supposed to be a good judge). I heard +him say the Conquerors had "licked" these clubs over and over again, and +that they weren't in the same street. When I was being laced up, +however, for the fray that afternoon in the old toll-house on the road +to Battlefield (the Conquerors had no such modern requisite as a +pavilion then), I heard Bob Gardens express quite a different opinion +about the Greenvale, and even go the length of saying that they had a +draw with them on the previous evening after a hard fight. This +demonstrated a fact that was useful to me in my subsequent career, viz., +never to credit what other folks (especially football players) said +about the ability of opponents in the heat of a tussle. Talking about +the Leven Crowers, they were not to be despised. Although the haughty +Conquerors had given them their first lesson in Association football, +they were fast coming up on them in some of the points of the game. I +heard my owner say that the first lesson was given at Alexandria, and on +that occasion the Crowers, who were then crack shinty players, arranged +themselves in the field as if for a match at that ancient Scottish game. +That they had not forgotten their first game with the Conquerors was +amply illustrated in the present, which, I might again repeat, was my +first outset in public life. I was stiff at first, and pressed my +master's instep rather hard shortly after the kick-off. The contest was +played on the Recreation Ground, and was witnessed by very few +spectators. True, there were certainly many choice spirits residing near +the spot, who came out to see us and enjoy a quiet outing, and have a +friendly crack. + +Little did these club companions imagine that that small but +enthusiastic gathering of spectators was the harbinger of crowds +composed of thousands of excited spectators who now assemble to witness +big Association matches every Saturday, not only to see the Conquerors, +but other clubs, very slightly removed from them in ability, playing +"Cup ties." The Crowers' forwards showed great pace, and one of them, +Will Cumming, repeatedly got past me, despite the smart manoeuvring of +my master. Will, however, was somewhat wild in his dribbling, and could +not keep the ball close enough to his toes. Jim Wild was my master's +backer up on the occasion, and as Jim was decidedly the finest dribbler +that ever toed a ball, and kept his place for ten years against all +comers, afterwards the pair managed to intercept Cumming before he got +close enough on goal to make a shot. The Crowers' goalkeeper was a good +one, and could clear his place of defence with great ability, but the +backs were not of much account. Pate M'Wherry and Luke M'Tavish did the +work at half-back, but their kicking was somewhat feeble when compared +with those of the Conquerors, Tom James and Willie Keith. The Conquerors +were far too anxious to score, and for some time kept up a close +cannonade at their opponents' goal without effect. Bob Prentice used his +hands cleverly, and, though the goal was again and again endangered, not +one of the forwards on my master's side could get the ball under the +tape. A fine run was made by Wild, Lucky, Grind, Short, and my master, +and the ball brought up to within a few feet of the Crowers' goal, but +at the last second, Johnny Forrester, one of their centre forwards, +kicked it behind. This gave the Conquerors the corner flag-kick. My +master, who was quite an adept at corner flag-kicks, was sent to the +spot, and placed the ball in a good position, but Bob Prentice got it up +in his hands at a critical moment, and threw it clear. Good runs were +eventually made on both sides, and once the Crowers nearly lowered our +colours, but nothing was got by either, and the game was drawn. In those +days the rules observed were somewhat different from those in vogue now. +The game was far prettier. There was none of that heading which forms +such important factors in the style of modern playing. When the ball was +thrown in from the touch-line the rule insisted that it had first to +land on the ground before being touched, and consequently head play was +unnecessary, and dribbling was, as a matter of course, considered the +most important point, combined with taking smart possession of the ball +as soon as it touched the ground after being thrown in. My master was +smart at getting on the leather, and, next to Jim Wild, he was the most +accomplished dribbler in the Conquerors. If there is anyone capable of +telling what he could do, 'tis I. How he used to keep my toes in a +circle as he left the grass behind his heels, piloting the ball past the +opposing backs, I know to my loss, and a very great depreciation in tear +and wear. He was a veritable "dodger," this owner of mine. Never afraid +of a charge, he would, in order either to secure the ball or keep it, +attack the biggest man in an opposing team, aye, and knock him over, +too. Sometimes he lost his temper when things went against him, and, +while his remarks to an adversary were somewhat cutting and at times +verging on impertinence, they were always within the scope of +"Parliamentary." In after life, however, my master found several foemen +worthy of his steel amongst backs and half-backs in the Flying Blues, +the Crowers, the Cedargrove, Red Cross, and North Western, and he +sometimes came off second best. + +It is all very well to say that there were "great men in those days." So +there were, but the same remark can be made equally applicable now, for +they are even more common, and you find them scattered over the length +and breadth of the land. It would decidedly weary you, my friend and +reader, were I to detail all the games in which I have taken an active +part, and you will at once admit that I may succeed in pleasing you +better if I give a short sketch of the leading clubs and players who +have wrought so hard and done so much to make the Association game so +popular. Jim Wild has been mentioned in connection with his club (the +Conquerors), but it is necessary to give him a line or two more. There +was no other Association club in Scotland when the Conquerors were put +into ship-shape order, and consequently no opponents to play. They could +not challenge themselves to mortal combat, and there were none but Rugby +clubs, whose members treated the new order of things in football as +childish amusement, and unworthy of free-born Britons. "Give us," they +said, "the exciting runs, the glorious tackling, the manly maul, and the +beautiful dropped goal, and we will meet you a bit of the way, but not +otherwise. We don't believe in loafing about the field at times, when +only one or two of the side are engaged; we want to be active." "Well," +said the Conquerors (one of whom had been offered a place in the Twenty +in the Rugby match between Glasgow and Edinburgh), "you don't know +Association rules, or you would never make such absurd assertions about +the new game. If there is really any inactivity in football while being +played, that inaction is clearly shown in a Rugby maul, where the one +half of the side are merely spectators. Besides, your game is only half +football; in fact, a combination of football and handball knocked into +one. Your run with the ball under the arm is only a display of speed; it +has nothing whatever to do with football. We want the grand dribbling +run with the ball at the toe, the smart passing and middling of the +Association, and we will enjoy it." Such good-natured banter went on at +first between two opposing interests, but by and by the difference +culminated into something more. + +As a sort of _quid pro quo_ for the courtesy extended to an Association +player by the Rugby contingent in the Inter-city match, Tom Chaloner, +the very _beau ideal_ of a Rugby player, was asked, and promised to play +in the first International Association match at Partick in 1872. Tom +even came out to the Recreation Ground at Crosshill, and practised with +the Conquerors as goalkeeper, and promised well in that position, but +through some cause or other he did not play when the eventful day came. +If ever a man could handle a ball and kick a goal as a quarter-back in a +Rugby game, it was Chaloner. He was the pride of all the Rugby clubs in +the country side, and was as well, indeed, if not better known in his +brilliant career as a cricketer. Who in Scotland could bat like Tom? He +was not a hitter to a particular side of the wickets; all was alike to +him. He could cut, drive, hit to long and square-leg, and oh! how far! +He would have made a grand Association football player, but he preferred +to stick to the Rugby style, and was equally successful, at least to his +club's satisfaction. The first match between England and Scotland at +Partick, nineteen years ago (which, by the way, is worthy of note, was +played by members of the Queen's Park exclusively), did a great deal to +spread Association rules in Glasgow and district, and, in fact, +eventually all over Scotland. Hitherto there used to be a couple of +months of interval between the end of the Rugby football season and the +starting of athletics and cricket, lasting from March till May, and as +the football players of the old dispensation were still in trim, but +with exhausted fixtures, not a few of them, belonging to two of the +leading clubs, did not consider it _infra dig._ to have a "go" at the new +rules, "just to see how they could stand it." + +The outcome of this hastily-formed notion was that a sort of Nomadic +team, calling themselves the Western Pilgrims, was formed, and three or +four matches, and good ones, too, were played between them and the +Conquerors and also the Cedargrove. The Pilgrims showed themselves no +mean opponents in the new game, and, after holding their own with the +Cedargrove in a drawn game, had a good tussle with the Conquerors on the +recreation ground at the Park, and were only beaten by a goal to none, +the goal, I remember, being made in the last five minutes by Bob Gardens +(who could dribble and play forward as well as keep goal). A few of the +Pilgrims took kindly to the Association rules, and while that season +lasted two of the leading forwards joined the Cedargrove, and turned out +capital players. Another joined the Druids, and became a famous +goalkeeper, even going as far as playing for his country in the +International match, and the fourth turned out a leading man in the +Holyrood Crescent. Talking about the above goalkeeper, Aleck M'Gregor +was one of the finest fellows that ever stood with his back to a goal. +There was the cheerful disposition, the gentlemanly demeanour to +opponents or associates whenever he appeared on the field. His knowledge +of the Rugby game made him a most useful man at goal, where the keeper +of that charge is the only man under Association rules who is allowed to +touch the ball with his hands. With the ordinary goalkeeper the punt-out +kick, when dexterously executed, was considered the most effective mode +of saving the ball from going under the tape, when the use of the hands +to knock it out was not deemed necessary, but Aleck preferred the +drop-kick, which is one of the redeeming features in the Rugby style of +play, and this he could do almost to perfection. I have seen him (for I +have, by-the-bye, taken part against him in several matches) lift a ball +after it had come pretty smartly from my right toe, and dropping it on +the ground before him, kick it as it rose, bounding away over the heads +of the Conquerors' forwards as they besieged the goal like a hive of +bees on a June morning. He had decidedly the advantage over the modern +"punter," inasmuch that the leather was always sure to go higher out of +reach when the place of defence was besieged, and farther out of the way +of lurking backs and half-backs, who, as a matter of course, crowd down +behind the forwards when an attack is made on an opponent's stronghold. + +There were other instances which came to my knowledge (that is, if my +reader can imagine anything so queer as a pair of boots possessing such +an immensely human gift) of converts from Rugby to Association style of +play, or rather perverts, as they were designated, but enough has been +said to show how Association football gained a hold on the young and +rising generation, and how it spread all over the western and +north-western portion of the country, and, like the proverbial Eastern +magician's wand, caused goal-posts and corner-flags to spring up in +every village and hamlet with remarkable rapidity. Close to the shores +of several Highland lochs, where a big kick by a stalwart half-back +endangers the ball being swept away by the tide, one can see the game +played of an evening by the village youth with great earnestness of +purpose. By and by the new rules made remarkable progress, and as the +public liked the game, and deserted the Rugby matches to see what they +considered the most easily understood rules, the breach between the +rival contingents widened, and eventually the Jews had no dealings with +the Gentiles, and so they both continue playing the games they consider +the best. + +What changes have taken place in clubs and players during the last few +years! Faces, blithe, happy faces, now gone forever, can be remembered +by the old spectators, although the present scarcely ever heard their +names; but I will not go very far back. Poor Dixy (for he is dead +now)--well can I remember his first introduction to the Conquerors. My +master had been indulging, in company with Bob Gardens, Jim Wild, Willie +Keith, and others, in a punt about on the evening preceding a match with +the Red Cross, and, after shaking hands and passing the usual +compliments, the practice game was started, and in it the newcomer +showed well, and kicked cleverly with both feet. He was, however, just a +shade too slow, and I frequently tackled him, and secured the leather, +giving it a deal of "toe" after passing close in on goal. The club were +badly off for a goal-keeper after Willie Keith left for America, and, as +John was not backward in making a display of his ability, he offered to +act as goal-keeper. It would take too long to recount the games in which +he and I were engaged in the subsequent career of the Conquerors, but an +incident or two will not be considered out of place. If Dixy had one +weakness more than another it consisted in a lively sense of his own +importance as a crack goalkeeper, and the supposed invincible qualities +of his club, which he often declared could not be beaten. He improved +wonderfully in his new position, and, while playing some of the junior +clubs, which were by this time beginning to spring up, it was positively +amusing to see how John would advance quietly from his goal when it was +besieged, and punt the ball contemptuously away with quite a crowd of +young ones close up, awe-stricken at the agility shown by such a bulky +form. + +A few of the Red Cross and Cedargrove forwards sometimes gave him a +fright, and in one match with the Leven Crowers he was fairly outwitted +by Boyd and Ned M'Donald in a cup tie. I fought hard in that memorable +battle myself, and never got such a saturation with water and mud in my +career; but we were beaten. I will not easily forget Dixy as he came to +the field on that occasion, carrying his umbrella to the goal-posts, and +laying it against the left one. He, poor fellow, expected his club would +have an easy victory, and this belief was shared in by not a few of the +eleven besides, including my master, who had, by the way, emerged into a +centre forward since the last match with the Kilmarackers, and as a +consequence he gave me a deal of extra work as a backer-up to Mat. +Angus. In fact, not long after I was carefully laced and ready for the +fray that wet afternoon, the Conqueror's eleven had a confab about the +tactics they should pursue, and Joe Sayler, our captain (who is now no +more, and lost to his club for ever), remarked it would take them all +their time to beat the Crowers. He had, I could see by his anxious +looks, grave doubts on the issue. At the outset of the game the rain +poured down in torrents, and as most of the play was on the Crowers' +portion of the field, the umbrella was put up, amid the laughter of the +partisans of John's contingent and the pent-up indignation of the +followers of the Crowers, who mustered strong on the occasion, and +demonstrated a strength of lungs truly astonishing. John, by and by, +when the battle became hot, had to discard his old friend and comforter, +and work in front of his fortress in a way that he had never done +before, and when the terrible tussle ended, the Conquerors were beaten +by two goals to one. When chaffed on the "umbrella incident" ever +afterwards Dixy was silent, and declared that in using it he did not +hold his opponents too cheaply, but simply with a desire to save himself +from a ducking. John was also a capital oarsman, and when he was +suddenly cut away in the