A warm welcome to everyone for the first evening game at Old Anniesland this season when old friends Greenock Wanderers are the visitors for the RBS West Division Cup tie. An especially warm welcome to Graeme Alexander President of Wanderers, members of his committee, players, coaches and supporters we hope you enjoy your evening.
Friday night floodlit rugby has always been popular at Old Anniesland and generally attracts a bigger crowd than Saturday games. The most famous of all being, the night when Hawks beat the might of Toulouse in front of a crowd well in excess of 1000.
This is only the second time that Hawks have played Greenock Wanderers in a competitive fixture since the Hawks were formed in 1997. A report on that game is printed elsewhere in this programme but Wanderers supporters may not want to read it.
Wanderers are one of the oldest Clubs in Scotland having been founded in 1873. In the period before the start of league rugby they regularly played in the unofficial championship against Hawks constituent Clubs Glasgow Accies, Glasgow High School FP and Kelvinside Accies. In recent seasons they have had a renaissance by building a splendid new clubhouse and climbing up the leagues to reach the RBS Championship League A, the league immediately below the National League where Hawks currently play. They lie in 4th place having won 6 and drawn 1 of the 11 games played to date.
They have to be greatly admired for keeping rugby alive in the largely football area of Strathclyde and offering youngsters in the surrounding districts the opportunity to play the game through their strong youth set up.
The cup this year is being played on a regional basis and Hawks and Wanderers are in a strong group consisting of themselves, Whitecraigs and Dumfries. Last Saturday Hawks beat Dumfries 34-12 and Wanderers beat Whitecraigs 17-15. By virtue of having played one more game than Hawks Wanderers lead the league by 9 points to 5.
Last Saturday due to the absence of a few regular 1st XV players Hawks were able to introduce some new players into the side and a number of players who had been showing promise in the 2nd XV. Bradley Harper a 19 year old centre threequarter from Durban, but with strong Scottish qualifications through his grandparents who live in Kirkintilloch, scored a good try in the first half. The atrocious conditions in Dumfries must have come as a nasty introduction to Scottish winter weather. We hope to see more of him throughout the season.
Davey Paton from Peebles also put in a good shift in the forwards but then he was probably more used to the conditions.
With such a long season ahead it is good to know that Hawks have been building their reserve strength.
Hopefully we will all see an exciting and running game this evening

Alasdair Graham
President
Glasgow Hawks RFC

This article was posted on 16-Nov-2012, 07:43 by Hugh Barrow.