Chairman's Welcome

On behalf of Glasgow Accies Rugby I welcome the President, Committee Members, Players and Coaching staff from Heriots to New Anniesland on Saturday. I hope that you have an enjoyable afternoon.

This is the first time that the Clubs have played for 13 years, however Heriots are no strangers to New Anniesland as they played here against Glasgow Hawks in 2005 to mark the centenary of New Anniesland.

There is a long and colourful history of matches between the Clubs dating back to the late 1900’s. In 1924 the newspaper headline was ‘Special trains will run on Saturday’. This related to the need to transport Accies supporters to the old international ground at Inverleith for the Heriots v Accies match. The match had been switched from Goldenacre as it wasn’t big enough to accommodate the 18,000 spectators. This clash was recognized as the match of the season and the English Press were advising readers to take the night train to Scotland to see it

Another press report, of the same period, said that there was a disappointing crowd of 10,000 at New Anniesland on Saturday when Heriots were the visitors. Accies had eight turnstiles in operation at one time. This was indeed the golden age of club rugby.

More recently in the early 1970’s there were epic clashes between the sides when the likes of Andy Irvine, the Milne Brothers, Tony Hogarth and others pitted their skills against the Simmers Brothers, David Montgomery, Archie Hardie, Les Monaghan et al.

In the last decade the Hawks v Heriots games have always been full of interest and attacking running rugby. Not all is bad in today’s Club game despite what you read in the press.

Saturday is the turn of the Scottish Cup and the round when the minnows get a chance to play against the teams from the Premier Divisions. In the past there have been many mismatches and a call to stop these games. But ask the junior clubs if they accept that and there is always a resounding NO. The Accies players were delighted when they learned that Heriots were to be the visitors. Captain Alan Wilson said he was thrilled to be playing against a First Division Club for the first time in his playing career. We are sure that all the Accies players will give 100% for this match.

This article was posted on 13-Feb-2008, 20:08 by Hugh Barrow.