pride of his manhood, he was barely 30 years of +age. He was greatly lamented, and his handsome figure is missed from the +football field. + +John's death reminds me of a young and promising forward named Smith, +who used to play on the left wing of the Cedargrove in company with a +smart companion named Seward. Young Smith was a very enthusiastic +football player, and missed few, if any, practice games. Poor lad, I met +him twice in one season in matches with the Cedargrove, and it took all +my master knew to prevent him from getting clean past the Conquerors' +backs and scoring. He was a nice dribbler, and like Fred Adamson (an old +member of the same club), went straight ahead with a splendid hold of +the leather. Talking about Fred, I remember that player, in company with +Johnny M'Phedran and James Wilton, going for big Thomas, who was then +the Conquerors' captain, and played at half-back. Thomas was an awful +fellow to meet in a charge, and a hundred to one was sure to send his +opponent to grass. Johnny, however, who was a little bandy-legged, held +tenaciously to the ball, and while Thomas was eagerly watching his +opportunity, Fred sent him flat on his back, and the ball was close on +goal in an instant. There was a hard scrummage, and in the nick of time, +Joe Sayler (who was then the crack sprinter of the Conquerors), dashed +up and got the ball clear before it reached the keeper. Poor Smith, he +caught a severe cold one evening, and eventually succumbed to a painful +malady. The Cedargrove were at one time hard to beat. In fact, in the +early history of the Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup, they +pressed my master's club hard for the trophy, and were only +vanquished--after three games--by one goal to none. + +The Red Cross were also dangerous opponents, and possessed not a few +capital players. There were John Huxter, Sandy Kenneth, Jack Williams, +Joe Drummond, and Bill Millins. They were not easily beaten. Sandy +Kenneth, though rather a quiet-looking customer to meet in the street, +developed into one of the finest half-backs that Scotland ever produced. +He was always cool and collected, and, although by no means a very hard +kicker, could judge the ball to a hair-breadth. Sandy was especially +clever in tackling, which he could manage without deliberate charging. +If the ball got up close on the goal which he defended, he would follow +the dribblers, and with a clever manoeuvre on the left foot, obtain +possession, and after nursing the ball for a few minutes, would, amid +the applause of the spectators, send it spinning down the field. Then +there was Bill Summons. He was rather a volatile customer, and a perfect +football coquette. There was scarcely a club of any pretensions in +Glasgow but what Bill had wooed. He, however, stuck well to the Red +Cross, and did some splendid service in their best matches, but +eventually left them and joined the Conquerors, who, by the way, were +just a shade too ready to take over the best men of other clubs by +holding out tempting baits in the shape of big matches. Bill, with all +his faults, was a grand back, and I question if anybody in Glasgow could +make a finer kick when he set his mind to it. He had his failing, to be +sure, and who hasn't? He was sometimes most erratic while playing +important matches, and, especially on a windy day, would make grave +mistakes with too heavy kicking. + +Jack Huxter, too, of the Red Cross, was a very fine player, and a +"caution" to get past at back (poor fellow, he, too, like Dixy, has gone +to his account). He was a dangerous man to meet in the heat of a tussle +near the goal-line, and woe betide the daring forward who would attempt +to take the ball from Jack there. His only weakness was a frequent +desire to "go" for the man instead of the ball, and charging rather +heavily. Although a back, he was by no means an inferior dribbler, and +possessing good speed, sometimes astonished the members of his own club +by the smart runs he would now and again make in company with the +forwards when the leather was in an opponents' territory. He stuck like +a veritable leech to the Red Cross, and turned out most faithfully to +all their important matches. I must not forget Willie Millins, who was +one of the neatest dribblers of his day. He has given up football now. +Getting a clear start, many an exciting and clever run he made for the +Red Cross. I heard my master say that in a match for the Association Cup +between his club and the Cedargrove, he once made a goal after dribbling +the ball almost the entire length of the field. + +Then there was a lot of smaller fry, including good players belonging to +the Dumbrook, North-Eastern, Gallowgate Rovers, the Locomotive Slashers, +Thornians, Northern Jumpers, Edinburgh Irishmen, Partick Unfortunates, +and last, though by no means least, the Flying Blues. There was no club +in Scotland, except, perhaps, the Vale Crowers, that had made so much +progress in the game as those Flying Blues, and few, if any, were gifted +with the same amount of self-confidence. The Blues, nevertheless, had +good reason to feel proud of some of their members, for they were young +and active, and the very ideal of smart football players. It was a lucky +thing for them when they migrated from the north and established +themselves in the old ground vacated by the Cedargrove. Had it not been +for that lucky arrangement, they might have wasted their football lives +in obscurity, and gone down to Association posterity "unhonoured and +unsung." Their success was as remarkable as it was swift and decisive. +Possessing any amount of pluck, they tackled all and sundry in the +district, and the second year, after gaining something like a +first-class reputation, won nearly every game they played. Their +captain, Tom Vincent, was a grand back, and, indeed, one of the crack +men in that position, of whom Scotland has now so many to select from; +and then there was Bentback, Bill Donoup, Jack Drummer, and Mat Neil, +all fine players at their respective positions. Never shall I forget the +match between the Blues and the Conquerors for the Association Cup a +dozen years ago, about the last big match in which I took an active +part. My master's team had had bad luck though, for after pressing the +Flying Blues till within a few minutes of the game, the Blues beat the +Conquerors by one goal to none, Bill Donoup sending the ball under goal +at the last minute, although the story goes that he had a bet of a +"sov." that the Conquerors would win, and it was even admitted that he +was heard to say, when kicking the goal, "Here goes my blooming +sovereign!" + +Although now stowed away in the corner of a large chest, side by side +with jerseys, caps, knickerbockers, and other football requisites, as a +remnant of the glorious game, my master sometimes visits me to think +over the past, and I often hear him say that, although he does not play +now, he still goes to see some of the leading contests, and at them +picks up many queer stories of the modern players. Last year's crack +men, as he sees them crowding in his "mind's eye," are not, he says, +unworthy representatives of those of the past. + + + + +_VI.--HOW CLUBS WERE STARTED LONG AGO._ + + +When the summer game of cricket was far more extensively played in +Glasgow and District than it is now, those who understood the feelings +and aspirations of young men engaged in it repeatedly considered the +question in all its aspects, and a combination of circumstances have +occurred within the last decade which had seriously affected that game. +The City of Glasgow could not, of course, afford to remain in a +stationary condition to suit the convenience of a few thousands of +cricketers. New streets had to be formed, new houses built all round, +and with this advance upon civilisation came the deadly blow to +cricket--at least juvenile cricket--and those clubs soon disappeared +from the field. Ground after ground was swallowed up, and on the scene +of many a hot and exciting match blocks of houses, railway stations, +churches, and public works may now be seen. The Scotch youth, and for +that part of it (just to give the sentence greater weight), the British +youth, loves some kind of manly sport. Cricket he could no longer play +for want of good and level ground, but then there was another game +which, at least, could be played or learned under easy circumstances, +even on a quiet street or big "free coup," and that was Association +football. They soon took to it kindly, and many of them struggled hard +and procured a ground. Not one, of course, like that on which they used +to have their cricket matches long ago, but one on which Farmer Lyon +grazed his cows and sheep, and they had it for a trifle. What did they +care about ridges and furrows, or that it was a difficult matter to see +the lower goal-posts when you were at the east end? Not a straw. The +only matter which annoyed them (and this only happened occasionally) was +Lyon's bull. Their club colours were red jerseys, with a small white +stripe, and "Jock" (that was the animal's name), used to scatter the +lads about on the Friday evenings when they were engaged in a big side. +The players generally managed to clear out in time, but the infuriated +animal once goared the best ball the club had, and next morning, as they +had to play the "Invincible" of Glasgow Green, a subscription had to be +raised for a new one. Football can thus be played under much more +favourable conditions than cricket, or almost any other out-door game, +at less expense, and this, in a great measure at least, is the secret of +its popularity amongst the masses. It can also be played under nearly +every condition of the atmosphere. Nothing seems to frighten the Scotch +Association football player. Rain, hail, snow, and even frost, is +treated with cool indifference. In England the ball is quietly laid +aside with the advent of April and forgotten till the Autumn leaves are +yellow and sear, but in Scotland Association football seems to have no +recognised season at all, so far as the younger clubs and even a few of +the seniors are concerned. With the sun making one's hair stick to his +head with perspiration, and the thermometer at 90 degrees in the shade, +they play away in the summer-time, and at Christmas attempt to dribble +in half-a-foot of snow. Meantime the question about football being +blotted out can, I think, be easily answered in the negative, and upon +these will depend the future prospect of Association Football in +Scotland. There are, in fact, "breakers ahead," and a strong and +determined hand will have to take the wheel. The greatest of these is +the "professional" football player, and the next the "greed of +gate-money." "O! we never heard of a professional football player in +Scotland," exclaims a chorus of voices; "there is no such thing. It's +only in England." My remark, of course, is only beginning to be +realised. The definition of professional in athletics "is one who runs +(plays) for gain." Everybody knows what that means. If you receive any +money whatever, directly or indirectly, from your club (except out of +the private purses of the members), you are a professional. Are there +not clubs, with great reputations, who have such members? If these are +allowed to continue on the club books simply because they are good +players, the committee are doing a great injustice to the other members, +it may be under a mistaken notion. Now, as football has always been +looked upon as a purely amateur game, and played by young men for their +own amusement, it is to be hoped that the day is far distant when the +professional football player, or even worse, the professional football +"loafer," who does not work, but preys upon his fellow-members, will +appear in a general form. In all conscience, if the public wish to see +professional football (and I know from experience they don't), what +would they think of the All-Scotland Eleven against the Champion Eleven +of England? That might sound all right, but with the recollection of how +professional athletics of all kinds (with the remarkable exception of +cricket) are now conducted, and their low associations, woe betide +football when the professional element is introduced. It will assuredly +be the signal for its decline and fall. As for the greed of gate-money, +of which some clubs are so fond, much might be said. When I refer to the +clubs who try to gather as much cash as they can during the season in +order to pay their legitimate obligations and meet the heavy item of +ground rent, I show up an honourable example, and one worthy of +imitation; but when I hear of clubs who have gathered ten, yea twenty +times more than is required for such purposes, and even get handsome +donations besides from their patrons, deep in debt at the end of the +season, I begin to wonder where all the money has gone. I ask a young +gentleman who has only lately become a member, and he tells me he knows +nothing about the finance committee, but throws out grave hints about +sordid motives and bare-faced applications for pecuniary assistance. In +this respect clubs must be above suspicion, if they want the delightful +game to hold its own and prosper. As a _quid pro quo_ for this vicious +practice, however, there is no game whose players are so charitable as +those connected with Association Football. There is not a club in the +Association that is not ready to play a "Charity Match," and far more +has been given to the funds of charitable institutions by the actions of +Association football clubs than all the other games in Scotland put +together. + + + + +_VII.--THE GREAT INTERNATIONAL;_ + +OR, + +_NED DUNCAN'S DREAM._ + + +~Scotland v. America, 1901.~ + +While on holidays, enjoying myself at a quiet and beautiful sea-side +village on the shores of the Firth of Clyde, I received a note from a +friend reminding me that an old football chum was still on the sick +list, and making little or no progress towards recovery. In fact, his +life, which had recently been enfeebled by an incurable malady, was +slowly but surely drawing to a close. Last time I saw him he referred to +the fact that he had some MS. which he wished Mr. John M'Dowall, his +successor in the secretaryship of the S.F.A., and myself, to read over, +and when this came into my mind I resolved to repair to Glasgow at once, +ere it might be too late. + +It was just as well that I did, for poor Ned Duncan was fast sinking +when I got permission from his widowed mother to visit the bedside. Ned, +I may mention, was one of the most enthusiastic players of his day that +ever kicked a ball, but was obliged to give up practice in consequence +of the unfortunate circumstances I have just mentioned, and of late had +only been a spectator at the leading games. He received me that evening +with a kind smile of recognition, and his pale face beckoned me to come +near. I was certainly much touched with my old friend's appearance, and +tried as much as possible to cheer him, but it was of no use. + +He said he knew he was going to the silent land. The doctor, in fact, +had told him he had only a few days to live, and he was glad I had come +to bid him farewell, and take over some straggling notes he had compiled +last summer about the football of the future. "Going home one evening," +he continued, "after an International match, I fell into a deep sleep, +and had a remarkable dream. I thought I saw a great match between +Scotland and America. Real genuine players glided past, scrimmaging with +each other for the ball; thousands of spectators, new and beautiful +youthful faces, graced the area allotted to spectators; the hum of +thousands of excited voices greeted my ears, and"----Here poor Ned's +voice failed. + +After a few minutes repose, the old player gasped, "But what need I tell +you more. Here is the MS., and make what use of it you like." + +My dear old friend is now under the turf he loved so well to play on +when in the zenith of his fame. + +Having eventually opened the packet, the first sentence which met my +eyes was "Ned Duncan's Dream; or, The Great International of 1901." + +I will, therefore, leave poor Ned to tell his own tale, and what he saw +in his vision, which at any rate has the merit of originality about it. +As more extraordinary dreams have come to pass, there is no saying what +the beginning of the twentieth century may bring forth, for +International football matches with Australia, America, and Canada have +been talked of, and some of them even played, during the past year or +two, and may become accomplished facts. + +I must, however, return to the MS., which reads after the following +style:-- + +"It was in April, 1901, on a Saturday afternoon, that the Yankees came +to Scotland to play a match with our crack Eleven. The Universal Postal +Service, which scattered letters all over the world at the rate of one +half-penny per ounce, conveyed a formal challenge from the Americans to +Scotland that the Yankees would be delighted to meet an eleven of that +country in an even game of football. The New World men of course meant +business, and our secretary, who was a capital fellow, much liked by the +Scottish Football Association for his kind and obliging disposition, was +instructed to accept the challenge and welcome the strangers to Glasgow. + +"Previous to the time I speak of, the Americans had beaten the +Australians and Canadians, and were considered by their own friends +invincible even to the extent of a couple of goals. The Canadians, by +the aid of the Electric Express Line's fast steamers, had been able to +leave Montreal in the morning and return in the evening from New York, +defeated but not disgraced. The Australians were a little longer on the +way, as the improved appliances for driving ships had not yet attained +that perfection there which had been shown in most of the ports and +rivers of the British Isles. They were experimenting, however, and some +good in that direction was looked for daily, and a new Express Company +floated. The Americans had also beaten the Englishmen the previous year +at New York, and, as their own newspapers had it, 'came over to crow in +the Land o' Cakes.' The great shipping trade of the Clyde ere this was, +so to speak, causing a new order of things to arise all over the world. +Large and beautifully-built steel and bronze vessels left the Clyde +every day for all parts of the earth. + +"They had annihilated space and bridged the Atlantic in earnest, and the +'electrics' (once called steamers) could go from Glasgow to New York in +little over twenty-four hours. Yes. 