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The History of Cambuslang RFC
The Early Years
On the 7th August 1903, a meeting
was held under the Presidency of the late H. Shepherd, Esq., at which it was decided to form a Rugby Club at Cambuslang.
The
Club commenced playing at Greenlees Farm, and under the guidance of Mr. Shepherd and the benevolent auspices of the late Dr.
T. D. Laird, its Honorary President, went from strength to strength until the beginning of the 1914-1918 War. During this
period, the Club progressed to the extent of running two teams and of raising funds and building a small Clubhouse.
During
the same period, there was in existence, the Cambuslang Cricket Club, which was then under the wing of the late J. S. Paul,
esq. For some time the two Clubs worked together, but owing to the difficulty of finding a field which the farmer did not
require in the summer time, no permanent arrangement was made and indeed the Rugby Club itself had, latterly, to change its
ground to a field at Eastfield.
All through this period the Club took a leading place in sport in the West of Scotland,
and was a member of the Old Football Union. It was only natural that after the Armistice, the Club should revive. For a short
period the club played at Greenlees Farm but in 1921 a lease of the ground at Coats Park was arranged and the Club took up
residence in what was to become its permanent home. At this time, with a ground of its own, the Club joined up with the Cricket
Club, and was re-constituted as the "Cambuslang Athletic Club." In addition to Rugby and Cricket, there were sections for
Hockey, and at one time, Association Football. The Cricket Club, under the guidance of C.W.Gibb, Esq., progressed from strength
to strength and was only eclipsed by a halcyon period in the Rugby Section's history when stalwarts such as G. Marquand, Dan
Spence, the Lairds and other illustrious figures brought much credit and kudos to the Club's name.
Home Becomes
Coats Park
In the season 1921-22 and again in 1922-23, Cambuslang were Western District Champions, as a result
of which they were offered a match against a West of Scotland Senior Select XV which contained one or two internationalists.
This game took place in 1924, and Cambuslang can be justly proud of a 5 - 0 result in their favour. Another honour to the
Club at that time was that of being the first team to play at Old Anniesland against the High School F.P.'s which honour they
celebrated by being the first team to score on the School's new pitch.
At this stage in the Club's development, at
the instigation of the late J. M. Barr Esq., who had been the Club's fist captain in 1903, a large and influential committee
was formed which, under the guidance and Chairmanship of the late Henry Noble esq., raised sufficient funds to purchase Coats
Park outright and erect a clubhouse in the present location and so secure the future of the Club.
In the years following,
while not attaining such heights, the Rugby Section continued as a leading team in the West of Scotland, running up to three
XV's and at one period, a junior team. The Cricket Section went from strength to strength, and its Saturday afternoon games
had become, in the thirties, a social event in the District.
In fact, all through the inter-war period, the Club had
developed more and more into an organisation of the young people of the District and was to be found in the lead in many local
events.
Its pre-war Saturday evening dances held in the Institute were ever popular, and its annual whist drives and
sales of work were looked forward to universally. But these functions were, of course the special territory of the ladies
of the Hockey Section, whose results at the end of the season often put other Sections to shame.
The club trained during
August 1939 but due to the outbreak of war on 3rd September they did not play a game again until 1946/47 when the club had
a single XV playing on the public pitches at Nether Pollok.
During the war Coats Park was used by Clyde Paper Mill
for storing huge bales of esparto grass. The clubhouse was kept in order by a founder member, Dr Hutchison, who more or less
single - handed kept the club afloat.
The Post War Years
In 1947/48 the club was back at Coats Park with
two XV's again playing their traditional round of friendly games. The area at the back of the wooden clubhouse around the
bath was completely rotten and this was replaced by a brick building.
In 1953 a memorable dinner was held in the former
Cambuslang Golf Clubhouse in Clydeford Road to celebrate 50 years of the club.
The whole of the old clubhouse, a 1914/18
ex army hut, was becoming increasingly dilapidated and required more and more maintenance. In 1957 a former player Kenny Walker
enlisted nine senior club members and each of them loaned the club £ 100 each and with this £1,000 the shell of a new clubhouse
was built.
The internal divisions were built by the players themselves. It was very basic. At one end there was a large
dressing room for the home teams and two smaller rooms for visitors, in the middle there was a tea room with the kitchen off
it and at the other end a changing room for the ladies hockey team with a toilet and shower.
