CAMBUSBARRON ROVERS –
50 years of Teamwork………and Hard Graft!
(Written by former Secretary and now fabled Rovers historian Peter Paterson for the programme printed to commemorate the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Cambusbarron Rovers)

‘The Scottish Cup is sure to find a place this season on Cambusbarron Rovers’ captain Kelly’s sideboard.’ (The Stirling Journal) or would have been, had the date of this prediction by Stirling’s other local paper not been December, 1910 – 50 years before the present Rovers were formed, and 58 before actual captain Kenny Robertson got his hands on the Scottish Cup for the first time.

Which might just suggest, that, in amateur football, like much else, there’s not a lot new under the sun: it tells us that the ‘modern’ Rovers, whose half century we celebrate tonight, had distinguished antecedents. But it also confirms what football followers learn early: success is never guaranteed: it takes a mix of ingredients, including, of course, luck. But in amateur football, in the history of the Rovers, something has to precede luck, and it runs like a well-made path through the past 50 years: sheer hard graft, something we’ll return to later.

Those early Rovers played at Hayfield Park (off the Commondry, where the Yetts and Cauldhame Crescent are now.) Earlier, they had been called Blackwood Rovers; later, they were Polmaise Rovers. Note the one constant. Hence on October 13th 1960, the Stirling Observer’s final Cambusbarron Notes entry, this brief intimation, immediately preceded by the latest on the Rural, the PTA and a whist drive, was not world-shattering news; but it’s the reason we’re here tonight, and it signalled the birth of one of the most resonant institutions in Stirling, indeed, Scottish sport:

FOOTBALL: Cambusbarron are now members of the amateur league, and the team will be known as the Cambusbarron Rovers, thus reviving the name of the past. In charge of the team will be Mr Harry Kenny, and the first game will be on Saturday. Training will be on Tuesday nights.

That first game, on 17 October 1960, was a defeat, but by whom, and where, hasn’t come down to us: this, after all, was merely a bunch of village lads, in strips provided by Mrs Morrison of Touch Road, looking for regular fixtures. The first recorded result, their second game, was a 4-4 draw with Dunblane. The first team we have, a week later, was: Johns, McCallum and McDonald; McDonald, Neil and Glen; Young, Allan, Strachan, McLean and Blair. Some weel-kent names, some happily still with us, to get tongues wagging tonight.

This first team was largely from the village itself, and was happy to win some, lose some. But the with Harry’s increasing preference for bowls, a new coach, Tommy Paterson, joined the Club. His earlier life as junior gave him a deep knowledge of players; but his war-time experience as the only junior member of the famous Tommy Walker’s Touring XI – packed with internationalists - gave him shrewd insights into tactics and motivation. Good players from outwith the village joined the natives, and the Club began to challenge local rivals Fallin Church Amateurs and Doune Castle, for supremacy.

But not without difficulties. Two of these galacticos were the supremely talented, but also supremely fiery, McGuire brothers, from the Raploch, via Leeds United, who with regularity, would both be sent off following a clash with the referee/opponent/both (almost always), the one brother invariably coming out in sympathy when his sibling was forcibly removed.

Yet improvement came. 1964-65 was a breakthrough season, even if it ended in disappointment. A great Scottish Cup run saw the defeat of the favourites Drumchapel, a 3-1 win at home after a 0-0 draw in Glasgow, thanks to the heroics of keeper Johnnie Morrison, despite breaking his arm. The quarter-final, at home, in April 1965, was watched by the biggest crowd Mill Road Park had then seen. Sadly, opponents Muirend, were too good, and despite an early goal from local favourite Bobby Strachan, the Rovers lost 1-5.

But a lesson had been learned. Tommy Paterson denied Muirend had been five times better than the Rovers: “ But they were five times fitter!”

A decision was made, and Tommy obtained the services of what he called, in his own valedictory from the Club, when he was congratulated on the shrewdness of his signings, “ The best ‘signing’ I ever made.” He elaborated: “A man who didn’t put pen to paper, or ever played for the Rovers – Frank Beattie.”

Frank had just captained Kilmarnock to the Scottish League Championship. Now, continuing his professional playing career, he began over 20 years of helping make his local amateur club one of the most professional in the land – largely by a training revolution.

A revolution occurs when what’s up is cast down, which effectively describes the players, prostrate on the pitch during pre-season training under Frank’s rigorous direction; it also signifies what’s down forcing its way up: true again as the sheer intensity induced much physical upheaval on the Mill Road Park grass. Yet, the players came back for more. And success began.

The Club’s first district trophy, the Fife Cup, was won in 1966; and won again the following year; but no hat-trick, as the Kingdom’s Amateur Association decided Cambusbarron was, literally, not in Fife; or maybe that their clubs were, metaphorically, not in the Rovers’ league?

1967 saw a defeat to eventual winners Rhu in the Scottish Cup. But there had not been a great difference between the sides. And lessons were continuing to be learned. Maybe next year? There was another lesson, particularly meaningful tonight: Penicuick Amateurs, who had led the Hampden final 1-0 at half-time, 45 minutes from winning the Scottish Cup before going down 1-3, were defunct by August. All that hope and promise and hard work gone - all allowed to slip away to nothing. It would not be permitted in Cambusbarron.

