"“Tradition is very, very important,” he said. “It’s the oldest derby and to be involved is an absolute privilege.”
Solomons

Like many good yarns including the William Webb Ellis story it has a degree of truth
There was certainly no Cup to be won on the 23rd November 1872 at Glasgow Accies ground Burnbank when they first met 20 aside Rugby rules
Two of the Glasgow team Tom Chalmers and Willie Cross had a decision to make that week play Edinburgh at rugby or play England at soccer a week later at Hamilton Crecent they chose the former so Queens Park took on the Auld Enemy on their own

What is fact is that between 1872 and 1995 there was no Cup to contest just the honour of winning and for generations who played that annual match in early December that sufficed whether it was played at Burnbank Hamilton Crecent, Hampden Park, New or Old Anniesland or Hughenden

An inter-city cup was first contested in the 1995-96 season’s match, when it was donated by the match sponsors, Slater Hogg and Howison. It had the sponsors’ name on it. That sponsorship remained for the following season, but for 1997-98 a new sponsor came on board – Inter-City Trains. So for that season it was the Inter-City Cup.This iniative was very much driven by the Glasgow District Committee of the day including the likes of Ken Crichton Stirling Co and Andy Little GHK

By then the Inter-District Championship was a qualifying competition for Europe. However, in late March 1998 came the SRU decision to condense from four teams to two for European competition. That sounded the death knell of the IDC. But Glasgow and Edinburgh played a one-off Inter-City match in 1998-99.

The IDC was resurrected for season 1999-2000. But that lasted only three seasons, ending in 2001-2002. Thereafter the Inter-City Cup languished in the Glasgow District office in Somerset Place for a few years. It found a new life when the pro teams revived it in 2007.

Winners of the Cup until the demise of the IDC:

1995-96 – Edinburgh
1996-97 – Glasgow
1997-98 – Glasgow
1998-99 – Edinburgh
1999-2000 – Edinburgh
2000-01 – Glasgow
2001-02 – Glasgow

Glasgow’s 97-98 win was at Scotstoun! The ground that season was Glasgow’s first home in the Heineken Cup, though the home matches in the European Challenge Cup the previous season (the four Scottish teams’ first season in Europe) had been played at Hughenden.

What the players of bygone times would make of the international makeup of the current teams filling the Cities jerseys is anybody's guess but it was commented on as long ago as 1891 when it was noted that Edinburgh fielded some "aliens"

What remains constant is that those who now play in Warriors shirts wherever they hail from have the privilege to bear the City's name and that is not an honour to be taken lightly especially as 2014 beckons

This article was originally posted on 23-Dec-2013, 11:40 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 23-Dec-2013, 11:56.