TAYPORT FC AT 70 – 1947-2017
70 years, yet Baiker allocated me 5 minutes to cover the history of the club. I’d need five years. Yes, I’m joking he actually allocated 10 mins! But it’ll be a shade more. You’ll get about 20. And he said don’t go droning on and boring them. Unfortunately that’s not easy. It is history after all.
And I apologise in advance to all those whose contribution to the club’s fortunes over the last seventy years may not be mentioned. It will be included in the book…along with your picture!
70 years is quite a long time for a football club like ours to have existed without a break. Far from unique of course but to illustrate this longevity, only another two member clubs when the Midlands Amateurs re-formed after the War in 1947 – St Andrews University and Arbroath HSFP – have, like Tayport FC, survived continuously during the ensuing 70 years.
Where did it all begin then? As far as can be ascertained, football in Tayport kicked off around 1884 and within three years there were three clubs in the town.
Early in the 20th Century, prior to the First World War, clubs continued to come and go. The secretary of one, Strathtay FC, was a certain Albert Oswald, whose residency was the Freemason’s Arms Hotel, now Cobbies Inn. Football & the pub. What a fine lineage I’ve got!
As the years rolled on through the 20s and 30s we had Tayport Thistle, Tayport Rangers and Tayport Violet playing both in Fife and Dundee Leagues. However, as was the case 20 years earlier on the outbreak of war, development of the game in the town was hugely disrupted by a second World War.
On the resumption of football in 1945/46 the town had one club, Tayport Violet, but two teams. Violet played in the Angus Amateurs Association and Tayport Violet XI in the Angus Amateurs Boys’ League, although for a couple of weeks the latter was known as Tayport Senior Scouts. Interestingly, playing inside left in that first Tayport team after the War was Jock Howe, a regular attender today at Canniepairt and father of Ian Howe, a club stalwart through the 70s and 80s, and grandfather of present match secretary Kevin Hart.
When the Midlands Amateur FA resumed the following season, Violet moved from the Angus Amateurs back to the Midlands Amateurs where they had been pre-war, but the Violet XI remained in the Angus Amateurs Boys’ League.
In May 1947 a minute of the Tayport Violet Annual General Meeting read “it was agreed to adopt the name of Tayport Amateur Football Club and that the club compete in the Midlands Alliance League next season”. To further complicate matters for us 70 years on, a couple of weeks later the Midlands AGM recorded that “ ucd [United Colleges Dundee], Wormit and Tayport had been admitted to membership but the latter should not be confused with Tayport Violet who are already in membership”. Clearly a parting of the ways… but that’s how it all began and the club has since remained a single entity which, for the following 70 years, embarked on what can only be described as an incredible roller coaster. 70 years which has seen players, officials and supporters experience every emotion football has to offer.
The clubs continued in tandem for several years. In 1952/53 Tayport Violet finished second top of the Midlands top division behind the then mighty YM Anchorage and Tayport Amateurs finished third, two points behind. Goodness knows what happened that close season but Violet disappeared for 53/54 and Tayport Amateurs were relegated.
Although the 1950s wasn’t the most memorable of periods in the club’s history, the decade wasn’t to be without its high points, the most memorable being the Bremner Cup win, 2-1 over Morgan FP in 1959 final with a team which had finished nearer the bottom than the top of the Second Division, yet overcame the odds to lift the Midlands’ most prestigious cup competition. For over 40 years the only team from outwith the top division to achieve that distinction.
Bert Aitken was a member of that winning team nearly 60 years ago. Bert tells us that the semi final was v Division One champions Broughty United on the Common. Of course Broughty travelled by train where three of their players were overheard by the match referee discussing who they’d be playing in the final. It’s not recorded how many goals were offside or how many were penalties but Tayport won 4-0! Bert tells me Tayport’s legendary keeper Bill Jellye was a very late call off… Mrs Jellye, coming over the Common from Linksfeld waving a green jersey and shouting “yoo hoo…yoo hoo…Bill can’t play. He’s away to London” John Payne known as Champagne went between the sticks and the rest, as they say, is history.
On the Friday evening of the Bremner Cup final the team had orders to phone Dick Beattie, mine host at the Bellrock, after the game and there was brief panic when at first they couldn’t find a phone. Remember the pubs closed at 10 o clock in those days and the train didn’t get into Tayport station until 11.15. Like most good publicans Dick was ahead of the game and told the team the upstairs room in the Bell would be open and not to worry as he’d seen the Police and they wouldn’t bother them.