'Daily to New York, Montreal, +California, and New Mexico. Splendid accommodation for first-class +passengers: 120 knots per hour, and no vibration.' So read the +advertisement in the leading Glasgow newspapers. Why! what did it all +mean? One hundred knots per hour--3000 in twenty-four hours! To New York +in a day! I had certainly heard of the swallow taking an early breakfast +at the uttermost part of England and picking up a late dinner on the +shores of Africa, all in one day; but 120 knots an hour with an +'electric,'--it was just enough for flesh and blood to comprehend at +once. + +"'Well,' said a friend of mine with some experience in the marine +engineering line, 'I have long thought on electricity as the great +motive power of the future, provided it could be properly stored, and +now you see what it has come to.' + +"In fact, our coal supply--one of the sources of Britain's +greatness--was getting exhausted, and electrical appliances had become +an absolute necessity. The strain could no longer be borne of one huge +vessel consuming 500 tons of coal in twenty-four hours, and those +blessed electrics were not introduced a moment too soon. + +"The learned men of France, who had long been working earnestly to solve +the problem of electric economy, were beaten in the race, and a perfect +system of stored electricity introduced and successfully applied to the +propulsion of ships, patented by Professor Scotland Thomson, nephew of +the late Sir William Thomson, of blessed memory. + +"Lots of other remarkable events had been occurring in our history, but +none so marked as the introduction of the 'electrics.' The people of +Scotland had very nearly lost their individuality. Old Caledonia was to +be simply a name. Englishmen invaded Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, and +even _Ultima Thule_, and overran the country with their ideas of social +life. They made slow progress at first, but came in hordes, and the +invasion was irresistible. They, of course, introduced all their +newfangled ideas about games and pastimes, and compelled us to submit. + +"Parliament had got so mixed up and thoroughly disgusted with the +question of Irish Home Rule, which cropped up every session, that in an +evil mood it had threatened puir all Scotland with assimilation of the +Law of Jurisprudence, but failed. King Albert the First, however, had, +out of respect to the great city of Glasgow--the Second City in the +Empire--created his third son Duke of Glasgow, for you must know the +House of Peers was still extant, but greatly reformed and limited in +power. It could only veto a law passed by the Commons once, and there +was no more about the matter. + +"The match, you may be sure, was the general topic of conversation all +over Scotland several weeks before it came off, and on the Friday +evening, when the Americans arrived and put up at the Express Hotel, +Glasgow, the excitement was great. The preparations and arrangements for +the struggle were on a grand scale, and good weather alone was wanting +to make it a success. That evening several of the Scotch team strolled +into the billiard-room of the Express Hotel to welcome the young +Americans, and had a chat with them about football in general, and the +spread of the rules all over the world. + +"The eventful day at last dawned, and a finer April morning could not +have been desired. Play was announced to begin at 3.30 p.m., and long +before that time Bruce Park, Cathcart Road, was half-filled with +spectators, and presented a fine sight. + +"The crowd around the field was certainly the most remarkable that had +ever gathered together in Glasgow. As the game was no ordinary one, they +flocked from all quarters. Most of the towns in Scotland supplied their +quota to swell the multitude, and as railway travelling was cheap and +convenient now compared to the original football days of the Queen's +Park, Clydesdale, Vale of Leven, Rangers, Dumbarton, Granville, 3rd +Lanark Volunteers, Partick, Clyde, Alexandra Athletic (of which poor +Duncan was hon. secy.), and a host of other clubs, a two-hundred-mile +journey, which was easily accomplished in an hour, was considered next +to nothing. They were there--young men and maidens from London, +Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Blackburn, Darwen, Bolton, and +Sheffield--all bent on making a day of it. The road to Bruce Park, +indeed, was a sight to see, despite the fact that the Cathcart Railway +carried its thousands that afternoon to the south-side. There were not a +few buxom country girls in the crowd, enticed thither by no great love +of the game--which, of course, they did not understand--but by their +sweethearts, just to let the young persons of the place see that they +had lads as well as their neighbours. There was one winsome lassie among +them, however, who would have done credit to Burns' incomparable 'Queen +o' the Glen.' + +"Emma was the only sister of a young farmer in the district. It is a +mistaken notion to suppose that farmers in Scotland are by far too +plodding a class to indulge themselves in anything savouring of English +games and pastimes, particularly football, but this is a mistake. I know +several farmers in the country who love the dribbling game dearly, and +do their best to promote its interests in the way of supplying ground to +not a few young clubs dotted over the country. In fact, Emma was the +beauty of the whole parish, and all the young men for miles around were +well aware of it. No one could deny it, and even the most unreasonable +of fellows, Charley M'Gowan, the schoolmaster, and Alfred Walker, the +lawyer's clerk, were forced to acknowledge it. + +"'Talk about Sydney's heavenly Geraldine,' said young M'Gowan to me one +afternoon on the road to practice, 'she beats her hollow.' M'Gowan, +however, was a bit of a cynic, and Emma soon cast him off for Walker. He +was a fine singer, and in after years, when he became a confirmed +bachelor, delighted to sing songs about the inconstancy of the fair sex. +He used to hum out Goethe's 'Vanatos,' and more particularly that +verse with reference to the fickle fair ones, which ran + + "'I set my heart upon woman next-- + Hurrah! + For her sweet sake was oft perplexed; + But ah! + The false one looked for a daintier lot-- + The constant one wearied me out and out-- + The best was not easily got.' + +The Yankees, however, had a high opinion of our feminine beauty, and the +impressions made on the gallant youths that Saturday afternoon were of +the most favourable order. The Romans, in fact, were not more captivated +with the beauty of the Sabean maidens than were the young Americans with +the lovely Scottish girls who gave them such a hearty reception at Bruce +Park in April, 1901. + +"Walt Vanderbilt, their captain, was a fine-looking young fellow, about +25 years of age. Ere this the young Americans had completely discarded +whiskers, and Walt formed no exception to the rule, with his +closely-shaven cheeks and well-formed moustache. Good work in the field +in the way of practice had made Walt's form show complete development, +and I am inclined to think that a finer specimen of a football player +never toed a ball. The goalkeeper of the team, too, young Lincoln, was +rather a nice-looking fellow, nearly six feet high, and +well-proportioned, with eyes sparkling with humour, but he lacked the +fine open countenance of his captain. + +"The other members of the team were much of the ordinary type of +humanity, just like our average football club men, with any amount of +nerve and energy. If they felt excited at the magnitude of the work they +had in hand they concealed it well, and looked as if they were merely +entering the field to do a little practice. They wore the sign of the +American eagle, dotted over with the emblematical stars and stripes. Our +fellows had also an imposing appearance, with the lion-rampant on their +jerseys, and, although looking rather douce and uncertain about the +game, determination was depicted on every face. + +"The names of the gentlemen who entered the field were as under:-- + +"_Scotland._--F. Wallace (South-Side Swifts), goalkeeper; T. Glen +(Queen's Park), D. Smollet (Vale of Leven), backs; W. M'Millan +(Dumbarton), F. M'Neil (Rangers), half-backs; K. M'Geake (Pollokshields +Athletic), P. Livingstone (Kilmarnock), K. Watt (Edinburgh Rovers), T. +Stewart (Volunteer A.C.), T. D. Coats (Paisley Combination), and G. F. +Turnbull (Clyde), forwards. + +"_America._--W. R. C. Lincoln (New York Caledonian), goalkeeper; V. H. +Grant (Texas Rovers), W. C. Vanderbilt (Hamilton State Swifts), backs; +J. H. Armstrong (Chicago Association), D. Steel (Nebraska Electric), +half-backs; D. C. Bramey (Victoria Boys), R. S. Chandler (Utah +Gentiles), P. Whitehouse (Newhaven), J. S. Bryan (Alaska Pilgrims), W. +D. Bangle (San Francisco Racers), and T. Lawrence (Washington House), +forwards. + +"_Umpires._--J. W. Marindin (South Australia), and D. Y. Jones (Canadian +Association). _Referee._--W. H. Littleton (English Association). + +"Before the game began, the Yankees offered to bet level money, and some +of their red-hot plungers even went the length of two to one on their +chances; but they were promptly told that the days of betting and +wagering at football matches, cricket, horse-racing, and all genuine +sport, were now numbered with the past in the United Kingdom. + +"Gentlemen, in fact, who loved and enjoyed sport for its own sake, and +for that part of it, ladies too, had voted betting 'low and unmanly,' +and even degrading, and as Parliament had been repeatedly petitioned on +the subject, a bill was almost unanimously passed in the dying year of +the nineteenth century abolishing betting. + +"The Loyal Irish Party (late Home Rulers), and the Rado-Toro Democratic +Party (led by Lord Randy Chapel-Mountain), whose hair was beginning to +get silvery-grey, and his long moustache to match, did not even oppose +the bill, and it passed. Never did a legislative enactment work such +improvement among the masses as this bill. It completely banished all +needy souls and black-legs from the arena of honest sport, and left the +field to those who came out of an afternoon and evening to enjoy +themselves in an honest way. + +"The coarse language, too, of which our forefathers justly complained +twenty years ago, had almost disappeared, whether through the effects of +the School Board, I would not like to say, but one could now take +sweetheart or wife to enjoy themselves, provided always, of course, the +weather was at all suitable. + +"As for professional football players, no such thing had been heard of +for years. They certainly died hard, but eventually no club would have +anything to do with them. + +"'What is that?' 'Oh, it's the bell to begin.' + +"Well, the game did begin in earnest, immediately after a fair lady had +thrown out the leather ball from the Grand Stand at the right-hand side +of the field. There was no tossing for choice of ends, for a new rule +had been just added to the revised code enacting in a most chivalrous +way that strangers or visitors be allowed to select the side of the +ground they preferred to play on for the first half-hour--for you must +know, my readers, the term now allowed for the game was one hour, and +that when the ball was kicked into touch, there was no throwing back +into play with the hands, but it was kicked from the touch-line straight +out before play was again resumed. + +"For some time the forwards kept the leather close to themselves, and +the Yankees on the left wing, by a fine piece of manoeuvring, were +successful in getting it away, amid tremendous cheering. Chandler, who +was one of the fastest sprinters in the world, and had beaten the record +in San Francisco in the fall of last year, got through his men in +brilliant form, and came down on the goalkeeper like 'winkum.' Just as +he was poising himself, however, for a final shot, M'Neil deliberately +crossed the field from the opposite side, and after dodging about the +young American, rushed in and took the leather away, and keeping it +between his feet for a couple of seconds, kicked it clear of the Scotch +goal. A good deal of heading afterwards occurred near the home goal--the +ball getting close on the lines several times, and even passing them. +Many considered before the game began that the Americans would never +have a 'look in' at all, and great was their dismay when they actually +beheld their champions hotly pressed on their own ground, and look like +losing the day. With a brilliant charge the Yankee forwards crowded +round the Scotch sticks like a hive of bees on a June morning, and a +straight shot from the foot of D. Steel, who rushed in from his place at +half-back, caused the ball to glide past the Scotch goalkeeper like a +rocket. + +"This was the signal for tremendous excitement. Crowds of partisans and +friends who had come over with the strangers, and many enthusiastic +lovers of the game and fair play, raised a loud cheer, again and again +renewed, at this piece of grand play on the part of the Yankees. The +intensely interested Scotchmen, however, while they certainly admired +the pluck and fine play of the visitors, and cheered in a mild kind of a +way, even though an enemy wrung it from them, kept very quiet, and not a +few white faces might have been seen about the wire fence which kept +spectators and players apart on Bruce Park on that memorable day. They, +however, kept their own counsel, and quaintly said to the Yankees who +chaffed them on the point, that howling was a very good thing in a way, +but it should not be indulged in till people were out of the wood. + +"The teams then faced each other in midfield, and the ball had no sooner +left the Scotch captain's foot than it was taken away, and dribbled down +the centre by Bryan, Whitehouse, and Lawrence, and when half-time was +called the latter was just finishing a good shy, which sent the ball +over the bar. According to the new rules a quarter of an hour was +allowed as an interval, and during that time speculation ran high as to +what was destined to be the final issue. + +"To indulge for a moment at the idea of the Americans beating the Scotch +on their own ground in the great International was a sore point for the +bulk of the spectators with Scotch faces, but they said very little. +They had a secret hope that their champions would eventually pull off +the game, even though they had a goal to make up, and only half-an-hour +to do it. They had, it was remembered with pride and satisfaction, +pulled through many a doubtful match before, and Scotchmen, it was well +known, were not easily beaten. + +"The young lady again threw up the ball, and Tam Glen, getting a good +hold of it at his left foot, made one of the finest fly-kicks ever seen +in a match, and the forwards on the Scotch side following well up, +completely puzzled the Yankee backs and half-backs by their brilliant +passing. Before you could say Jack Robinson, M'Geake shied for the +American goal, and the ball knocked off the cap of the goalkeeper, and, +hitting the bar, bounded back into the field of play. A hard and +exciting scrimmage followed, and amid breathless excitement the Yankees +cleared their goal. Five minutes of very even play followed, and then +the Scotchmen set their teeth and made a