This weeks opening match of the League season sees Hawks at home to old rivals and near neighbours West and this is another step in a long journey which dates back to the 1860s when West first played Glasgow Accies at the very beginning of organised football in Scotland
I chose the word football carefully because back then before rules had been properly codified even Queens Park allowed a degree of handling

The first time Accies played former pupils of what was to become their great rivals Glasgow High School they were in the colours of West as prior to 1884 many former High men played for West during the 1870s before they formed Glasgw H.S.F.P. in 1884
Among those was H M Napier High's first Scottish cap
Both West and Glasgow Accies supplied players for the first international against England at Raeburn Place in 1871 and Willie Cross of Glasgow Accies scored the first ever points in the history of international rugby.Scotland triumphed and the cry went up from the crowd "Flodden at last revenged"

Their famous MCC colours of red and yellow were chosen depending on which story you believe-- from ham and eggs being the players favourite meal or from Carmen being the favoured opera in Victorian Glasgow but what is not disputed is that they lent some strips to Partick Thistle in 1936 and the Jags never looked back
Many think of West as a Milngavie club but for it's first eighty years they played in Partick at Hamilton Crescent (the ground that hosted the first soccer international against England and also saw Rangers first appearance in a Scottish Cup Final playing Vale of Leven) sharing facilities with the Cricket Club.When they opened Burnbrae in 1960 the first try scored on the new ground was by Pine Tree Percy Friebe now the honorary president of GHK

During their stay at Burnbrae West have fielded many great players Lions like Sandy Carmichael,Gordon Brown Ian Mclaughlin and Peter Wright--Scottish caps like David Shedden,Jimmy Gossman and Matt Duncan and English caps like Lionel Weston and John Currie the former a teacher at Kelvinside Academy the latter a manager at Wills Cigarette Factory on Alexandra Parade

Games between West and the clubs of Anniesland and Balgray have now gone on for over 140 years
In Victorian times crowds started flocking to matches in Partick helped by the new electric trams to the extent that West felt obliged to hire in police support to control the crowds as the bill received from the Partick Burgh Police office shows
Any club that has survived over 140 years will have had its ups and downs and West have had more than most but another season beckons for this great institution as it heads for its 150th anniversary to be celebrated 2015 in posssibly a new ground--maybe they will ask Percy back to repeat his feat

This article was originally posted on 16-Aug-2010, 18:30 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 17-Aug-2010, 07:58.