The 1960s was probably the club’s most austere period, yet, for many, ironically it was probably one of the most memorable periods. Given the parlous state the club was often in during this period, Carne Trophy wins in 1964, 1-0 v Grays United, and 1967, 3 v 2 St James were celebrated as much with astonishment as delight. The ‘64 success didn’t warrant an open top bus but from somewhere a piper was found to meet the team at the railway station and pipe them up Broad Street and along Castle Street.
The early to mid 60s largely revolved round Joe’s chip shop and café in Nelson Street, where the Fire station is now, and this was the place to be, the café, having just acquired the town’s first juke box. The cafe was where Joe’s son,
the legendary Angus Barbieri, the football club secretary, held court.
Of course Angus put Tayport on the map during this period when he made medical history by losing 20 stones in 1965/66 by fasting for 382 days, dropping from 33 stones to 13 stones, to earn himself a place in the Guinness Book of Records, a record which still stands to this day.
The committee – no managers in those days – would meet in Joe’s chippy on a Thursday night, in one of the seating booths, to pick Saturday’s team. No team managers in those days. Joe was always threatening to throw them out shouting to assistant Guilia “Throw zem out. They’re -a- no – a- buying da chips. I’m no a-putting the fire on for them”
In the 60s only 11 players, so only 11 jerseys. Players took the jersey home to wash and you had to supply your own shorts and socks and the changing accommodation in the sixties was a second or maybe even a third-hand wooden hut previously used by Tayport Swimming Club. Don’t get the idea that there was a swimming pool in the town. The River Tay or the harbour was the nearest thing to a pool.
The hut had lighting though. Gas lighting …when a mantle could be found. And running water. Cold water. Plus the luxury of a Belfast sink. As a fresh faced 16 year old I thought it was for washing in but Derek White quickly demonstrated it was a multi-purpose facility.
The small committee at the time was struggling. The club lived from hand to mouth. There were no funds to speak of, no records. Indeed there was no paperwork and the end of another decade drew to a close, things were looking bleak.
There was light at the end of the tunnel though. The second team, as the club’s Alliance team was known, comprised a number of enthusiastic teenagers
And following the AGM in 1968, the old guard sensed an opportunity and passed the baton on to the youngsters.
The restructured club blossomed and quickly introduced change. Formal committee meetings, goal nets, training, fund raising, finding a lady to wash the strips…..and the vision of modern changing facilities.
A team comprising a blend of some of the old guard like Jim Mathers, Ian White and Andy Fraser and some of the enthusiastic youngsters won the club’s first ever championship, the Midlands Division 2. The ball was rolling. The club had achieved its primary aim of establishing itself in the top division and would remain there for the next 25 years, and for several years, running three teams.
Off the field following discussions with the Town Council, the decision was made in 1973 to relocate from East Common across the burn to the Canniepairt, hitherto a jungle of former farmland owned by the Council, in order to lay out a pitch and build new changing accommodation.
Although grant aid was secured, the club had to raise £2,500 (that’s £22,000 in today’s money) as its share of the cost. This was the start of many innovative fundraising ventures, and consequently the club’s standing in the community improved considerably. The club, which had already been running a weekly bingo session, tried everything in the way of extra fundraising – Golden Goals and Scorepool, both an early form of the Super Six lottery, Fiddlers Rallies, Fun Runs, Miss Tayport Contests, Kids’ Discos, Dances, Race Nights, Gentlemen’s
Evenings, well, aka strippers, Beetle Drives, Coffee Mornings etc. They all did pretty well, particularly the Super Six which was subsequently copied by many other clubs but the best events were the car boot sales and Gala Weekends.
For the Galas, big Chic Anderson said ’let’s get a personality, that’ll bring in the troops’. He knew someone who knew Jim Baxter’. ’No chance’ was the general opinion. A trip to Glasgow one evening saw the club’s two representatives get absolutely steaming in Baxter’s pub. I know. I was one of the two. Chic was the other. Obviously, I was led astray. Between these two I was helpless. But it was worth it. Slim Jim said he’d come through and he did, along with what loosely could be described as some Glaswegian heavyweights and they were all put up at the caravan site.
We even had international Football tournaments with Italian and Belgian teams taking part. The town was rocking!
Big Charlie’s contribution to the club’s progress shouldn’t be understated. As well as dreaming up schemes like galas and Fiddlers Rallies he took control of the Scorepool scheme, the weekly fundraiser. Why? Because it involved visiting all the pubs in the town with auld Chic Rennie in order to collect the Scorepool returns, sample the whisky and gather the gossip. Man, he was in heaven!