desperate effort for victory. + +"Only ten minutes of the game now remained to the good, and there was, +you may be sure, no time to lose. One goal behind, and at the great +International, too! It would never do to allow America to whip creation, +even at football! One final effort; no, two final efforts, and it was +done. + +"The Scotch captain was seen to whisper something to his team, and in a +few minutes the grandest run which was probably ever witnessed since +football became a scientific sport in the world, was started, and, +before the American backs, half-backs, and goalkeeper could realise +their position, the Scotchmen bore down on the visitors' goal, and +literally dribbled the ball clean through. This was, you may be sure, +the signal for an outburst of cheering, which must have been heard over +the half of the big city of Glasgow, which now contained over a million +of inhabitants. + +"The game, however, was not yet won--it was only a tie--and when the +representatives of Brother Jonathan again started the ball only four +minutes remained, but it proved a bad four minutes for the +representatives of the stars and stripes. Another run, backed up by a +shooter from the left foot of Turnbull, settled the great International +for that year at anyrate. Those who had hitherto viewed the game in +moody silence began to come out of their shells (talking piscatorially) +and join in the universal huzzah. + +"The Yanks were now fairly cowed, and when another grand piece of play +by Stewart, backed up at the proper moment by Watt, put a third goal to +the credit of the Scotchmen, the visitors, in the most gentlemanly way, +heartily joined in the cheering for the victors. When the referee's +whistle was sounded, the Scotchmen were declared the winners of a +hard-fought field by 3 goals to 1. The crowd completely besieged the +pavilion at Bruce Park at the close, and cheered lustily as the Scotch +champions made their way up the steps. Nor were the vanquished Americans +forgotten. They came in for a round of hearty cheers for their pluck. + +"There was a dinner given to the distinguished strangers in the evening, +and the usual complimentary toasts proposed and duly acknowledged; but, +as I was not present, I am unable to say who spoke best and gave the +most enjoyable song. + +"At anyrate, a happy evening was passed, and, after spending a day in +Glasgow, the Yankees sailed on the following Monday morning for New +York, where they duly arrived without any mishap, after the fastest +passage on record, having covered the distance from Greenock to Sandy +Hook in twenty-three hours fifty-nine and three-quarter minutes." + +Such is "NED DUNCAN'S DREAM; OR, THE GREAT INTERNATIONAL." + + + + +_VIII.--THE PATRONS, SPECTATORS, AND POPULAR PLAYERS._ + + +They are to be found in all ranks and conditions of life, from the lord +of the manor down to the apprentice-artizan and newly-fledged young man +from shop and warehouse. Like love, football, for the time, at least, +levels all distinction; and albeit I know, for that of it, many a +well-matched pair, who have met for the first time on the grand stand at +Hampden Park, looking back with feelings of intense pleasure to the time +when their "infant love began." Were it not, in fact, that Caledonia is +at times so "stern and wild," and that football and frost can never +flourish together, the game would be far more extensively patronised by +the fair sex. At a cup tie or an International match, it is quite a +common thing to see the Convener of an adjacent county,[A] the city +magnate, the suburban magistrate, the Free Kirk minister, and the +handsome matronly lady, standing side by side with the horny-handed +mechanic, the office-boy, the overgrown schoolboy, and the Buchanan +Street "swell." They all watch the game and surroundings in their own +particular way. I once heard a quaint, but nevertheless true, idea of +how some of the more familiar visitors give way to a certain failing, +which in itself can scarcely be called such, but is not unfrequently +looked upon with amazement by the stranger. The Scotchman, it is said +somewhere, is not so much respected for the manner in which he goes +about a thing as the way in which he does it, and the remark, when +applied to this particular case, will be all the more potent. Here it +is:--"Where are you going to howl to-morrow (the query is put on +Friday), Jack?" "Oh! the Queen's and Vale, of course; they will have a +close thing of it, and there will be rare fun," says Jack. "Old Anderson +was very indignant last Saturday, and declares that he will never stand +near me again at any such matches. He was quite ashamed of my howling, +and positively charges me with digging my thumbs into his ribs, and +nearly strangling his youngest son at every scrimmage near each goal." +"It serves you right, Tom. I was always afraid something of that kind +would happen; you shouldn't be so demonstrative." Tom was silent. He was +as jealous of his own propriety and good behaviour as anybody could be, +but being of a most excitable nature, he did things in the heat of a +tussle for which he was afterwards very sorry, and many ignored the fact +that he was an old Rangers man, who scored the first goal for that then +young club in a close and exciting game with the once powerful +Clydesdale. As the Association rules are very easily learned in theory, +the great bulk of the spectators show an acquaintance with them which is +pleasing to see, and when an assumed infringement takes place, it is +generally heralded from some part of the field by a partisan of the +contending elevens. The only apparently unintelligible point to them is +the "off-side" rule, and I have seen a goal kicked in this way hailed +with deafening cheers and waving of hats and handkerchiefs. These +manifestations, however, were turned into low growling when the leather +was sent away by a free kick. The ladies, too, talk about "free kicks," +"corner-kicks," "heading," "hands," "beautiful passing and dribbling," +as if to the manner born. I cannot, however, dismiss the subject of +spectators without referring to the use and abuse of a free and +unrestrained vent to pent-up feelings. There is the low, vulgar fellow, +whose collarless neck and general coarseness of exterior and language +indicates that he possesses all the vices but none of the virtues of the +"honest working man." Work he will not, except he is compelled, and +although to "beg he is ashamed," he would be the first to do a mean +action if he had the opportunity. It is he who, by his foul tongue and +very breath, contaminates the atmosphere he breathes, and brings some of +the matches into disrepute. Unfortunately he has paid his money at the +gate (sometimes he gets over the fence), and you can't turn him out; but +he makes hundreds miserable. He is, in fact, one of the "unimproving and +irresponsible," and moral suasion has no power over his hard and stony +heart. Sometimes in an evil moment his vulgar remark is challenged by +one of the players on the contending sides, and this gives him an air of +importance. There is nothing, however, which shows a want of gentlemanly +bearing in a team more clearly than paying the least attention to +exclamations from excited spectators. They should treat them with silent +indifference, and if needs be, contempt, and play away as if there were +nobody present at all. It is sometimes, nevertheless, very hard for +country clubs to come to Glasgow and play for the city charities, and +get howled at by this class of spectators at certain stages of the game. +The great bulk of those around, however, are indignant at such conduct, +and regret it all the more on account of being utterly unable to prevent +it. There is another spectator, too, who not unfrequently forgets +himself, and he is to be found on what might be termed the "touch-line" +of society. He is the fast young man, who considers you a perfect +nonentity if you don't bet. I don't mean betting on football pure and +simple, for he only lays a few "bobs" on it, but on the latest +quotations for the Derby, the St. Leger, the Waterloo Cup, or the +University boat race. His "screw" is not very big at the best, but he +can always lay "half a sov." on the event, whether his landlady's bill +is paid or not, and touching that little account of Mr. Strides, the +tailor, why, he'll pay it when he "makes a pile." He thinks too much of +himself ever to get married, and the young ladies of his acquaintance +may indulge in a sigh of relief at escaping from the toils of such a +consummate fool. When he has something "on" a match, and sees that it is +lost, he not unfrequently opens out, and is not over choice in his +language. The game, however, goes on, and is greatly enjoyed by the +general spectator, despite such drawbacks, and if you happen to go to +the same locality on a similar occasion, you are all but sure to see old +and familiar faces crowding round the stand and area. + + [A] The late lamented Mr. A. B. Stewart, Convener of the County + of Bute, was an enthusiastic admirer of the game, and many will + miss his handsome firm and kindly remark when future matches are + played on the leading grounds in Scotland. + +The modern Association football player is a man of some ability. As a +rule he is temperate in his habits, with a good appetite, and sound in +limb. Long before he knew what football was, he was blessed with a large +share of health. When a boy at school he used to be remarkable for +punctuality, but occasionally got into trouble from neglected lessons, +in consequence of a weakness for indulging in out-door sports. He loved +the rude style of football, then played, dearly (he knew of nothing +better), although goal-posts, touch-lines, corner-flags, and other +modern appliances were totally unknown. As for "hacking," it was endured +by all and sundry with the air of martyrs. Why, if you had not nerve +enough to "give and take" in that line, your chance of getting near the +"goal score" was remote indeed, and you were looked upon as a coward and +the verriest noodle. He, of course, grows older, and by and by joins an +average club, and gets on very well. The crack football players, +however, have many maturities. They generally come slowly, but surely, +and leave behind them powerful impressions. They are like the occasional +planets, not the stars which are seen every evening if you care to look +towards the "milky way." They are mostly fine-looking fellows, with +pleasant countenances and grandly-moulded limbs. They have just passed a +severe course of probation in the football field, without even an +outward trace of anxiety. The vagaries of the game admit of no +distinction of class. The crack player is, in fine, found among all +classes--in the gentleman's son, in the clerk at the desk, and the lad +in the workshop. There may be different ways of working out the latent +ability, but sooner or later it begins to show itself. Some thought it +was scarcely fair in the Duke of Wellington to say that "Waterloo was +won at Eton." There is not the least possibility of doubt such a remark +might be misunderstood, and many feel inclined to charge the "Iron Duke" +with ignoring the services rendered by the non-commissioned officers and +men of the British army, for everybody knows that none but the sons of +the opulent class can ever gain admittance to Eton. It looked, in fact, +very like the credit being given to the officers for winning that great +battle. Wellington, however, had his eye on the football and cricket +grounds when he spoke these words, and no doubt intended to convey the +idea that these games went a long way in bracing up the nerve which +served so well on the battle-field. Close adhesion to the practice of +any game really and sincerely creates fresh possibilities of that +perfection and discipline. And why should this not be so in football, +particularly as it is a game regulated by sharply-defined maxims? +Everyone can't be the captain of an eleven; and as for Wellington's +remarks, the most humble member of the team may show the greatest +ability. You may belong to the most "swellish" of clubs, and have a fair +reputation, but you are not chosen to play in the International. Your +father may be the "Great Mogul" himself, but that has no effect. The +coveted place can only be attained by merit, and this is one of the most +successful and meritorious traits in Scotch Association Football. You +don't, as a rule, even get a place now by reputation, and so much the +better. When clubs were few and good players fewer, you were not +unfrequently favoured with one, whether you deserved it or not, but now +the matter is different, and justly so, since we cannot go into a single +town or village in Scotland without seeing the practice ground and +goal-posts of the now omnipresent football club. + + + + +_IX.--A DREAM OF THE PAST._ + + +I am getting old and stiff now, at least in a football sense, but have +seen and played in, perhaps, more big matches in my time than many will +be inclined to give me credit for now. Somehow or other the modern +player does not seem to go into the game for the pleasure it affords +nearly so heartily as his representative of yore, but it may be that the +Compulsory Clause in the Education Act has made him more refined, or, if +you like it, a good deal more cunning in hiding his animal spirits and +exuberance of innocent fun. Be that as it may, the Association Football +of to-day does not really possess the same charm to me as it did ten +years ago. + +I was once a very fair player, but never considered sufficiently +brilliant to get my name handed down to posterity as the crack half-back +of the "Invincible Club" of bygone days, or proclaimed aloud in the +secret recesses of the great "houf" where football players now retire to +spend a social hour after finding themselves the victors of a +hard-fought field. I must admit, however, that I did some clever things +which the newspapers of that era ought to have at least given me a +"puff" for, but they didn't; in fact, I never, like Byron (Lord Byron, I +mean), awoke one morning to find myself famous, because my football was +that of days long ago, in an obscure (to football, at least) country +town; and, besides, the game then was conducted in rather a rude and +undignified fashion. Talk about rules, we had those which might, for all +I know, have been framed by the "Chief Souter of Selkirk" himself to +suit the peculiar mode of playing on the streets at Shrovetide (a +practice still in vogue near that Border land). Our captain knew nothing +of such new-fangled devices as the Rugby code, and far less of the +Football Association. Ours, in brief, was a sort of combination of both +styles of play. To win a "hail," as it was termed, the opposing side, +with shoving, hacking, and other descriptions of horse-play, had only to +pass the ball over the line, and it was won. Touch-lines, corner-flags, +twenty-five flags, and even upright posts, and the usual concomitants of +the scientific game of to-day, were unknown. This leads me, then, to the +point of tracing the rise and progress of the game in Scotland during +the past dozen years, leaving its antiquity and origin, about which +there are mere surmises, an "open question." That it was played, +however, in Edinburgh and Glasgow at least twenty years ago, under rules +somewhat similar to those now adhered to by the followers of the Rugby +Union I can well remember, and this was the only kind of football known +by the young athletes of that time. Over a dozen years ago many were the +exciting contests engaged in by not a few of the clubs still in +existence. + +The oval ball, with its historical associations, has a charm for them. +They then talked about the Association style of play with something akin +to contempt. "What," they might have been heard to say, "is the fun of +looking at people 'bobbing' a ball about with their heads, and the half +of a team doing nothing, while a couple or so of the players are engaged +at a time? Give us the closely-packed maul, the exciting individual run, +with the ball under the arm, the gallant struggle to ground it over the +opposing line, and, above all, the beautifully dropped goal." "But +nobody goes to see your matches now," remarks a newly-fledged convert to +the Association style of play, who has come to see the "Inter-City," +"they got disgusted with your never-ending mauls and shoving matches, +preferring to witness scientific manipulation of the ball in dribbling, +and passing with the feet." "Pshaw! do you imagine we care a straw for +gate-money? We play the game for the love of it, and the genuine +exercise it affords," retorts the old Rugby adherent, "and respect it +all the more on that account." "Oh! it is all very well to tell one +that, but don't your leading clubs still charge for admission to their +matches?" "Yes; but this is more in the way of keeping out the roughs +from the field than for gain." Such conversation