No matter where you went in Tillicoultry in the early 1960s you would find boys playing football. The Public Park would host games that would run for hours and have many more than 11 a side playing. If a group of boys arrived and wished to join a game a bargaining would take place as to who went on what side. If, for instance, three lads turned up the best player would go on one team with the other two going to the opponents. Boys could pull out of the game, go home for tea, return and re-join the game. The worst that would happen was when someone wanted to leave and take their ball with them. There would be offers to return the ball to the owner afterwards but it was better if another ball could be produced. Hepburn Park at Hillview Terrace was much smaller and being at the foot of the hills the playing area had quite a slope across the pitch. Two trees were the goalposts at one end while jackets or other clothing were used at the opposite end. Football was also played on most of the areas of grass throughout the town and occasionally on a quiet street under the street lamps. A number of us played in organised five-a-side teams all of which boasted their own home ground. Ashbank Thistle which included Alistair Syme, Kenny Lawson, Davy McIntosh and Brian Turnbull played on an area opposite the Clock Mill and bounded by Upper Mill Street and the Burn. The land sloped quite steeply the length of the pitch and games were regularly held up while the ball was fetched from the Burn. Numerous trees have now been planted on this stretch of grass. Church Grove Wanderers which had Richard McInnes, Richard Ward and Bruce Redfern in their team played on an irregular shaped area of grass at the corner of Church Grove and Mayfield Avenue. The southern grass square at Jamieson Gardens was where Whitehorse Rovers played. Brian McKenzie, Brian Rattray, Brian Devlin, Jimmy Roy and Stewart Horne were in this team. In those days there was a circular shaped shrub bed right in the middle of the grass area. If the ball went into this garden bed then play was restarted with a throw-in, quite unique. Tillicoultry Eastend selected from Jim Gillespie, Roy Cook, Craig Cooper, Gordon McEwan, Derek McIntosh, Norman Thomson and Jim Wright and their home ground was at the end of Devonvale Crescent. A barbed wire fence surrounding a shrub bed caused the demise of a number of Wembley and Frido plastic balls until empty coal sacks were draped over the wire to offer some protection. To stop the ball going into a neighbouring garden a large strawberry net supported on long lengths of driftwood retrieved from the River Devon was temporarily erected during games. When this area was redeveloped to house garages and parking another playing area had to be found. One of Alex Rodgers fields behind Ann Street filled the bill for one game before the farmer ran his tractor through the goal posts that had been erected. The final attempt at finding somewhere to play was quite different. Along The Lie and over the River Devon via the Red Bridge there was a large flat area which was probably prepared to take tailings from the coal mine and become another coal bing like the two that already existed. As youngsters we were told not to go on to this ground as we would sink right down. But a school friend, the avid birds egg collector Jim Anderson, bravely and tentatively walked across the black surface and when he wasnt swallowed up the rest of us joined him. The surface had a slightly spongy feeling and it was perfectly flat. The next time a group of us visited we took a ball with us and found that it bounced just as well as if it was a grass surface. Driftwood was rescued from the Devon to use as goal posts and the lines were marked simply by cutting a groove in the coal dust. Our attempts at organising games, however, were thwarted by our mothers who didnt like the look of our dirty feet and black socks. From the aerial photo it appears that this area and the coal bings have been rehabilitated with substantial landscape work having been carried out. In my visits home Ive missed seeing boys playing as we did. It was in games at the parks when young boys pitted their ability against older boys that skills were developed. I wonder if this is a factor in the dwindling of Scottish football talent in recent times.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 14:57:23 +0000