The 70s and 80s was a real boom period for the club which, by the mid-seventies had moved from the old green hut and bumpy pitch on the Common to the new pavilion and pitch on the Canniepairt and had established itself as one of the area’s most respected amateur football clubs, gradually improving season by season and it wasn’t too long before the Midlands AFA Select XI contained more players from Tayport than any other club.
Throughout the 1980s the club ran three amateur sides and picked up Midlands honours, including the championship in 1982, and Alliance honours plus several East Fife Amateur FA pieces of silverware, the most notable of which was an-against-the – odds 4-1 win over Fife kingpins Norton House to win the Carstairs Shield.
Mention should be made here of the Dundee FC connection the club enjoyed throughout the 70s and 80s when Tayport FC was fortunate to have three Dundee FC and former Dundee players as coaches. First Bobby Waddell, then Eric Sinclair and then Shug Robertson. The committee at the time bought into the organisation, work ethic and professional standards instilled in the club by these coaches and this was to stand the club in good stead for the future move into the Junior ranks.
As mentioned, things had been going pretty well for a good number of years. Drew Herd had arrived from the famous Auchterhouse side of the era. Drew knew everybody and his experience and his many contacts further improved the club’s standing.
Getting to the semi-final of the Scottish Amateur Cup at Dens Park in 1986 was the pinnacle of the club’s on field success but a 3-1 defeat by Glasgow’s Barr and Stroud meant it wasn’t to be.
Thereafter things started to stagnate a bit and as the decade drew to a close, the committee was looking for a new challenge, and at a meeting in February 1990 the momentous decision was taken to apply to join the Junior ranks.
Gus Malone, a star in the 1981 team before going on to have a lengthy Senior career, played a key role. He knew of Tayport’s plans and was also aware that, across the water in Dundee, Peter Marr was thinking along the same lines. Peter fancied himself as a manager but it was his recruitment of Davie Baikie as joint manager which was to pave way for the success that was to follow.
Initially signing players from the amateur ranks plus a puckle of seasoned Juniors and Sean Wilkie from Brechin City, got Tayport off to a fantastic start in the Juniors.
The Tayport public and others from elsewhere in Fife and Dundee took the club’s new adventure to their hearts. Peter stepped down at the end of the first season [after the committee had knocked back his plan to run a Sunday team from the Canniepairt].
The team went from strength to strength, cleaning up on the local Tayside scene and following a sensational Hamish Mackay hat trick in the 3-0 semi-final win over hot favourites Auchinleck Talbot, reached the final of the 1993 Scottish Junior Cup. Loads of supporters’ buses left from Tayport alone, as a huge contingent of Tayport fans congregated at Firhill for the final versus Glenafton. It would end in defeat but the disappointment was quickly forgotten as the team returned for an open top bus tour of the town.
Not since John Ferguson won the British Boys golf title at Sunningdale in 1956, had the town experienced such sporting excitement.
There had been sceptics of course but this early success saw doubts quickly quelled as the club, the supporters and the town generally enjoyed a fantastic 17 years or so at the very top of the Junior game, reaching six Scottish Junior Cup finals, winning three plus an unprecedented number of other trophies
Everybody who has been involved with club, player, manager, committee or supporter has their own favourite Tayport FC memory. Thousands have played for the club over the seventy years and many lifelong friendships have been forged. Indeed playing for the club has literally been a life changing event, through moving into the town to live or meeting their future wives and partners through their involvement with the club.
Star players. There have been many. Not too many stars in the early days, Maurice Milne, Jim Rodger and Bill Jellye for example perhaps stand out but others who might have made their mark locally, probably preferred to play at more prestigious clubs, as training , as Andy Phin would confirm, wasn’t really on the agenda at Tayport.
As the years rolled on, we’ve had players such as Stevie Graham, Gus Malone, Phil Smith, Bobby Wilson, Molly Brown, Lloyd Young, Mark Whatley, Simon Murray who have stepped up to the Seniors. But we had many others who were at the top of the Amateur game and at the top of the Junior game. The list, really, is pretty lengthy.
Mind you we had some real puddens on the park as well. Maybe not guys who were the best on the field but off the field they had many strengths to offer the club.
Characters. We’ve had a load of these too. Bill Jellye, the goalkeeper in the 60s, was a name the kids held in awe. I even recall a former colleague telling me his memory of playing at Tayport was shitting himself having to play at centre forward against this beast of a goalie. On his way to the Common Jellye would march through the plowter from Linksfield, boots on and strip on under his raincoat followed by his mother scuttling along carrying a tray of half time oranges.
