With the new regional league restructure in place Glasgow Accies and GHK will be locking horns once again on Saturday in a unique contest that spans generations.
 
In fact the Anniesland rivalry stretches back to 1885, the same year that the Inter City was played at Hampden Park. Its format and status has changed over the period, but not its intensity.
 
Whether it was Accies v Glasgow HSFP / Kelvinside Accies / Glasgow High / GHK and whether the match was played at Old or New Anniesland, Balgray, or even Scotstoun, it was just the same. In the heyday of Club rugby during the 1920s crowds of 5000 and more would pitch up to see Accies play High filling the old stands.
 
Make no mistake this rivalry was one of quality which produced some impressive statistics prior to the arrival of Hawks. The clubs between them secured the Scottish Club Championship on 19 occasions, they produced 127 Scottish Caps, won 6 Lions jerseys, and supplied 18 SRU Presidents.
 
There have been many landmarks in this 123 year journey, far too many to mention in the limits of this piece but one of the most significant was the decision to close Glasgow High School in  Elmbank Street in the mid 1970s. This together with the arrival of League rugby in 1973 meant that the days of the closed clubs were numbered. Thus Glasgow HSFP became Glasgow High with Accies also going open and eventually in 1982 an amalgamation of High with Kelvinside Accies saw the arrival of GHK.
 
Along this long and winding road they have contributed much; they provided players for the first ever rugby international,they were there at the birth of the Scottish Football Union, at Glasgow Academy,they also attended the meeting to form the International Rugby Board, and when Rugby School celebrated the centenary of Webb Ellis's famous fine disregard of the rules, players from Anniesland were on the Close.
 
The clubs involved in Saturday's contest once commanded fixtures second to none having taken on at various times some of the great names of Rugby like Coventry, Northampton, Cardiff, Oxford and Cambridge Universities, London Scottish, Blackheath and the Barbarians to name only a few.
 
Some of these derby matches were even played on Christmas Day and the state of the teams sometimes bore witness to that.
 
In more recent times Accies played GHK on Boxing Day but that ceased in the late 1990s. In the last few years the two clubs have competed annually for the David Gilmore Trophy however this game marks the first time these old rivals have met in a League match in some 15 years.

K.O.AT NEW ANNIESLAND ON SATURDAY 3.00 P.M.
 
 

This article was originally posted on 13-Sep-2011, 06:41 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 13-Sep-2011, 09:40.