This St Columba BC team dates from the early 1970s, but, unfortunately, does not include Paul Tovey, whose contribution features in the second section of this page.
However, it does list some of his team-mates.
Back row (from left) — John Letford, Donnie Fraser, Dave Narey, Mike Cairney, Eddie Reilly, John McPhail, Kenny Baird, Alec Baird, George Hill.
Front row — Jimmy Coates, Paul Boyle, Graeme Payne, Steve Mellon, Kenny Murphy, George Grier.
If any reader has a photo of St Columba, which includes Paul, please send it in.
The Karl-Heinz Rummenigge tale in May resonated with Paul Tovey.
Paul actually played in the match and revealed it wasn’t the first time he had come up against the German.
Paul explained: “I was playing for St Columba Boys Club at the time and we won a European tournament in April 1973.
“As far as I recall, we won the final 3-0 against Rummenigge’s Cologne side.
“A replay was arranged by team boss John Letford for the summer of that year, which again was won by St Columba. KHR played in both games.
“Our line-up around that time, in 2-3-5 formation, was along the lines of – Brian Low; John Hastie, Donnie Fraser; Kenny Brown, Dave Narey, Paul Tovey; George Scott, Graeme Payne, Steve Mellon, Kenny Murphy, Ian McLaggan.
“At that time, we seemed to take some stopping, but there were other very good sides around like Hillside (managed by Billy Kerr) and Lochee Boys Club (run by the Grier Brothers, Willie, George and Lewis).”
I asked Paul for more information on that side, and he continued: “We had just won the Dundee U/16 League and lost the Scottish Cup Final at Parkhead to Celtic Boys, with Jock Stein in attendance.
“We played them after the summer at Tannadice and beat them 4-1.
“For the 1972-73 season, when the first game took place at Easter, we were in our first year in the U/18 grade.
“We were a better, stronger team then, winning the U/18 league at the first attempt.”
John Letford – a future Dundee Lord Provost – was the manager of the team.
Paul went on: “John ran things and was great to play for. His team talk was basically to psych us to go out and attack.
“However, we were pretty decent defensively as well and that team could handle itself physically – and often had to.
“George Hill was the trainer/sponge man. The trip to Europe in ’73 was with the younger St Columba team, who were also very good, and they were run by chief Kirkton High School ‘plunky’ Dave Maillie.
“We travelled through the low countries on a coach, which played the same Andy Williams 8-track tape all the time.
“That at a time when we most of the boys were into Led Zep and the likes, which made it torture.
“However, as you can imagine, that trip was an absolute hoot.
“The club officials were a great bunch.”
This is the Morgan Academy girls hockey team from school term 1972-73.
Back row (from left) – Barbara Herschell, Julia Kydd, Anne Middleton, Jacqui McHardy, Lynne Cameron. Front row – Jane Clark, Lynn Bowman, Lorraine Coull, Doreen Alderson, Isobel Helmore.
A quirky tale from the world of football…
Adrian Bastia was sent off in a 2008 match for apprehending a streaker.
During an Astreas Tripolis match against Panathinaikos, Bastia tripped the streaker so he could be escorted off of the pitch by the authorities.
The referee subsequently showed him a straight red card for violent conduct!
Jim Aberdein’s tales of Elmwood and East Craigie (April 25) prompted Alex Duncan to get in touch.
Alex, of course, is a well-known figure within the local junior fraternity, having served clubs including Elmwood, Stobswell and Downfield in various capacities.
He opened: “My connections to Elmwood go away back.
“In the late 50s and early 60s, our house in Parkhead was a tenement with toilets on the stairwell and one of our bedroom windows looked on to Elmwood’s ground, Midmill Park.
“My dad Sandy was on the committee and I used to spend a lot of time at the ground.
“George Robertson was secretary at the time and he used to put a lot of money into the club to keep it afloat.
“One night, I looked out of my window and saw the wooden dressing-rooms at the park ablaze. It was devastating for the club.
“George, though, went out and purchased two prefab units and put them together to form new changing facilities.
“Sadly, though, it wasn’t long before vandals struck again and knocked in the walls.”
Well-known former junior footballer Dunc Erskine also got in touch to give a snippet of his own.
He said: “My father Dave was on the committee of The Railway Club in Guthrie Street, Dundee.
“This was in the late 1970s, and I remember the club helping Elmwood out financially.
“Most clubs in those days were always struggling financially.
“Players had to sell sweepie tickets on a weekly basis just for the club to survive.”
An unusual story came in from Grant Hill. It seems that empty slot in his personal trophy cabinet could have been filled after all.
Grant explained: “For nearly 30 years, I have thought that my Hillside Primary School football team lost out on the league title when we were hammered by Invergowrie in the last game of the season.
“I’m pretty sure it was the only match we lost that year. However, on the Dundee Schools FA website, it lists the two of us as joint winners.
“Our goalkeeper Gavin Dodds is one of my best mates to this day and neither of us can remember any accolades for this – and we certainly never got medals for it.
“I was marking Graeme Thomson, who went on to spend a few years with Dundee FC as a youth before playing for Lochee United.
“Graeme went on to play for The Bluebells in the Scottish Junior Cup Final.
“Playing for Invergowrie that day, he ripped us, and me especially, apart. I also scored an own goal to top things off.”
Grant continued: “I later became mates with Graeme when we went to Menzieshill High School and he says there are photos at his parents’ house of the Invergowrie team receiving their medals.
“All of us have always believed that they were the outright winners of the league, so I’m not sure why we are listed as joint champions.
“However, I’m pretty excited that I might have just become a league championship winner for the first time at the age of 40!”
Sharing some tales regarding football referees.
It was reported in 1971 that…Barcelona are fast running out of referees for their matches in Spain.
The clubs have a considerable say in which refs they like and don’t like – and can draw up a list of those officials they don’t want refereeing their games.
As the team’s results this season have been poor, the Barca directors have, naturally, put most of the blames on the men in the middle.
Consequently, no fewer than 12 are currently on their blacklist.
https://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/fp/blether-with-brown-dundee-primary-schools-violet-world-cup-winners/
This article originally appeared on the Evening Telegraph website. For more information, read about our new combined website.