John Spink featured in the St James Select which was part of the lead feature in BwB on August 29.
John is also a boxing fan and, indeed, was part of a club in his younger days.
I met him recently and he said: “I was wondering if you could help with any pictures of the Rainbow Boxing Club that was based in Mid Craigie Primary School in Dundee.
“I attended the club for around three years around 1972-75.
“I do remember quite a few names around the club such as trainer Teddy Rice and boxers Norrie McVicar, John Skelly, Jim Feeney, Frank Harkins, Brian Green and Peter Heggie.
“Some great memories are in my head, but, sadly, I have no photos of those times to share with the family.
“Anything you can do is appreciated.”
Barry Sullivan, of the DCT Archives, and a very good friend of BwB, unearthed one image of the boxing club.
He said: “Norrie McVicar is in the photo (above).
“There’s also an E Ryce, who could possibly be the Teddy Rice mentioned in the original email.”
Dundee TAVR Boxing team from March 1971:
Back row (from left) – E Bryce (second), N McVicar, J Thomson, G McConville, J Caird (trainer).
Front row – J Moore, J Donachie, Captain CD Mennie (team manager), E, Ryce, W Rourke.
If any reader has other info or photos of this boxing club, please get in touch.
Looking at the photo more closely, Captain CD Mennie is none other than Doug Mennie, who was the Evening Telegraph’s chief football writer, writing under the “Bob Angus“ byline, when I joined the Tele sports desk in the 1980s.
The July article on Gordon Beat and the Butterburn U/18 Scottish Cup Final team brought a response from one of his team-mates.
Duncan Fenwick opened: “Gordon would have played in the U/17 side, so would not have played in the U/18 team unless there was an injury to the U/18 right-back or he was not available for some other reason such as on holiday.
“However, I can’t imagine any player wanting to miss the final for that reason.”
At this juncture, I must point out that Davie Bruce, who played in the final, said in the article he did think Gordon may have been a 17s player.
Duncan continued: “I know this was the policy because when I played for the U/15 team, I deputised for the U/16 left-back in the Scottish Cup Final side (when they were the U/16s) in a pre-season friendly at Dens Park between Dundee and Chelsea as part of the Charlie Cooke transfer deal.
“The Burn played against Salvesen Boys Club of Edinburgh before the big game.
“It was 30-minute halves and Salveson won 1-0. I think it was 1965.
“The U/15 Burn side at that time was Jimmy McIlravey, Gordon Beat, Duncan Fenwick, Keith Donnelly, Gordon Daly, John McGuire, Dave Stewart, Jimmy Christie, Brian Alderson, Jimmy Stewart, Norrie Wylie. George ‘Pud’ Hill was also in the squad.”
Duncan, who confessed to contributing to BwB in previous times under the pseudonym ‘Chic Frae Charleston’, also commented on another tale in the same edition.
He offered: “Regarding the Lawside U/15 team, I think the goalie, third from right in the back row, could be Jimmy Chaplain.
“He went on to teach at Lawside and now plays golf at Downfield Golf Club.
“The player, second from right in the back row, next to Jimmy Chaplain, could be Jimmy Gabriel, who went on to greater things with Dundee, Everton and Scotland.”
Duncan also relayed many of his memories of youth football, and I’ll share them with you in the coming weeks.
I’ve come across some interesting tales regarding football referees.
In 1996, with Hearts trailing to Rangers at Ibrox, with Gerry Evans as the man in the middle, they were reduced to 10 men, as disciplinary tightrope-walker Pasquale Bruno was sent off.
No surprise.
The surprise was to come. In seven minutes, 40 seconds, three further players from the away side were shown a red card, one receiving a second yellow for kicking a post.
Fans, both home and away, were unhappy.
Rangers player Richard Gough tried to persuade Evans not to produce a fourth red, while Hearts chief executive Chris Robinson came down to the pitch to try and get the away side to walk off the park.
The game finished 3-0 to the hosts.
Joe Buick recently handed in a scrapbook to Broughty Athletic containing cuttings from his uncle’s football career.
Joe’s uncle is Ernie Heggie, formerly of Brechin City and Broughty Ferry-based junior side Forthill Athletic.
Broughty president Jim Finlayson, with Joe’s blessing, let me look over the scrapbook, which he thought would be of interest to BwB readers.
I’ll share some of it in the coming weeks.
Below is an amazing photo of Castle Green in Broughty Ferry, now, of course, a very popular playpark.
I did know football was played on it at one stage back in time, but not to the extent the photo shows.
An absolute bumper crowd of over 3,000 is in attendance with Ernie’s Forthill side hosting a match against Lochee Harp, Forthill winning the Scottish Cup replay 4-2 on October 10, 1931.
In the next round, Forthill beat Denny 4-1 at Glenesk Park in a replay.
See cutting for the “Football Special” train which left the Ferry for Lochee.
Unfortunately, they crashed out in the next round 6-3 to Glasgow Perthshire in front of a “record crowd of 8,500” at Glenesk.
This Forthill Athletic FC team group was taken in late December 1932.
Back row (from left) – Murphy, McKenzie, Ross, Heggie, Russell, Miller, McNaughton (trainer).
Middle row – Brown, G McNaughton, Lorimer, Carver, Welsh. Front row – Lawrence, Norrie, Tasker. See story above.
This article originally appeared on the Evening Telegraph website. For more information, read about our new combined website.