I have overheard +myself, and none of the sides made much by it. + +Well can I remember the birth of Association Football in Scotland, and +look back to the time when there was not as many clubs as I could count +on the fingers of one hand. In 1870, a semi-International contest, under +Association rules, was played in London between Scotch men living in +England and an English Eleven, and continued till 1872, when, on +November 30th, the first real International match between England and +Scotland took place in Glasgow. In that same year, early in the season, +the celebrated Queen's Park Club (to whom Scotland owes the introduction +of the game), entered the lists for the English Challenge Cup, and were +drawn against the London Wanderers. It was at that point that the +matches which had hitherto been played in London between London +Scotchmen and Englishmen were given up in favour of an annual match +between Scotland and England, to be played alternately in London and +Glasgow, and, if possible, so to arrange the contest that the +Association match might be played in England the same season that the +Rugby match would be played in Scotland, and _vice versa_. It might be +as well here to say that the celebrated Scotch club and the Wanderers, +then in the zenith of their fame, played a drawn game with no goals on +either side, but finding it too difficult a job to meet the Englishmen +again, they scratched. Since then, however, the Rugby and Association +Internationals take place regularly as each season comes round, in +Scotland and England alternately. It is a curious fact, and one worthy +of record, that the Scottish Rugby Football Union and the Scottish +Football Association were both constituted in the same year--viz., 1873. +The Union was formed after the International Rugby match at Glasgow, Dr. +J. Chiene, of Edinburgh, being in the chair on the occasion. The +Scottish Football Association was formed under the presidency of Mr. +Robert Gardner, the once famous goalkeeper. + +The annual competition for the Association Cup, when the clubs who +entered for it the first year only numbered 16, were proceeded with in a +much more gentlemanly way than is the case now, but the reason is +obvious. Hitherto young and inexperienced clubs never dreamt of entering +against opponents with whom they knew they had no chance, and, +consequently, the competitions were left to be fought out among the +cream of exponents of the dribbling game. As each year came round, +however, and young clubs began to multiply exceedingly, many of them +considered they should have a shy at the "Cup," and as the entry-money +for membership to the Association was only a nominal sum, they competed, +and were never heard of after the first tie. No one who has watched the +progress of Association Football in Scotland can for a moment deny the +fact that the Challenge Cup has been the chief factor in assuring its +popularity and rapid development all over the Western District of +Scotland, and when its original promoters inaugurated the competition, +it was done with the honest conviction of spreading a knowledge of the +Association rules, together with generating a spirit of friendly rivalry +amongst clubs. + +That it has been eminently successful in the former respect is admitted, +but I can't say the same thing so far as "friendly rivalry" is +concerned, and one has only to remember the manner in which some of the +ties are conducted to point out that the term "questionable conduct" +would be more appropriate. When I hear of men and lads deliberately +kicking one another, and charging wildly when the ball is about ten +yards away in front, I begin to consider that the time has positively +arrived when the Scottish Football Association, if it wishes to retain +its hold, should interfere, and make a selection of clubs to compete for +the "blue ribbon" of Association glory. Quadruple the subscriptions to +the Association if necessary, and, above all, revise the bye-laws in +such a way that what is known as a "rough game" would be impossible. It +is but fair, however, to the Scottish Football Association to state that +they have long been alive to the fact, and have since taken the matter +up while deciding protests. + +The Association Rules, however, are immensely popular with the people, +and in some of the big matches it is quite a common thing to see 10,000 +or 15,000 spectators. I have heard of such people as those who actually +hate cricket and football, and make it a constant aim to prevent those +over whom they have some influence from engaging in the manly sport. +They occasionally flit across one's path like an evil spirit, and +disappear as rapidly, but leave behind a chilling effect on the +imagination, far more intense than the terrible nightmare after a +disastrous defeat. They cannot see the fun of spending valuable time in +such a way. If you follow one of those gentle "cads," however, at the +close of an evening, he may be seen, cue in hand, earnestly engaged at +the billiard table. He is not in a happy mood, for he is one of the +losing side, and there is a wild look about his eyes. He sometimes gets +home rather early in the morning, and is not particularly careful of his +choice of companions at times. They are childish amusements, these games +at cricket and football, "and none but silly people," he continues, +"would ever think of engaging in, or even encouraging, them any way." + +And another thing. There is a sort of prejudice to football, and, in +fact, to a lot of healthful out-door exercises, in Scotland, among the +older people, who can scarcely endure the thought of spending time under +any circumstances; and parents are often the cause of degenerating a +kind of deception more common than one would believe--viz., playing +under assumed names. Surely it is much better for the young men to spend +a spare afternoon on the football field, enjoying the fresh air, than +being, perhaps, engaged in questionable "time-smashing," in the way of +playing cards, draughts, or drinking. On asking a well-known dribbler +the other day how it came about that he played under a _nomme de +guerre_, "Was he afraid to let his real name be known?" The answer was +conclusive. The governor was sometimes inexorable, and treated him to a +lecture on filial obedience and the inevitable consequences of +neglecting business. He positively debarred him from playing again, but +Tom was not to be done. Taking advantage of the old fellow's absence +from home, he yielded to the solicitations of his captain, and played +under an assumed name, dribbling and passing in such beautiful form that +thousands of spectators applauded his efforts, and his side won in a +canter. As the non-indulgent parent did not observe Tom's name in the +papers, his little deception was never found out, and he continued doing +duty for his club in this way for a couple of seasons. And of the yet +fine player who thinks he will retire as each season comes round, +something must also be said. His eye has not yet lost the gleam of +honest rivalry, and he snorts like the war-horse as each season comes +round to be in the thick of the fight. He retired, it may be, last +season, for good, as he thought, but the fascinations of the goal-posts +and flying corner-flags was too much for him as a spectator at the first +big game, and he yielded for another year, but it will be his last, for +Maud, his beloved and beautiful Maud, will claim him as her own before +June. "We have been long engaged," he is heard to say to an old club +companion, "but this blessed football, of which I am very fond, has been +the cause of putting off the marriage." + +I once knew a fine young fellow, a crack half-back, who was so anxious +to play in an "International," that he positively swore he would never +get married till he was one of the chosen team. He kept his word. He +played twice for his country, got married, and, as the "unexpected does +not always happen," is now the father of what may some day prove a race +of stalwart football players. His handsome, though now slightly-bent +form, is still often seen when a great event is being decided, +accompanied by his wife and children, and woe betide the captain of his +former club if he allows it to be beaten. "Well played; keep him off the +ball, can't you!" he is heard to exclaim, till he is red in the face, +and he goes home to dinner with something like an appetite. + +None but those who have positively come through all the grades of +football probation really know what amount of labour, to say nothing of +self-denial, is needed to make a crack back, half-back, or skilful +forward. Sometimes one has to be contented with a place in the Second +Eleven for years, before some incident, it may be, brings him to the +front, and reveals true merit. In football, of course, as in other +things, I have found that the best men were not always in their best +places, and when this was the case, what is known as favouritism came in +bold relief, but in the end the club in which such stupidity was rampant +suffered very severely. It did all very well when the club were engaged +in ordinary contests with weaker opponents, but it came out in some of +the big events, in which the guilty club predominated in the selection +of men to represent a city, a university, and even a country. +Fortunately, however, I can honestly say that during the last few years +there has been little of this practised, and Scotch football under both +rules is all the better in consequence. + +While every enlightened mind is willing to go a long way in advocating +equality, the line must be drawn somewhere, and I am inclined to think +at that stage where gentlemanly feeling and courtesy are absent. A very +obscure individual may, by his conduct on the field, show that he at +least can be a gentleman. In all such manly sports social distinction +ought to be sunk, and that great and noble equality--that equality and +love of honest worth which is so dear to the Scotch (and let me also say +English heart) be ever remembered, when team meets team on the football +field. We are shown noble examples of how in days gone by, peer mingled +with peasant on the cricket field, strove with each other on the curling +pond, and why should not such things exist in football? Let me hope that +as each succeeding season comes round the noble winter game will in +proportion show greater improvement, both in club and individual +integrity, as well as higher scale of moral worth. + + + + + +_X.--THE DUEL NEAR THE FOOTBALL FIELD, AND THE CAUSE OF IT._ + + +"And you tell me, Frank, that the old ground is at last cut up to form a +railway embankment?" said Bob Smith to Frank Green (whose sister, by the +way, had got married to Pate Brown last season), as they met one evening +at Crosshill. + +"They will be long in finding a ground like Hampden Park, I'm thinking," +replied Green, with the recollections of pleasant games and glorious +victories for the Black-and-Whites, to say nothing of numerous gains to +Scotland in matches with England and Wales. + +Since this meeting of Bob and Frank, however, the said Black-and-Whites +have got pretty far forward with a new ground quite close to Hampden +Park, and it is now being levelled up and put into condition. The +railway embankment referred to is part of the Cathcart Railway, which +will assist very considerably in opening up rapid communication between +Glasgow and the whole of the suburban burghs lying south. + +While referring to the Southern Suburbs, which, it may be mentioned, are +closely associated with the rise and progress of Association Football, +I cannot refrain from alluding to several genial souls who have helped +to make them what they are. None, however, is entitled to claim more +consideration and credit than Provost Goodfellow, of Suburbopolis, whose +official life, so to speak, has been spent in the cause of suburban +organisation, accompanied, of course, with a due regard for Association +Football. + +You must know, my brave Scotch readers, and those hailing from South of +the Tweed, that the Provost of a Scotch burgh or town occupies the exact +position of the English Mayor. He is the head of the municipality, and +is, in fact, a kind of ruler of all he surveys, but about his "right to +dispute," particularly when the November election comes on, why that is +purely a matter of opinion. + +Well, the ruler of Suburbopolis was not a despotic man. He was certainly +a little pedantic, and who, I should like to know, would not be inclined +to lean that way if they had taken part in a great annexation fight with +the chiefs of the big bouncing city of Glasgow, and beaten them too? + +Some years ago, it may be briefly explained, the Glasgow authorities +devised a scheme, whereby all the suburban burghs were to be taken under +the wing of Glasgow and lose their entire independence, and +Suburbopolis, being close on the touch-line, was to be attacked first. +Glasgow, in fact, was to act as the veritable annaconda, and swallow it +up, but she didn't. + +Scotch Radicals, talking politically, had not hitherto much faith in +what they considered an effete hereditary legislature, such as the House +of Lords, but if there was one thing more than another calculated to +bring about a Conservative reaction among the Glasgow suburban +authorities, it was the attention paid to their vested interests by the +Peers. + +The Commons had spurned their entreaties to maintain independence with +scorn, and even relegated them to Bumbledom, but their lordships, to +whom the case was appealed, literally strangled the said annaconda +before she began to devour, and Suburbopolis, along with other five +thriving burghs, were saved from municipal death, and still retain their +Provosts. Provost Goodfellow was a most genial soul, and particularly +fond of Association Football. + +He could talk about dribbling, passing, and backing-up, as if to the +manner born. The only thing, in fact, which he did not fully understand +was the "off-side rule," and many of greater pretentions were as far at +sea regarding that said rule as the worthy Provost. He was the life and +soul of Charity Cup Ties, and never failed to turn out to patronise +them. Even the charming young ladies of the family (for you must know +his honour had three handsome daughters) knew a good deal about the +rules, and had several excited discussions with their brother Archie +(who was a member of the Camphill), and Bob Lambert (of the +Black-and-Whites), as to the respective merits of sundry clubs. + +These young ladies, too, had a long string of admirers, and no family +acquaintance was more eagerly sought after than that of the Goodfellows. +Suburbopolis, however, was by no means devoid of a galaxy of feminine +beauty and well-developed male forms, who might have been seen of an +evening leaving the handsome villas and terraces around the Park (for +which the inhabitants were not taxed). + +There were, of course, the families of Colonel Black (an old warrior, +who had been through the Crimea and Indian Mutiny), the Redpath girls, +whose mother was a widow, the Snodgrass young ladies (three in number), +the Misses Bland, residing at Jessimine Lodge, and, of course, many more +lesser luminaries. The Colonel's daughters, or "Golden Slippers," as +one of them was called by several members of the Camphill, who had +caught her in the act of watching a practice game on the eve of a big +Cup Tie, wearing a pair of fur-lined slippers, and had her heart set on +the Camphill beating the Black-and-Whites, was, indeed, the most +handsome girl in the burgh. + +I would not dare to attempt a pen-and-ink sketch. It would fail in its +effect. It's all very good for you fellows who have no soul for feminine +loveliness to talk about girls, like babies, being all pretty much +alike, but you are wrong--entirely wrong. Jenny was, in fine, a "bonnie, +bonnie lass," and scores of young fellows, I know, would have gone +considerably out of their way to have received "ae blink o' her bonnie +black e'e." Emma, although scarcely so tall, was very like her sister, +only shorter in the temper. + +After sundry matches at the field, Jack Black used to take a few of his +companions up to the Hillhouse, and the young ladies received them +graciously--congratulating them when they won their matches, and +"chaffing" them unmercifully when they lost. + +There were at least three suitors for the hand of Jenny, but one of them +resided in London, and the other at Skyview Villa, a couple of hundred +yards from Hillhouse. It can be easily imagined that the local man had +the advantage in the courtship, being, as the special correspondent +always prides himself in adding to his communications, "on the spot." + +Bob Lambert was, to be sure, a welcome visitor at Jenny's residence, and +a fast companion of her brother Jack, and what was more, Bob was quite a +favourite with the old Colonel, who admired his fine appearance in the +football field, and