This weekend sees this season's second city derby between Hawks and West this time to be played out in the leafy suburbs of Milngavie where old meets new in various ways
West are one of the oldest" football" clubs 1865 and Hawks one of the newest "rugby"clubs 1997 but that only tells part of the story-- a story that started in 1867
The paths of West and the Hawks founder clubs(Accies-GHK(Glasgow HSFP Kelvinside Accies)) have been interwoven over 140 years and are still linked this weekend with West boasting a coaching team from New and Old Anniesland in the formidable form of John Beattie and George Breckenridge

In 1878 the match between Glasgow Accies and West produced a peculiar result. which ended abruptly "by mutual consent".The crux of the situation was that an Accie called Watson declared he had dropped a goal but West maintained it was a poster --Game abandoned.

West were also the first Scottish club to join the R.F.U(yes the English Rugby Union) paying their subscription on the 4th October 1871 and were soon joined by Glasgow Accies

The history of their famous colours is lost in the mists of time and how they came to replace their original blue with red and yellow is subject to much debate
Some think that the opera Carmen which was much appreciated in Victorian Glasgow was the reason whilst a more mundane school of thought places its origins with the players favourite high tea of that era being "ham and eggs".West members have also found their ties very useful when they try to get into Lords
What is not in dispute is that in 1935 Partick Thistle who up to then played in navy blue borrowed a set of West kit and the Maryhill Magyars never looked back
This writer even once sold West match programmes to Glasgow Accies at New Anniesland--work that one out

This Saturday's match should be a cracker especially as West prevailed under lights at Old Anniesland back in September

This article was originally posted on 7-Dec-2009, 19:05 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 7-Dec-2009, 19:09.