‘SECOND DEFEAT IMPOSSIBLE’ said the telegram, one of many, read out in the Hampden dressing room on 4th May 1968, this one from local rivals, Stirling Arcadians, who had, indeed, been the Rovers’ only conquerors that season. And it was true: a brilliant goal from Hughie McDonald, and a cool penalty from Bobby Christie (after Frank Beattie’s quiet half-time word to Lachie Thomson about Queens’ keeper’s aggressive nervousness), defeated Queens Park 2-1 and ensured one of the best days in Cambusbarron’s history. And the night wasn’t bad either, even if Provost McIntyre, to offer Stirling’s congratulations, had to be manoeuvred with un-civic dignity through the toilet window of a Community Centre heaving inside with celebration, besieged outside by wannabe - but doomed - celebrants.

Something similar was repeated a year later, when, unbelievably, the Cup was retained (a very rare event) in a tense final against Viewfield Rovers. Early goals from Peter Henderson and John Kelly seemed to have set the Rovers up for an easy victory, but by half-time, it was 2-2 – and if Viewfield had had another player of the calibre of centre Davidson, they might have been well in the lead. But as the game continued into extra-time, the Rovers’ fitness began to tell, and Kelly hit the winner.

The impossible hat trick was, well, impossible. But the rise of the Rovers had helped transform the Stirling amateur game. Doune Castle and others were very unlucky runners-up in the 1970's Doune v Cambusbarron was already the fixture. That such friendly, if intense, rivalry continues 40 years on, is a testimony to these clubs.

The hat-trick eventually came, not in 1974 when, despite an opening Willie Neilson goal, the ‘Barron lost 1-3 to Douglas, incidentally, the only defeat at the National Stadium in five finals. Nor in 1972 (Douglas at Love Street) or 1977 (Morriston YMCA at Cumbernauld) when heart-break semi-final defeats deprived, but in 1978, when extra-time goals from Jim Fowler and Philip Ward defeated Crosshouse Waverley. This greatest of many 1970s triumphs was gained under the undistracted focus of Frank Beattie, now free from playing or managing at the senior level, and complementing his earlier training revolution, with a shrewd capacity to read a game from the sidelines – as he had done for twenty years from the Kilmarnock mid-field. It was also achieved, with the help of the first (and most generous) sponsorship in Scottish amateur football, by local company FES Ltd. That FES director Hunter Fletcher was a Cambusbarron laddie and Rovers’ enthusiast had, of course, no bearing on this now 34 year-long (and still continuing) sponsorship.

The Scottish Cup hasn’t been in Cambusbarron for a wee while now. But plenty of others have: the East of Scotland Cup in 1971, 1994, 1996 and 2009; the winning of the West of Scotland Cup at Hampden in 1981 conferred another historic distinction on the Club: no other club has, or will, win all three premier Scottish competitions. In the Sixties and Seventies, sideboards full of Stirling and District trophies and titles were collected; more recently, others have been garnered under the Caledonian League banner, not the least of which was the 2010 League Cup, won for the fourth time. This was the third piece of silverware in the last two seasons under the astute coaching and leadership of Raymond Masterson and his assistants following a period when success eluded the club: if that past is - but of course - glittering with silverware, then the present - and the future – are beginning to shine brightly also.

But Cambusbarron Rovers is about more than appears on the surface – about more than winning cups, or even simply winning games and the striving for excellence; about more, even, than only a game, as it was to those village lads of fifty years ago. On the outside of this inside, it’s about camaraderie and good fellowship; and, at the heart of things, it’s about the common humanity and respect that we all get and give – players, officials, supporters – from shared experiences and struggles in an uplifting and – yes, 50 years testify to it - noble enterprise. And that common humanity makes us, on nights like this, recall some of those players at the heart of those shared, noble struggles, who can’t be here tonight: Gordon Fraser, Davie Anderson, Rab Taylor, to name but three,

So, well done the players of these 50 years, well done the coaches and well done the supporters. But if the players get the medals, the coaches get the kudos, and the supporters get the bragging rights, it’s the committee men, the background boys who provide that sheer hard graft mentioned earlier. Glencarron, Woodilee and Cumbernauld Thistle, are only three of the many clubs that for years were our perennial rivals. Where are they now? Gone long since to that big pitch in the sky.

That Cambusbarron Rovers have continued, indeed, flourished, is because of sheer hard graft – of people such as Harry Kenny, Alan Robertson, Billy Young, Sam Waddell, Davie Glen, George Faichney, Tommy Paterson, Frank Beattie, Bill Dawson, Martin Connelly, Dudley Jackson, Phil ‘Cagney’Ward, Jimmy Paterson, Willie Brown, Davie Ferguson, Jimmy Jones, Graeme Turner, Andy Scott, Iain Campbell, and others, including Johnnie Grahamslaw, strictly, not a committee man, but without whose hard graft, our Pavilion, in 1971, would never have been built. But it’s another Grahamslaw, Gary, our present Secretary – something that could have been said anytime these last 30 years - whose harder graft has been responsible without doubt more than anyone, for this celebration tonight.

So: if the next 50 years are half as distinguished as that last half-century, 2060 should be some celebration. One way or another, we’ll all be there – just like those Rovers’ giants from the past, some mentioned above - who, one way or another, couldn’t be with us this evening, yet who’ve also been alongside us, one way or another, all night.