the brilliant manner in which he could "back-up" +when that was needed to win a game. Bob, I must confess, was really a +nice-looking fellow, with black curly hair, and a good broad chest. His +features were well formed, and he possessed penetrating dark grey eyes. +There was one thing, however, which told against Bob in many ways, and +that was his hasty temper. He could brook no rival in his position as +the best forward in the Black-and-Whites, and a word or two from the +captain at a practice game was sure to upset him. He sometimes, in fact, +took the pet altogether. + +Once, when playing a Cup Tie with the Athletic Park, he met his match in +Charlie Walker (another of Jenny's sweethearts), who played at +half-back, and the work done all through that eventful match was seen +between the pair. Talk about coming in contact with "mother earth," why +that was positively child's play when the two met. + +Walker was also a powerful fellow, and it was a case of Greek meeting +Greek. "Bumping at Oxford," to use an aquatic term, why it was nothing! +At one time Bob was seen tossed up in the air as if from the horns of an +infuriated bull, and at another Charlie was observed lying on the field +at Bob's feet. What did they care about the ball being fifty yards off? +Not a straw, so long as they tackled and kept each other away from it. +"That's not football," says one, "it is horse play." "Never mind about +football in a Cup Tie," says another, "let the heaviest team win; go +into the fellow." "Oh! gentlemen, gentlemen, fie, fie, Association +Football is an amateur game, and as long as I play it," said the +captain, "there shall be no cruelty done on either side." + +Little did the spectators know the real cause of the inordinate tackling +done by Bob and Charlie, but the secret soon came out. The pair had +previously been rivals for the hand of Jenny Black, and Bob was looked +upon as the winner. At least Charlie had not been seen at the Black's +Villa for two or three months, and before this he always made it his +house of call. But what about Harry Carts, Jenny's English sweetheart? +Why, I had almost forgotten him. + +A team of Cantabs had played the Black-and-Whites just a year +previously, and Harry was one of them. He had been invited to spend an +evening at the Colonel's house, and had fallen desperately in love with +the bonnie Scotch lassie. Bob was also specially invited and was present +that evening, and although trying to be as affable as possible to the +friendly stranger and opponent, could barely hide his jealousy when the +gallant English forward kissed the lovely girl's ruby lips in a game at +forfeits. + +Bob said nothing about it to Jenny, but Emma, the youngest sister, +whispered to her brother Jack that Bob's eyes had a wild look that +evening. The matter, however, was soon forgotten, as Harry Carts left +Glasgow the next evening for London, after his gallant team had played a +drawn game with the Scotch Black-and-Whites--the first one ending in +that way, be it observed, that had ever been played between them and an +English team on Scottish ground in the memory of the proverbial "oldest +inhabitant." + +Harry Carts, to give him his due, was one of the best Association +football players ever England produced. When Mr. C. W. Alcock and a few +choice spirits in London, it is true, first opened the eyes of many +football players to the value of the Association rules, and inaugurated +the Football Association in 1863, Harry was a mere child. Appearing at +college, however, he soon showed a liking for the dribbling game, and +never lost a moment in doing his best to acquire everything he was +likely to know about it. + +Just the season before our story opens, he had been chosen from an +imposing array of names sent in by his club, and also the branch +Associations, for an honourable place in the "Great International." His +superiority, in fact, put his place beyond doubt, and he stood to +represent his country first, and club afterwards, in a tussle which +proved disastrous to England; but it was admitted by all who witnessed +the match that Harry was one of the best men on the Field, and, in +company with his half-back, showed the best form and pluck--the +victorious Scotchmen notwithstanding. How the pair above mentioned +tackled and passed up, to say nothing of backing and nursing the ball, I +know full well, for I saw the game. Harry and his companion, in fact, +were again and again cheered for their magnificent dribbling, and when +the eventful game was over Harry was carried shoulder-high, in real +Scotch form, to the Black-and-White's pavilion. + +The incident did not escape Jenny and her sister, who were standing on +the gravelled walk in front of the pavilion. Jenny was sympathetic when +she saw the handsome young Englishman cheered by the excited crowd, and +when the excitement culminated into carrying him shoulder-high to the +pavilion, a brilliant flash from her eye told the tale of regard. The +young lady, despite assertions to the contrary, must have at least +admired the young Englishman; and among the blithe and gentle faces who +swept their cambric handkerchiefs over their heads, none were more +demonstrative than the Black girls. They saw, with something akin to +pride, Harry let gently down at the pavilion door, followed by their +brother Jack, Jim Wallace, and Bill M'Clelland, all of whom had done +great work in the big match. + +Harry did not lose sight of the handsome face which had haunted him all +the previous summer, notwithstanding his flirtation with the Italian +girls in Venice. Venice, beautiful Venice! It was in thy classic city, +close to the scene of the great Italian poet's labours and triumphs, +that poor Jack Vincent (who used to play left wing in the Swifts) was +found drowned, after attending a ball. Poor Jack, I think even now I can +see his handsome, but withal, comical face, when he used to dodge sundry +half-backs while playing for his club. Poor fellow! grave hints were +held out at the time that he had met with foul play, but nothing more +was ever heard about the matter, and Jack's friends never got any +satisfaction. + +I am, however, going off the line with my brief story. Carts, in fact, +felt Jenny's face haunting him wherever he went, and on the earliest +opportunity came back to Scotland, asked the dear little girl to be his +wife, got the crusty old Colonel's consent, and the pair were all but +apparently engaged to be married at an early date. Harry was splendid +company either on the field, at the Black-and-White's room in +Battlefield Hotel, or at the villa. He could sing a good song, tell a +good story, and crack a wild joke. Harry used to sing a new song about +football, the chorus of which jingled out: + + "In measured blow, the dancing feet, + Now moving slow, now galloping fleet; + With a leap and a curl, + With a sweep and a twirl." + +He declared that the song was original, but Archie, who was a bit of a +book-worm, and never neglected taking in the "Monthlies," expressed +grave misgivings about having seen something like it applied to a skater +in "Scribner's Magazine." + +Bob Lambert and Charlie Walker, the other two young fellows who were +looked upon as Jenny's admirers, were terribly shaken in heart and +spirit when they heard of her flirtation with the handsome young +Englishman; but such a thing as an engagement between them was never for +a moment entertained. Bob was too much a man of the world to suppose +that Jenny would ever give him up for another; and poor, soft-headed +Charlie, why, he was sure the Colonel's favourite daughter loved him +still. + +Matters went on in this way for some time. The football season was now +about closed, as the month of May was at hand, and all the big matches +had been lost and won, including the Challenge Cup Tie, which Dumbarton +had carried off. For several evenings Bob and Charlie had not come +across one another (although Charlie was also a member of the +Black-and-Whites, as well as the Athletic Park). Bob had blamed Charlie +for telling some stories about a fine young girl whom the former had +promised to make his wife a year previously. The poor girl, it was +hinted, had been jilted to such an extent by Bob, that she had broken +her heart, and pined away and died. + +One evening the pair met at the entrance to the pavilion on Hampden +Park, where a lot of the players were lounging about smoking, after +having done with their sides. Most of the club fellows knew that Lambert +and Walker had not spoken to each other for a long time, even to the +extent of exchanging the usual salutations about the weather. They were, +therefore, much astonished to see them in earnest conversation. Menacing +looks were exchanged, and something like curses--not deep, perhaps, but +loud--were heard from the rivals' lips. + +The fact was, the men had arranged to settle their "little difference" +with swords. What do you think of that, my nineteenth century +intelligent reader, with all your boasted approach to civilisation and +sacred respect for life? Why, a cold-blooded duel with swords, and in +the French fashion, too! Both hot-headed youths knew comparatively +little about the handling of the chosen weapons, nothing more, indeed, +than what they received while training in the Volunteers; but it was a +"point of honour," and they would do their best. + +Several of the Black-and-Whites, who had heard about the proposed +"meeting," had a secret consultation with Ned M'Gill and Davie Merricks, +who, it was whispered, had taken the friendly job of "seconds," and the +whole affair was "adjusted." With swords this was impossible, and they +resolved to resort to the respectable and honourable weapon, the +revolver. + +The two men who were to face each other in terrible earnest, you may be +sure, slept little or none during the preceding night. "Four o'clock +sharp, mind, at the grass field, near Hagg's Castle," said the brave +seconds, "and it will be all over in a few minutes." Charlie shuddered +when he heard the last words (which, by the way, were deliberately +intended for him). + +"_A few minutes, and all will be over_," Charlie muttered; "what if I +should be killed?" His very teeth (which he used to whiten with cigar +ashes, and was so proud about), were chattering. Thousands of ideas +floated across his heated imagination. He saw his past life before him, +and the only consolation, if it could be called one, lay in the thought +that, should it come to the worst, Jenny Black's eyes would be dimmed +with tears at his misfortune. He felt sure the dear lassie loved him, +and he would brave death a thousand times rather than endure the anguish +of seeing her married to a useless fellow like Bob Lambert. + +Bob, on the other hand, was really a cool and determined fellow; and +while Charlie was in the throes speculating about probable dissolution +before the morrow's sun should rise, Bob was actually priding himself on +superior ability in handling a revolver. He was, in fact, far too +arrogant a man to imagine that _he_ could be shot by a silly boy like +Walker. He had made up his mind to shoot straight when the signal fell, +and indulged in the devilish pleasure it would afford him to read a +"true and particular account" of the duel in the Glasgow evening papers, +if good luck would favour him in escaping to the Continent. + +"These fellows are not going to come up to the scratch," said Ned M'Gill +to the other honourable gent--as they passed the Clydesdale Cricket +Ground a few minutes to four o'clock on that memorable morning. Ned, +however, was wrong. Through the grey dawn a muffled figure was observed +crossing the Pollokshields Athletic Club's Park, and making direct for +the old castle. Almost simultaneously came a second individual from the +vicinity of Crossmyloof, smoking a cigar. There was no doubt about it, +for on closer inspection the figure was that of Lambert, who generally +indulged in a good cigar, as he had a friend in the Anchor Line who was +always supplying him with "weeds." + +A very short time sufficed to measure the distance, but the would-be +_murderers_, no doubt, considered it an age. When the seconds advanced +along with their men to the fatal spot, and placed them twenty paces +apart, Charlie put one in mind of the poor misguided boy in "The +Rivals." His hand shook, and his knees almost touched one another. + +_The signal was given_, and bang went the revolvers from both sides. +None of the young men, however, seemed to have been hit; and while +Charlie was almost sinking on the ground from excitement, Bob might have +been seen examining his weapon with suspicion, at the same time casting +a glance at his rival and wondering why he did not fall. A second or two +more, and the latter fired another shot, and this time poor Charlie +dropped his pistol and fell back on the grass. + +Bob was satisfied he had done the business now, and taking the advice of +Davie Merricks, he fled for his life; getting the early train for +Greenock and thence per steamer "Golden Eagle," to the Isle of Man. + +The "seconds" (and a few strange figures that were seen lurking about) +of course, lifted the supposed dying man from the grass, and as his +"life's blood ebbed away," they whispered about being willing to fill a +last request. Poor Charlie's brow was covered with blood, and as he +himself expressed the terrible sensation of "feeling a pistol ball +bobbing about in his brain," arrangements were hastily made for having +him consigned to relatives. Accordingly his lodgings were sought after +and easily found by the excited hansom driver who had taken them near +the fatal spot. + +All the time the affair was going on the driver threw out grave hints +about reporting the whole matter to the police. When they reached +Greenfield Avenue, however, there was still some life in Charlie, but he +said he "knew he was dying," and forgave everybody who had taken part in +the rascally business. + +Higgins, the hansom driver, was as good as his word, and after leaving +the place, went direct to the Suburbopolis Police Office, and got the +whole matter reported. Not very long after the police surrounded the +house in Greenfield Avenue, and Provost Goodfellow (who, it may be +remarked, was the only magistrate at home when the affair took place, +and had to be aroused for the purpose), came in all haste to take the +"dying deposition." Meanwhile Dr. Barrister, one of the best of the +local surgeons, was in attendance. + +The doctor, however, suspecting something soon after feeling the +supposed wounded man's pulse, and judge of the surprise, to say nothing +of indignation, when the doctor, and then the Provost, began to indulge +in a hearty fit of unrestrained laughter. The "seconds" knew their +business well, for they had _loaded the weapons with blank cartridges +and a few drops of bullock's blood_, and some of the contents of Bob's +pistol had hit Charlie on the brow. + +Poor Charlie, he was so terribly shaken and nervous after being hit that +he was long in getting the better of the fright. Like the French +prisoner whom the cruel authorities of the "Inquisition" determined +should be experimented upon as a victim of imagination in the way of +supposed bleeding to death, Charlie, although he had not received a +scratch, thought he was dying fast, till the doctor informed him of the +imaginary wound. + +A few days afterwards the affair was "hushed up," and nobody was better +pleased when he heard the true state of matters than Bob Lambert +himself. His friend Jim Campbell had sent a letter to Douglas Post +Office, to be called for, under a fictitious name, and Bob soon returned +to Glasgow. + +When little Jenny Black was told the same morning of the duel, that +Charlie Walker had been shot by Bob Lambert, she fainted clean away, and +afterwards refused to be comforted. "To think that she, a poor weak +girl, should have been the cause of such a terrible tragedy," she was +heard to say to her sister, "I'm afraid I'll never get over it." When +the true state of matters, however, was revealed, and the whole affair +brought up in its real light, it afforded immense merriment all over +Suburbopolis, and when football players met to spend a social hour, the +duel between Bob Lambert and Charlie Walker is, of course, alluded to as +a standard joke. + +A few months afterwards there was a nice wedding at Colonel Black's +villa, and strange as it may seem, both Lambert and Walker were there, +together with quite a crowd of football players and their sweethearts. + +The reader will, of course, easily make out who wore the bridal dress, +and looked lovely in it, too. Surprise, however, not, it is to be hoped, +altogether unmixed with satisfaction, will be expressed, when the +bride-groom appears in the person of Charlie Walker, Jenny's own love. +Harry Carts, the handsome Englishman, she certainly admired, but did not +actually love sufficiently to make a husband of. He, in fact, seemed to +have been too fond of company, and in correspondence a coldness had +sprung up between them, and ended in two parting letters. + +Jenny loved Charlie Walker best, and accordingly gave him her heart and +hand. "What he had suffered for her sake," the young lady was heard to +express to a confidant, "no one but himself knew." They are, however, +now a happy pair, and when Cup Ties and big matches are being played +near Suburbopolis, you will be sure to see Charlie and his handsome wife +on the field. + +As for Bob Lambert, who was forgiven, he became more of a man in +subduing his temper and general disposition, and one evening told his +old rival that he would never forget till his dying day--"THE DUEL NEAR +THE FOOTBALL FIELD." + + + + +_XI.