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A day of fun, memories, sporting tales and the odd game of Boccia too – Celebrating our Scottish volunteers
What do footballing legends, pub quizzes, Anna Kournikova, boccia, old school photos and Tier 1 referees have in common? Yes, it’s Sporting Memories of course.
It was another packed house on Wednesday 4th September at Broxburn United Sports Club when Sporting Memories Scotland said thank you to our volunteers with an afternoon of sporting fun, thanks to the generous support of Iron Mountain EMEA who sponsored the event.
Following the first order of the day – a buffet lunch for all in attendance – it was then time to entertain our volunteers and through a range of sporting guests who all brought their memories alive and kept the room filled with laughter. Our host again for the event was the wonderful former professional referee, John Rowbotham. John comes from Fife and that will become relevant later on…
Three Footballing Amigos
Our first guests were John Blackley and Joe Craig, footballing friends with highly distinguished careers behind them. John played with Hibernian, making 279 appearances before moving onto English clubs Newcastle United and Preston North End. Joe rose through the ranks of junior football and was a prolific goal-scorer at centre forward for Celtic FC before moving to Blackburn Rovers.
Joe has achieved immemorial fame though as the answer to many a pub quiz question. In April 1977, he made his only appearance for Scotland, coming on as a sub against Sweden at Hampden and scored with a header before he had even once kicked a ball. In doing so, he became the subject of a question loved by football anoraks everywhere: “Who scored for his country before he had even kicked the ball?”
Both John and Joe were accompanied by Broxburn Sporting Memories club member, John Calderwood, who are all good friends - But that didn’t stop the banter! John reckoned during his career he was sent off 8 or 9 times due to being too ‘mouthy’ but Joe reckons he was just the biggest moaner on the field. Joe regaled the audience with his rise through the junior ranks where he reckoned he learned his trade against the likes of “Killer McCormack”, the quietest of men off the field but he didn’t earn his nickname on the field for nothing.
However, all three former players couldn’t be moved to say a bad word against referees! John said he’d never be a referee ever and Joe, who went on to coaching, did have some refereeing under his belt so knew what it was to have to make those decisions.
Boccia takes the floor
During a brief break, volunteers were invited to take part in our nationwide Boccia Bonanza challenge where it was “Scores on the Floors” that mattered. Spot the Ball was also doing the rounds where the image was from one of John Blackley’s career highlights, the 1974 World Cup match against Zaire - He wasn’t allowed to take part in the Spot The Ball as he was playing in the image!
5 years and counting
The celebrations were then continued with the recognition of those volunteers who have been five or more years with the charity. Not all of them could be present but those who were there were able to take home a memento to mark their unwavering service. Jim Purvis presented certificates to Heather Venesky and Lorna Wood from the Cambusnethan Club, Gary Scott, from Fife and our Online clubs, Andrew Ferguson from Longniddry, John Whitelaw from Calderwood Club, Andy Currie from Westwood, Peter Jack from Dalkeith (picture below with John) and Tom Mooney who volunteers at several clubs.
From the Commentators Box
Our final guest for the day was sports broadcaster, Paul Mitchell. Paul entertained us with anecdotes from his 33 (so far) year career commentating on practically every sport possible. We got quite an insight into the world of covering sporting events. One that stuck in Paul’s mind was when he was asked to cover a German Handball game. No problem: so he did his homework and watched several games online to get to grips with the technicalities. Oh dear, this was going to be a bit of a dreary gig. But there he sat in his home office set up with screen, mic and live link. His homework for the actual game showed these were two German teams from towns only 20 miles apart. That turned out to be one the most physical non-contact sports games he has ever commentated on.
Another abiding memory were the practical jokes played by the crew on presenters. He was challenged when reporting on a Bowls match in Perth to work the name “Anna Kournikova” into his commentary. Now bowls isn’t akin to tennis in any way so how was he going to do this. Tennis buffs will probably know that Anna is a very glamorous lady but her prowess on the tennis court wasn’t really world shattering. So, when one bowls player rolled a particularly eye-catching but more or less pointless ball, Paul calmly said: “That’s an Anna Kournikova.” His fellow presenter said: “Eh, what’s an Anna Kournikova?” Paul replied: “Looks pretty but not going to win much.”
Paul had many more stories to share, with each and every one lapped up by the audience. A fabulous finale to a great day.
Sporting Memories magic strikes again
But it didn’t end there. There was a completely random piece of Sporting Memories Magic played out during the presentation of the five-year awards. Pop back to the photo above, then take a look at this photo from quite a while ago. Spot anything?
Just as Peter Jack was making his way back to his seat, John Rowbotham called out “Did you go to Madras College in St Andrews by any chance?” Peter stopped dead in his tracks, turned round and said with a very puzzled look on his face “Yes”. John asked if he had played football which Peter confirmed he did. And it turned out they had played in the same team and indeed been in the same classes. But in the intervening years neither had never put 2+2 together but here they were now sharing a stage. Above is photo than John kindly dug out. Can you place them? Answers please in the comments!
A huge thank you once again to our Scottish Volunteer Celebration Event sponsors Iron Mountain EMEA - we wouldn’t be able to say thank you to our volunteers without your support.
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Volunteers
We’re always on the lookout for volunteers to help run our clubs all across England, Scotland and Wales – find out more here.
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