East of Scotland First Division
Saturday 11th May 2013
Hawick
has distinctive architecture, with many sandstone buildings having slate roofs.
The Common Riding is an annual event celebrated in Hawick, which commemorate
past times when local men risked their lives to protect their town and people. The
town is historically renowned for its knitwear industry, with the first
knitting machine brought to Hawick in 1771 by John Hardie.
Hawick folk are known as "Teries", after a
traditional song which includes the line "Teribus ye teri odin" which
is believed to have been the war cry of the men of Hawick at the Battle of
Flodden Field.
Hawick
Royal Albert formed in 1947 by Harry Weir and William Bunton, originating out
of Hawick Railway FC. The “Royal Albert” name derives from Larkhall Royal
Albert, the hometown club of Bunton, a club founded in 1878 by a mine-owner who
also owned a ship called “Royal Albert”.
Hawick won their first silverware as Border Amateur League
Championship in 1947–48 and have won the East of Scotland Premier Division on
three occasions in 1966-67, 1967-68 and 1973-74.The Royalists have also won the
Kings Cup three times, the last time back in 1984, but over recent years they’ve
been frequent strugglers at the foot of the EoS First Division.
The club’s original home was at Wilton Lodge Park, before
moving to Albert Park in 1963, officially opening with a friendly against Hibernian.
Shortly after their relocation, The
Royalists became full members of the Scottish Football Association which
offers automatic entry to the Scottish Cup. The club also applied to join the
Scottish Football League in 1966 and 1975, losing out to Clydebank and Ferranti
Thistle respectively.
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| Looking towards the neighbouring Rugby ground.
Albert Park is found in the north-east of the town on Mansfield Road, next to the rugby ground on the bank of the River Teviot. The
stand at the ground was constructed from the steel remnants of the Wilson &
Glenny woollen factory, which had been destroyed by fire in 1959. It has nine
rows of wooden bench seats which are painted blue, with the stand divided by
the players tunnel and a separated seating area for directors and press. The
stand has a con-iron peaked roof with some Perspex side panels and along the top
of the stand is a cracking clubhouse which looks out onto the pitch which has
bar & refreshment facilities. The dugouts are the precise old fashioned
type, being dug out in front of the stand with a pitch level view.
The rest of the ground is open with grass banking on the far
side and the club installed floodlights in 1981, used for the first time in a
friendly fixture with Celtic in November of that year.
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Down in
the south, the one time showpiece of English football was taking place at Wembley
and up here in the Borders was another final of sorts. To make Hawick’s end of
season fixture with Burntisland Shipyard sound a bit more interesting I’ve
giving it the handle of the ‘East of Scotland Wooden Spoon final’.
Going
into this game The Royalists sat at the bottom of the table with 2 wins and 3
draws from their 23 fixtures with their opponents just above them, having
gained one extra victory this season.
The
match was played in bright sunshine but with gusty condition. At times the quality
on show was poor, but overall the match was played in good spirit with both
teams committed to avoid finishing bottom of the pile.
The
Shipyard took the lead on 19 minutes when Gavin Bridges broke from midfield and
stayed onside from Brendan Napier’s through ball. He showed great poise to calmly
go around the ‘keeper and slot the ball into an empty net.
Just
before half time the hosts were level. A corner kick from the right fell into
the path of Peter Keenan, who with his back to goal managed to half turn and
fire the ball into the roof of the net from close range.
In the second half the game was finely poised and could have
gone either way, and with just minutes remaining it looked like we had a winner
when Hawick were awarded a penalty. Declan Hogg picked up the ball in midfield
and his positive run towards goal was halted with a trip in the penalty area.
Keenan took the spot kick and his effort produced a fine save from Mikey Couser,
to deny me seeing a rare Hawick win and save his team from taking the ignominy
of the unwanted wooden spoon.
On the subject of spoons, me and my son James arrived in Hawick
at 1.15pm and found the town a very tranquil place with too few people around.
We then entered the local JDW ‘Spoons ‘The Bourtree’ and it was chocka, as if
everyone out and about were sat in this pub. We had a splendid day out and really
enjoyed Albert Park and would recommend it as one to visit, especially that
splendid clubhouse at the top of the stand. I’m not a big fan of driving to
matches (That’s because he likes a Bevvy…Eddy) but I do like that run up the
A68 towards the Keilder Forest and the Carters Bar crossing, which has
fantastic views of both sides of the border. I look forward to ticking off more
EoS clubs in this vicinity and hopefully it won’t be a full calendar year
before my return.
Matchday Stats
HRAFC 1(Keenan 41) BSFC 1(Bridges 19)
att.31(HC)
Admission £4
Programme £1
Ground no.350 Albert Park - Matchday Web album (23 pictures)
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