--THE FINAL TIE FOR THE ASSOCIATION CHALLENGE CUP--1889-90._ + +_TWO MEMORABLE MATCHES._ + + +A couple of matches had to played before the final tie for the +Association Challenge Cup was decided, and at the earnest request of +numerous friends I have reproduced my articles on both games, which +appeared in the Daily Mail, and trust they will be considered worthy a +place in the volume. The following is the + + +~First Match.~ + +This important contest, which had to be postponed the previous Saturday +in consequence of the dense fog which enveloped the city and suburbs in +semi-darkness, came off at Ibrox Park, and resulted in a draw--each side +scoring a goal. Early in the forenoon the weather in every particular +looked like a counterpart of the previous Saturday, and it was not till +well on in the day that the Association Committee finally decided to go +on with the match. Even with this short notice, combined with the fact +that heavy rain came on and continued till well on in the second half, +the attendance of spectators was large, about 11,000, and this is borne +out by the cash lifted at the gate, some £500. Of this the Association +gets a third, and the other two-thirds are equally divided between the +contending teams. The proceeds of the stand, however, went to the +Rangers' funds, as that club gave their ground free of charge to the +Association to play off the tie. Paisley Road and Govan Road presented a +scene to be remembered from two o'clock till well on for 3.30 P.M., +being thronged with vehicles of every kind, from the carriage and pair, +the hansom and cab, down to the modest van. Pedestrians, too, were +numerous, and on the Govan Road the Vale of Clyde Tramway Company, with +extra cars, reaped a good harvest. On the way down, and in the field +itself, the usual good-natured banter was largely indulged in, and as +football enthusiasts, like the rest of impatient spectators, are only +human, they were in better temper at the start of the contest than was +the case at the finish. The meeting of the Queen's Park and Vale of +Leven, in fact, revived old times among the once brilliant players of +both clubs, many of whom were present on Saturday to "fight their +battles o'er again." "Dae ye ken," said an old man as the game +proceeded, "I wis present at old Hampden Park on the wet Hogmanay +afternoon long ago, when the Vale licked the Queen's by two to one in a +Cup tie, and I wish'd ye'd a' seen the Queen's Park committee men and +their supporters that day when the bare fac' wis kent. I'm thinkin' they +didna craw sae crouse, and maybe they'll get a fricht the noo." When the +Vale scored their goal a wag, primed with a fair-sized pocket pistol, no +doubt containing the best--well, every public-house salesman will tell +you at anyrate, it is the "best," and charge for it, too, as +"special"--began to lilt a verse of the popular pantomime song, "Their +funeral's to-morrow," hinting heavily about the decline and fall of the +Queen's Park. Many saw the point, and laughed; while others gave the +jolly fellow a look that betokened contempt and dismay. "Wait till the +second half," said a quiet supporter of the senior club, "and ye'll see +what they can dae; they're only making some fun." In pressing forward, +leaning against the pailings, were not a few critical rivet boys and +iron-workers, whose running comments were amusing in the extreme. Of +some young fellows who came down from the city dressed up in style, one +of the "black squad" was heard to say, "Don't they look blooming +'swells,' with their gloves and G.O.M. collars, and you wid think that +the whole landed property about is theirs, even to Ibrox Park itself. +Crush up, Bob. We've paid our money as well as the lot, and must get +share of the view. Crush up." "Man, jock, they've got a new ile for +training and rubbin' up the fitballers noo. It's whit they ca' +herbuline, and it keeps out the cauld and warms ye unca' much; but the +smell's sae strong that it nearly blin's ye." No doubt some kind of +specific was required on such a trying day as Saturday, for it was +indeed a clear case of illustrating the old adage, when exclusively +applied to man, about the survival of the fittest. There is this about +Ibrox Park, however, which certainly recommends it to the impartial +spectator--fine even turf, without a flaw, and no advantage even to the +home club itself when playing matches. It is well sheltered, and the +arrangements for the big crowd were ample, and well carried out by the +Rangers' committee and the Scottish Football Association, for whom Mr +John M'Dowall, the secretary, acted with much credit. The Govan +policemen (at least most of them) love a good game at football as dearly +as the old Highland landlady lo'ed a lord, and what is more, their +respected chief shows them a good example, as he is generally to be +found at Ibrox Park, in company with other burgh officials, when there +is a good thing on. The early editions of the evening papers were +largely in request, not by any means for the purpose of reading, as all +attention was directed to the game, and in the anxiety to see the +players before the contest began, but for the sole purpose of being "sat +on." The supply was soon exhausted, and one speculative newsboy, taking +in the situation at a glance, disappeared for a short time, but came up +smiling towards the grand stand ten minutes afterwards with a bundle of +brown paper wrappers, which he disposed of like penny pies at twopence +per sheet. The judges of the game had very difficult duties to perform, +and to their credit be it said they did the work without fear or favour, +and we are quite certain gave general satisfaction to the players. The +spectators, however, treated the unfavourable conditions of the +atmosphere with indifference, and even contempt, and long before the +time announced for the kick-off they crowded around the pailing and +surroundings to get a good view of the game. In consequence of the wet +weather very few ladies were present compared with what has turned out +at previous finals. The Vale of Leven emerged from the pavilion first, +and were well received. A few minutes afterwards came the Queen's Park, +who were also loudly cheered with cries of "Good old Q.P." The toss +between the two captains was watched with much earnestness, and when the +Leven team ranged themselves in front of the ball from the gate end, it +became apparent that they had won. The Queen's Park, by Hamilton, kicked +off against the wind, and a short run by Berry was successful in sending +the ball so near the Vale of Leven goal that one of the strangers put it +behind, and gave the Queen's Park a corner-flag kick. This was followed +by a close scrimmage, in which the ball came near Whitelaw, who sent it +down the field. A "foul," however, by Paton gave the Queen's Park a +lift, and in a second scrimmage the ball was again put behind the lines. +Another corner-flag kick was the consequence, and it took the Queen's +Park well in on goal, where the tackling was very severe. The ball again +bobbed about the posts, but the Vale men showed splendid back play on +the slippery ground, and sent it clear. After this Bruce and M'Millan +had a good run on the left for the Vale of Leven, and the former had a +shy that went past the left post. The kick out by Gillespie was followed +up by a steady run on the part of Allan, Berry, and Gulliland, and the +former shied wide past the right post. After the kick out, the Queen's +Park kept up the pressure, and it was some time before the ball emerged +from Vale of Leven territory, which it did from the foot of Rankin. Some +even play ensued, and then the Vale had a run by the right forwards, +and, in kicking clear, Arnott slipped a bit, and the ball, getting the +upper of his boot, rolled over the lines and gave the Vale of Leven a +corner-flag kick. It was taken by M'Lachlan, but he cut the distance too +fine, and the ball rolled harmlessly over the bar. In turn, Gillespie's +kick-out was followed by a run on the part of Sellar and Hamilton, and a +"hand" by one of the Vale of Leven backs gave Smellie a chance of doing +something with a free kick. It was very hard work, however, for both, +and the opinion began to gain ground that the team who could keep up +their stamina longest would be the winners. The ground, in fact, was a +bit treacherous, and in some cases when the ball landed, after a long +kick, it bounded clean over the heads of the backs, and some mis-kicks +now and again occurred. Seven minutes from half-time, the Vale men made +a smart spurt, and, after some clever passing, the ball was taken +possession of by M'Lachlan, who jumped in and headed it between the +posts--just a few inches from the right side--amid cheers and counter +cheers. The teams then faced up in the centre, and, from a good start, +the Queen's Park got up to their opponents' lines, and Berry just missed +the goal by a foot. After this the Vale of Leven had a good run down on +the Queen's Park lines, and a fast shy by Osborne was caught up and +punted out by Gillespie, and another immediately afterwards, from the +foot of Bruce, was cleared by Smellie. The half-time signal, however, +was given, leaving the Vale of Leven one goal ahead. The strangers had +now the kick-off, and made considerable use of it, for the forwards +backed up well, and a slip by one of the half-backs of the Queen's Park +gave the Vale of Leven a corner-flag kick. The ball was fairly managed, +but Bruce, who had it at his toe, was tackled by Smellie, and sent down +the field. The Queen's Park had now a brilliant turn at the Leven goal, +and several hard shies at the posts were cleverly returned by the backs. +The Queen's men, however, kept pressing on, and had a corner-flag kick, +which was taken by Sellar, and splendidly sent out by Wilson. The play +after this was straggling a bit, and falls were frequent in Vale of +Leven territory, but the Queen's men were very unlucky at goal, and +could not get the ball through--Gulliland, with a hard shy, only missing +by a shave. The ball eventually passed the Leven lines in a scrimmage +not long afterwards, and as it was put over by one of the defenders, +another corner-flag kick was the consequence. Time was now wearing on, +and do all they could, with hemming in their opponents and making +innumerable shies at goal, the Queen's Park could not score, and a +corner-flag kick did not mend matters. After this the Vale team improved +very much in their forward play, and M'Lachlan and Bruce again had a +fine run up the field, and as Arnott, in tackling, let the ball go over +the lines, the Leven team had a corner-flag kick. The shot from the +pavilion end was very well taken by one of the half-backs (M'Nicol), and +the Queen's Park goal had a narrow shave, as the ball was caught by +Robertson in the nick of time and cleared. The Queen's Park were soon at +it again, however, and not only drove their powerful opponents off, but +completely invaded their stronghold. Crowding round Allan, Berry, +Gulliland, Sellar, Hamilton, and even the Queen's half-backs had shies +at the Leven goal, but Wilson saved brilliantly. When time was drawing +to a close the excitement became very intense, and while the friends of +the Vale of Leven were jubilant and hopeful about the issue, the +partisans of the senior club, who came to see their favourites conquer, +were proportionately sad and crest-fallen. "They cannot do it now," said +a chorus of voices well up on the stand, "but see this, boys," remarked +an old football follower, as Arnott rolled up the sleeves of his jersey +with a determination which gave new life to the game; and as it has been +said frequently before that the Queen's Park can rise to a great +occasion, assuredly they did on Ibrox Park on Saturday. One minute or so +more and all would be over. Pressing their opponents very hard with +shots at goal, corner-flag kicks, scrimmages almost under the +goalkeeper's feet, they were again and again repulsed by grand work on +the part of Wilson, and as the ball emerged out of the pack after a free +kick it was sent a bit down the field towards the Queen's Park +half-backs. Here Bruce, the most prominent forward of the country club, +got possession, and was about to beat Stewart, when Arnott and Smellie +came to the rescue, and the ball was immediately sent back to the Vale +goal, where, after a terrible scrimmage, from a "free kick," it was put +between the posts by Smellie. The vision of a glorious victory for the +Q.P. had by that time faded away like a dream, and a crowd of the senior +club's followers had actually left Ibrox Park in disgust, when a +tremendous cheer burst forth from the ground signalling a point for the +Queen's Park, who had "turned" the doubtful day again. The scene which +followed was truly exciting. The Q.P. followers gave vent to their +strained feelings with an outburst of cheering which must have been +heard in some of the neighbouring police burghs, including Partick on +the other side of the river, while those of the Vale kept quiet in +disappointment. The teams then began the struggle anew, and from the +kick off the Vale of Leven men made a grand run up on the Queen's Park +goal, and had a couple of corner-flag kicks in succession, but the +Queen's Park backs sent the ball clear, and a few seconds afterwards the +whistle sounded, leaving one of the most remarkable games ever played in +the final tie for the Association Challenge Cup drawn, with one goal +all. The following are the teams that played in both games:--Queen's +Park--Goal, Gillespie; backs, Arnott and Smellie; half-backs, M'Ara, +Stewart, and Robertson; forwards, Gulliland, Berry, J. Hamilton, Allan, +and Sellar. Vale of Leven--Goal, Wilson; backs, Whitelaw and Murray; +half-backs, Osborne, M'Nicol, and Sharp; forwards, M'Lachlan, Rankin, +James Patton, Bruce, and M'Millan. + + +~Second Match.