Another fearsome character at least his opponents thought so, was Jim Scott who played in the 50s, 60s and 70s. He was in the Andy Sommerville mould. When these guys were in your team you didn’t just feel they were worth a goal of a start, but you were also comfortable in the knowledge you had someone akin to a bodyguard playing alongside you!
There was Jim Rae aka The Fox who followed the team to pubs all over the country after he had hung up his boots. Kenny Thomson who allegedly coined the phrase ‘6 pints match fit’. Kenny Gorham who once played in wellie boots.
One of the early sponsors was Partancraig Transport run by Frisco Payne who was always up for an away trip. It was Frisco who acquired the club’s bus for £50.
Alliance skipper Ross Macmillan who repeatedly warned his players to be sure and not forget their boots, then promptly forgot his own and had to borrow a pair of sandshoes. Ross had loads of roles in his many years at the club. From player to team manager to trainer/spongeman, finishing up as treasurer and a fine one too. When on duty as spongeman it wouldn’t the first time that he sprinted on the park only to find his bag contained two flasks of orange juice.
There were many who could be loosely described as eccentrics. Like Tony Gillespie, the art student who cycled from Edinburgh to Dundee for a game at Timex, cycling up the Timex brae just before kick-off but still managed to score the game’s only goal.
It was laugh a minute with guys like Graeme Cox, Molly Brown, Rabbie Downie, Jimmy Bissett, Mickey Hall, Micky McPherson and many, many more. Of course these guys would be in their element on the many trips the club made to play in Belgium. Guys like big Scotty, Spider McLaren and Bobby ‘Le Boab’ Jackson. Who could forget Scotty and Le Boab’s impromptu cabaret at Le Mistral and their busking on a street corner in London after yet another bus had broken down?
Now, briefly, some statistics…
In 70 years most appearances
Amateurs…Doug Henderson 525 and Ian Howe 511. Most goals Bruce Burnett… 276
Most goals in a match Gary McCabe 12 v Springfield in December 1989
Most goals in a season Bruce Burnett 45 in 85/86 and John Fernie 45 in 87/88
Juniors. Grant Paterson an incredible 894 appearances.
Most goals…Dave Reilly an equally incredible 367
Most goals in a season Dave Reilly …61 in 1995/96 and Ronnie Kenneth ….58 in 2000/01.
It had been a glorious start to a new century for the club but nothing lasts for ever and although there has been success in recent years, winning the GA Cup and a couple of Premier Championships, these glory days are now behind us. Davie Baikie who, as manager, led the club to the majority of the Juniors’ successes, is now club chairman with the challenge of getting the club back into the top echelon of Junior football.
For 70 years this football club has been part of the fabric of the town. It has left supporters, townspeople, players, management and committee with loads of memories.
There have been good times and bad times. We’ve hit amazing heights but also suffered miserable times. And believe me, when you have experienced the lows, the highs are wonderful.
As I’ve said, we’ve all got memories. Two examples spring to mind for me personally.
The Scottish Amateur Cup quarter final on Leith Links in April 1986 when we were hanging on in the last few very long minutes to a 3-2 lead for a semi-final place at Dens Park. After all, around 600 clubs had entered the competition. We couldn’t believe this prize was within touching distance… Herx couldn’t even watch the last few minutes, disappearing behind a tree…it was a big tree. Well, it had to be…. to await that final toot of the referee’s whistle.
Another was at Fir Park, Motherwell at the end of the 1996 Scottish Junior Cup win. I remember walking across the pitch with Eddie and we could hardly believe what the club had achieved as we recalled only a few years earlier we
were trying to rescue a football from the freezing North Sea as we watched the Alliance team play at the West Links in Arbroath.
Beating Lochee United at Tannadice to win the Junior Cup for a third time has got to be up there too. To be honest it doesn’t matter how many times we might lose to Lochee in the future, we’ll always have Tannadice in 2005!
All told then, it’s been a chequered 70 years history. Looking to the future there’s no doubt things will change. Nothing stands still. There will be ups and downs. They will all have to be negotiated and hopefully they will be, allowing the club to continue to flourish and allow our successors to get a taste of the enjoyment we have all experienced.
In closing, I’d like to propose a toast to the memory of all those players, committee and supporters no longer with us who have done so much for the club since 1947, especially Eddie [Stewart], for whom the club meant so much.
Here’s to Eddie and those others who sadly are no longer with us.
Abby Oswald – (secretary 1968-2016)
November 2017
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