The brick extension at
the rear housed a couple of showers and a sunken team bath. This bath had originally been tiled but over the years the tiles
had broken and been removed leaving a rough concrete surface. For some obscure design reason there was an open roofed area
which housed a unique urinal, composed of a length of ogee guttering with a household tap at one end. It was primitive but
it worked. Water was heated by a coal boiler, which had to be lit and stoked on match days. After four teams had washed in
the bath the consistency and colour of the water was similar to that of the pitches muddy and black. Being last in was no
fun.
When no rugby was was being played the hockey girls used the team bath much to the delight of the groundsman who
had a peep-hole through from the kitchen ostensibly so he could control the filling of the bath.
What is now Langlea
Road was only a farm track leading to Whitlawburn Farm and bounded with a high hawthorn hedge. The balls convener was kept
busy as the thorns were always puncturing balls. Sometimes four were required in the course of a single game.
In 1957
Coats Park Colliery, which was situated on the site of the present 3rd XV pitch, closed. This area was a industrial wilderness
with a massive bing, railway lines, rusty machinery and derelict buildings. However in time this was all removed. The Whitlaw
Burn which ran at the back of our pitches was piped in and the bing was bulldozed and grass sown.
Around this time
there was an upsurge of interest in the club and the number of players increased until the club was regularly fielding four
senior XV's. It was felt that the clubs traditional strip of claret and amber horizontal stripes was too similar to that of
Glasgow High School and West of Scotland so the present jersey based on an old established tie design was adopted.
No
Alcohol ???
Tours to the North of England were a regular feature in the early 1960s.
As the constitution
was strongly against alcohol the clubhouse was dry and the club had several hostelries that they favoured at various times.
The Railway Tavern - now Findlays, in Cambuslang Main Street, the Wooden Cask at Silverbanks, the Fairway in Rutherglen, and
the Cambus Court all received patronage.
Although the clubhouse was now reasonable the pitches were not. Mining subsidence
caused a drop in one area of 16ft between 1946 and 1962 and standing on the centre spot of the 2nd XV pitch it was impossible
to see the crossbar of one of the goals.
The cost of levelling the ground was far beyond the limited finances of the
club. At this time Cathkin High School was being built and Lanark County Council approached us and offered to level, drain
and reseed our area if we allowed them to dump soil from the school site.
We were also given the temporary use of the
two Hill 90 pitches. It was an offer we could not refuse yet it nearly finished the club.
Hard Times At Cambuslang
The
plan was to coup one winter and spring, prepare the ground during the summer, and reseed in the autumn. This would have allowed
us back on to nice new level pitches the following autumn.
Unfortunately it did not go according to plan. The contractor
chosen by the council had never worked on a sports ground previously and was completely incompetent. His work was so bad that
the then President, Bobby Robertson, a Civil Engineer by profession, categorically refused to accept it. The contractor was
not paid for what he had done and as a result went bankrupt. This caused a lengthy delay before a new contractor was appointed
who finished the job about two years late.
Vandals broke into the clubhouse and not only removed or destroyed everything
of value but also took historic, irreplaceable club photographs. The poor playing conditions had its effect on the membership
and for a time the club was struggling to field one team. Money was extremely short and it was only the loyalty of a few dedicated
members that allowed the club to continue. After a show game to open the new pitches the club slowly began to improve.
The
National Leagues
When leagues started in 1973 the club narrowly escaped being in the District rather than the National
League. We slowly managed to improve our playing standard from Division VI in 1975/76 to Division V in 1977/78, to Division
IV in 1980/81, (when Currie were in the VII Division), then in 1983/84 the giddy heights of finishing fourth in Division III
which is the highest we have ever managed.
Relegation to Division IV in 1986/87 followed and we are probably still
around this position although league changes make this difficult to gauge.
Our greatest success up to this time was
in the 1991-92 season when, in successive cup games, we disposed of Kilmarnock, West of Scotland, and, our best result ever,
Stewarts Melville, who were well beaten despite fielding Douglas Wyllie a Scottish international and Findlay Calder a former
Scottish and British Lions captain. It took a Boroughmuir team full of district and international players to eventually knock
us out.
The Present Day...
After a disappointing season, 1998/99, which saw Cambuslang relegated to National
League Division 3, there has been a distinct upturn in fortunes for the club.
Cambuslang were promoted from National
Division 3 in season 1999-2000 and from National Division 2 in season 2000-2001. In our second season in National Division
1, 2002-2003 we achieved a 5th place finish and courtesy of league reconstruction, were promoted to Premier Division 3.
Season
2005-2006 sees Cambuslang maintaining their Premier Division 3 status and striving to perform at the highest possible level.
The
club continues to field a 2nd and 3rd XV each week and is justly proud of its thriving junior section.
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