~ + +The destiny of the Challenge Cup has at length been decided for the +season, and the Queen's Park are the conquerors after one of the finest +games ever seen on Ibrox Park--the victory being the narrow one of two +goals to one. The game, it may be remembered, was drawn on the previous +Saturday, when each side had scored a goal, and, strange as it may seem, +the Queen's Park only saved themselves then, as they have done now, +towards the close of the contest, and converted what looked like a +defeat into a victory. Between 12,000 and 13,000 spectators were +present, and as the weather was fine the match was a most enjoyable one. +The cash drawn at the gate amounted to fully £600, and, as on the +previous meeting, will be equally apportioned among the two clubs and +the Association. The city cabbies made a day of it, and pocketed a good +round sum. They handled the ribbons with a dexterity which in some cases +was really alarming, and threatened the lieges with accident. "Drive us +to Ibrox Park, mind, in ten minutes, or we'll be late for the kick-off," +and the promise of an extra sixpence did the business, although Jehu's +old friend and brother must be passed on the road. In some cases this +was overdone, and a horseless machine with only one wheel might have +been seen near Bellahouston Academy, awaiting "alterations and repairs," +and on the same road some "spills" also occurred. The remarks round the +pavilion, stand, and approaches were, as usual, both instructive and +amusing, and let the impartial spectator know how the land lay, and the +kind of company he was for the moment keeping. All sorts and conditions +of men and boys were there to see the match. A hasty glance, in fact, +revealed the astonishing fact that nearly all classes in the country +were represented--city magnates, iron-masters, shipbuilders, ministers +of religion, doctors, schoolmasters, clerks, mechanics of all kinds, and +a much larger contingent of ladies than we have seen on any previous +occasion. From the cheers and counter cheers which greeted the +goal-scoring by the senior club it was apparent that their followers +were in the majority, but when the young Vale of Leven got the first +point, the cheers which followed showed that they had also a large +number of partisans, who honestly believed in the club's ability to win +the cup. In the first round, indeed, the Vale players showed much better +combination all over than the Q.P., and reminded many of the Vale of +yore. The second half, however, revealed the senior club at their best, +and from the manner in which they acted together and kept up their +staying powers, they really deserved to win. As we have already said, +the gossip among the spectators was both bright and original. A +demonstrative supporter of the senior club was rather personal with his +remarks, and was asked by a lover of the game, but not a partisan of +either club, to keep quiet "and not let everybody know he was a born +fool." "Oh! yes; it's all very fine, but the band at Alexandria 'ill no +play at the station yet: the Vale canna' win noo," said he, as the +Queen's team put the ball through a second time. A well dressed young +fellow on the stand near the press table was very funny, and if ever a +man enjoyed the game it was he. In the exuberance of his joy at the Q.P. +scoring, he danced on the little spot allotted to him on the stand, and +in doing so nearly overbalanced himself. "Ye'll be the better o' a half +yin after that narrow escape," said one of his friends, handing him a +bottle. After he had swallowed a fair amount of the liquor he stole a +hasty glance at the bottle, and found to his disgust he had been +drinking "The Vale of Leven blend." "It's a' richt," said his country +friend, "ye'll maybe need it a' yet; the Vale are not beaten the noo; +the Queen's man tak' anither goal before that occurs," and so they did. +"Oh! a' say," remarked a born East-Ender, for whom we are perfectly +certain the Clyde and Thistle, according to his self-importance at any +rate, had played their best on Barrowfield and Beechwood, "look at that; +it's no' fair to gie the Vale a free kick for that; it's the auld way; +gie't ta the yin that mak's the maist noise." "Yes," said another, who +looked every inch a dyer from the celebrated football county of +Dumbarton, and maybe the Vale of Leven district itself, "did ever ye see +the likes o' that, and frae sic a swell club, tae?" as Robertson bowled +over Bruce on the grass, and cleared the ball away. Wilson, the Vale of +Leven goalkeeper, came in for a fair share of praise; and so did Arnott, +Smellie, Sellar, Gulliland, and Gillespie for their brilliant play, but +many were in ecstacy about young Wilson. "His mither 'ill be a proud +woman the day when she kens how well he kept goal for the Vale; there's +nae doubt about it, Wilson's the coming man between the sticks for the +International on Hampden Park on 5th April next," said a red-faced man, +wearing a glengarry. Old and respected members of both clubs were again +present to cheer on their successors to victory, and we observed several +original members of the once-famous Clydesdale, including two who took +part in the first final tie for the cup on old Hampden Park. Several old +Rangers were present, too, who remembered well the series of exciting +matches played by them against the Vale of Leven, when no fewer than +three hard battles had to be fought before the destiny of the cup was +settled for the year. The sad news, too, was announced in the papers of +the sudden death of another famous forward (Mr. J. R. Wilson), who took +part in the first final tie between the Queen's Park and Clydesdale on +behalf of the latter club. Many of the "Old Brigade" viewed the contest +with mixed feelings. "You seem excited, Bob," said a friend to an old +Q.P., and no wonder; time is fleeting fast; the game will be done in a +quarter of an hour, and, dear me, the Queen's have not even scored. "Not +at all, not at all," said the Q.P. old player, tearing at his moustache +in a manner that threatened that hirsute appendage with instant +annihilation, "I think they will, at anyrate, make it a draw, for see +how they press the Vale now. Oh! they've done it; see that," as Hamilton +sent the ball between the posts. "The extra half-hour is sure to be +played now," said another, as the Vale of Leven men brought down the +ball to mid-field, and kicked off. There was, indeed, great excitement, +and as the Queen's Park again and again pressed their opponents, and +finally scored a second goal, it was a dozen times intensified, and the +subsequent play made the Q.P. men more bold and determined. The Vale of +Leven, as on the previous occasion, appeared in the field of play first, +and had a punt about with the ball for a few minutes, when their +opponents emerged from the pavilion and had some practice round the +upper goal, while the umpires and the referee were arranging the +preliminaries. The visitors won the toss, and played with what little +wind there was in their favour. Hamilton kicked off, and Berry followed +his forward companion, but Murray turned the ball, and M'Millan and +Bruce had a nice run, and caused the ball to get near the Queen's Park +goal, but Smellie caught it on the rise and sent it down the field. It +was taken up on the left side, and Sellar ended a brilliant run by +passing the leather fairly across the goal to Gulliland, and that player +made a rare shot at goal, but Wilson was on the alert, and caught the +ball very smartly, and sent it out. Here a close scrimmage was followed +by another shot on the part of Allan, but the ball went over the lines. +After the kick-out, the Vale of Leven men made a fine run up on the +Queen's Park goal, and M'Lachlan had a long shy that caused Gillespie to +throw away the ball in a hurry. The strangers played well together, and +had by far the best of it, and made the Q.P. backs work about as they +had never done before. Paton had another shy, and then the left outside +forward had one that came so close on the bar that Gillespie had again +to chuck out in double quick time. After this, Gulliland had a fast run +down the field, and ended the run with a parting shot that went past on +the right post. Some even play then occurred, but the Leven forwards +manoeuvred together better than those of the Queen's Park, and a fine +piece of passing by Sharp, Osborne, and Bruce ended by the latter making +a shy that touched the tips of Gillespie's fingers and went through the +goal, close to the post. The point was so smartly made that it fairly +took away the breath from the Queen's Park friends, and caused the faces +of the supporters of the country club to beam with delight, while the +cheering for the then successful team was long and loud. The players +then faced up in mid-field and renewed the battle, and not very long +thereafter the Queen's Park gained their first corner-flag kick, but it +was a poor one for Sellar, and the ball was soon cleared away by the +Vale of Leven backs. The Queen's team, however, kept well in front of +their opponents' goal, and another corner-flag kick was succeeded by an +exciting scrimmage, and then a shy by Gulliland was cleverly cleared +away by Wilson. When half-time came, however, the Leven men were +swarming round the Q.P. posts. The contest was then renewed in terrible +earnest, and the Queen's Park, with one goal against them, had the wind +in their favour now. The Vale of Leven, however, had the kick-off, but +the ball was at once returned by M'Ara, and the Queen's Park found +themselves right in front of the Leven goal, where one of the backs +fouled the ball close on the right post. The shy was taken by Allan, +and the ball hit the bar, but after an exciting scrimmage it was cleared +by the Vale backs. The Queen's Park, however, were soon on it again, and +the next five minutes' play was nearly disastrous to the Leven team, as +no fewer than five corner-flag kicks were given to the Queen's Park, in +consequence of kicking behind on the part of Leven men. The defence, +however, was excellent, and by slow degrees the ball was worked clear, +and M'Lachlan had a run down on the Glasgow club's goal, where the +whistle of the referee told the spectators that the dashing forward was +off-side. He did not seem to hear the whistle a bit, but coolly went up +to the Queen's Park posts and kicked the ball through without the least +opposition. The kick-out in front was followed by a fine run on the part +of Gulliland and Berry, but Whitelaw managed to tackle the Q.P. young +forward, and the ball was soon sent back. It did not go far, however, +for the Q.P. forwards kept it among them for a time. The Leven men had +now a good run on the left by Sharp, and Stewart sent the ball behind +his own goal. Rankin took the corner-flag kick, but Arnott got on the +leather in an instant, and sent it spinning up the field by one of his +famous returns. From this point till the call of time the Queen's Park +were fairly in it, and played, perhaps, as they had never done before. +Defeat stared them in the face, and the game was fast drawing to a +close. Barely a quarter of an hour and the destiny of the cup would be +settled. As on the previous Saturday, however, the Queen's men played +worthy of a great occasion, and won the trophy. Pressing their opponents +up on the goal, they kept them there for a time, and although the ball +was seen to go out and in among the shoal of busy feet a few yards from +the posts, Wilson and the backs cleared brilliantly. At length, however, +Allan had a corner-flag kick, which was managed so neatly that Hamilton +got the ball in a good position and headed it through. This gave new +life to the senior club and their supporters, and the cheering was again +renewed when a few minutes after the next kick-off the Queen's Park +drove the Vale team before them, and again had hot work near Wilson. The +Queen's half-backs, who had hitherto not acted so well together in the +earlier stages of the game, metaphorically speaking, "came out of their +shells," and, along with the forwards, took an active part in the siege. +Shots were aimed thick and fast at the goalkeeper, and at length +Stewart, with a shooter, sent the ball spinning through, making the +second goal for the Queen's Park. The teams then faced up in the centre, +and the tremendous cheering which greeted the scoring of the second goal +had scarcely died away when the Vale team made one last but brilliant +effort to equalise, but they were driven on by Smellie and Arnott, and +at length the whistle sounded, leaving the Queen's Park the winners of a +match in every way worthy of the final tie for the Challenge Cup by two +goals to one. Although the strain now and again was pretty heavy on the +players when at close quarters, the contest all through was conducted in +the most friendly way, and showed a marked contrast to some final ties +played a few years ago. It may also be mentioned that the premier club +have not held the trophy since 1885-86, when they defeated Renton by +three goals to one; but of the seventeen matches played in the final the +Queen's Park have carried off no fewer than nine, while the Vale come +next with three. + + * * * * * + +_H. Nisbet & Co., Printers, 25 Jamaica Street, Glasgow._ + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: + +Forsyth's "Acmé" Shirt. + +Glasgow + +"The Acmé"] + +THOMAS NAISMITH + +(Formerly of Thomas Naismith & Co.) + +Respectfully intimates that he has Opened those Central Premises, + +NO. 2 DUNLOP ST. + +With a Fresh Stock of + +Glass, China, Earthenware, and Ornamental Goods. + +Direct from the Factories. + + * * * * * + +Established 50 Years. + + +JOHN KINNAIRD. + +DYER, + +94 Canning St., 285 Garscube Road, 176 Main St., Anderston, 71 Paisley +Road, West, and 808 Govan Road, Govan. + +Works: Springfield Road. + + * * * * * + +Gentlemen's Suits Cleaned from 2s. 10d. Athletic Suits Cleaned on +Shortest Notice. + +Ladies' Plaids, Shawls, Ulsters, Dresses, Cleaned or Dyed. No Unpicking. + +Carpets, Table Covers, Curtains in Damask, and Lace of all kinds, +carefully Cleaned or Dyed--any Colour. + + * * * * * + + See Scott's + Free Insurance + + See Scott's + Free Insurance + + See Scott's + Free Insurance + + * * * * * + +The Conqueror's Football Boots. + + +Spectators who value their health while attending Football Matches in +all kinds of weather should get + +GRAY'S DAMP-RESISTING BOOTS. + +They always keep one warm and comfortable at all the Matches. + + +A. GRAY'S WHOLESALE SHOE WAREHOUSE, + +58 TRONGATE, AND BRANCHES, + +122 Cowcaddens. +182 Main Street, Anderston. +661 Gallowgate. +5 Main St., Bridgeton Cross. +876 Govan Road, Govan. +613 Duke Street. +236 Cumberland Street, S.S. + +GLASGOW. + + * * * * * + +KELSO & CO., + +Manufacturing Opticians, Electricians, and Model Makers. + +Telescopes: Field, Marine, & Opera Glasses. + +SPECTACLES AND EYE GLASSES, + +IN GOLD, SILVER, AND STEEL. + +2 COMMERCE STREET, S.S., GLASGOW. + +WORKS--21 CLYDE PLACE. + + * * * * * + +Commercial and General Printing. + +BEST, CHEAPEST, AND NEATEST. + + +LARGEST ATHLETIC PRINTERS IN SCOTLAND. + + +HAY NISBET & CO., + +25 Jamaica Street, Glasgow. + +LONDON OFFICE--169, FLEET STREET, E.C. + + * * * * * + +The PIONEER ATHLETIC PAPERS of SCOTLAND. + + +_SCOTTISH SPORT_ + +Published every Tuesday and Friday--ONE PENNY. + + +THE AUTHORITY in all matters Athletic--Football (Association and Rugby), +Cricket, Running, Swimming, etc., etc. + +The only purely athletic paper in Britain published twice a-week. + + +_THE SCOTTISH CYCLIST._ + +Published every Wednesday--ONE PENNY. + + +The Wheel Paper of North Britain, and sole organ of its Trade, Sport, +and Pastime. + +The brightest, the spiciest, the neatest, the cleverest and most +original of modern cycling publications. + +Scotland's ONLY Wheel Paper. + + +OFFICES-- + +GLASGOW: 25 JAMAICA ST. LONDON: 169, FLEET ST., E.C. + + * * * * * + +BONNIE SCOTLAND + +OLD + +HIGHLAND WHISKY! + + +The Pride of Highland Whiskies and + +MALT LIQUORS. + +In Splendid Condition. + + +TO BE HAD FROM + +JOHN CAMPBELL + +Grocer and Wine Merchant, + +232 DUMBARTON ROAD, PARTICK. + + * * * * * + +THE LEADING HOUSE for GOLD and SILVER BADGES. + +DAVID DOW, + +Wholesale Watchmaker and Jeweller, (Late 3, 5, and 7 Trongate) + +68 ARGYLE STREET + +(Between Miller Street and Queen Street). + +MR. DOW, having removed to more central premises, has much pleasure in +again thanking his numerous patrons in all parts of Scotland for the +large measure of support accorded him during past seasons, and would +again call the attention of Committees and others to his large and +choice selection of Gold and Silver Badges, Medals, and Athletic Prizes. +Committees are cordially invited to inspect his Stock and compare with +any others before placing their orders. The style, finish, and general +excellency of his designs are unsurpassed, and taking quality, etc., +into consideration, the prices will be found the cheapest in the Trade. + +New Designs always being added. + +Special designs to order, and estimates given. Samples forwarded on +request. Inscriptions at specially low rates. + +Estimates and Designs furnished for Silver and Electro-Plated Challenge +Cups. + + * * * * * + +FOOTBALL AND TRAVELLING BAGS AT LOWEST PRICES. + +Splendid Selection of Electro-Plate Goods, Marble Clocks, &c., suitable +for Athletic Prizes and Presentations. + +_Patronized by over 200 Associations and Clubs._ + + * * * * * + +THE ACKNOWLEDGED CYCLING OUTFITTERS + +Suits to Order from 21/ to 50/ in a Shade of Surges, Vicunas, Tweeds, +and Worsteds. + +C.T.C. CLOTH, all pure Wool and thoroughly shrunk, 35/ the Suit to +Order, with Cap. + +All inside Trimmings pure Wool. + +Suiting and Fitting by practical Cyclists. + +Club Secretaries or unattached riders respectfully requested to write +for samples, and compare prices. + +Forms of Self-Measurement Sent, + +or Clubs waited on by one of our representatives if an Order for three +or more Suits, fifty miles from Glasgow. + +NOTE.--Gentlemen should be very careful in ordering a Cycling or any +other suit to know that they are not made under the sweating System (we +have reason to believe many of them are), the dangers of which are +well-known. + +All garments made by us are made by our own Tailors, in our own +work-rooms, adjoining our warehouses. + +Private Fit-on Rooms, and all accessories to a large Tailoring Business. + +Waterproof Cape, Leggings, and Cap, 12s. 6d. the lot. Can go in the +smallest space. + +Hygienic Underwear, Cycling Hose to match Uniform, etc., etc. + + * * * * * + +PENMANS', + +101, 103, 105, 107, & 109 Canning St., Bridgeton, + +And 122 MAIN STREET, ANDERSTON, GLASGOW. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Scottish Football Reminiscences and +Sketches, by David Drummond Bone + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SCOTTISH FOOTBALL REMINISCENCES *** + +***** This file should be named 28028-8.txt or 28028-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/0/2/28028/ + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Susan Skinner and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +book was produced from scanned images of public domain +material from Google Books.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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