Scottish Sporting History

[Richard]

26th April 1904.
FOOTBALL.
James Edward McGrory.
The Celtic, Kilmarnock and Scotland legend was born on this day.
He holds the record for most career goals in British football.
Despite McGrory being only 5ft.6in, he scored a record 550 goals.
As manager of Celtic, they recorded their biggest ever win over
rivals Rangers, (7.1), That remains a record also.
One of THE best EVER Scottish football players, without doubt.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_McGrory

[Richard]

28th April 2007.
Football.
Gretna F.C.
On this day, Gretna won promotion to the Scottish Premier League, under the management of former
Ayr United player, Davie Irons.
Gretna achieved phenomenal success within a 5 year period, rising from the low ranks of the Scottish
game to the top league, via the Scottish Cup Final, before it all went pear-shaped.
Their wealthy owner, Brooks Mileson, stopped his financial support for the club, early 2008.
With debts of around £4Million, Gretna were put into administration and came out the other side as a
"Newco", named; Gretna 2008.
Mileson took a heart-attack on the morning of the 3rd November 2008, fell into his garden pond,
became unconscious, was rushed to hospital but died a few hours later.
Mileson was not liked by everyone but he was a passionate lover of grass roots football, donating a lot
of money to a lot of clubs and their supporter trusts, including Ayr United's.
The Gretna story is a great, rags to riches and back again, story.
It would make for a great sporting movie.
One for the true football romantics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks_Mileson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davie_Irons

28th April 1948.
Sport Shooting.
Robert Cook Murray.
RCM was born on the 18th February 1870 in Edinburgh and died on the 28th April 1948.
He was a Scottish Sport Shooter who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm.
He won a Gold medal as part of the British team, in the 50 metre small-bore rifle competition.
This was the first appearance of this event at the Olympics.
The event was held on Thursday 4th July 1912.

[Richard]

29th April 1842.
A short history of Ardrossan Bowling Club.
http://www.bowlsevents.co.uk/uploads/do ... /00572.pdf

29th April 1910.
Golf.
Meg Farquhar.
Scotland's first female professional Golfer was born on this day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meg_Farquhar"
http://www.gilliankirkwood.com/ercn86/2 ... -would.htm"

29th April 1990.
Snooker.
Stephen Hendry.
Scotland's most successful snooker player wins his first World Snooker Championship title.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_World ... ampionship
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wo ... _champions
http://www.snooker.org/plr/bio/shendry.shtml
http://www.snooker.org/Plr/records.shtml

[Richard]

30th April 1990.
Swimming.
Sean Fraser.
Another Scottish athlete for us to be extremely proud of.
Fraser, a Paralympic Swimmer, was born on this day.
His record speaks for it's self.
http://www.scottishswimming.com/index.php?id=1672
http://www.swimming.org/britishswimming ... raser/741/

[Richard]

1st May 2002.
Football.
Airdrieonians F.C.
Airdrie F.C. officially went out of business on this day due to heavy debts.
The final match played by A.F.C. was an away game against Ayr United F.C., at Somerset Park in Ayr.
The score was 1.0 to Ayr United when the match was abandoned by the referee, when a 'crossbar' was
broken during a protest pitch invasion, and was never restarted or played again.
Note the words, in the 2nd link, of a certain Rangers chairman, David Murray.
If only people knew what lay just around the corner and what was going on at Ibrox.
Rangers were the final nail in Airdrie's coffin.
http://airdriefc.com/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/628268.stm

[Hughie]

Just shows how much I've been following the game since migrating in 1964. This is the first I've heard that Airdrieonians no longer exist as they were, and that they were known as the Diamonds.

I was a mad football fan before I left Scotland and now to hear people mention the Bears (Rangers) and Hoops (Celtic) it's all foreign to me - but I do mind the Bairns.

Away for my dook!

[Richard]

Hughie, You made a very important and correct decision back in 64.
Your children, grandchildren & great grandchildren will benefit from and thank you for it.
So much of Scottish football has changed and NOT for the better.
As for the Bears & the Hoops, that's all a relatively new thing from the past 20 years or so.

2nd May 1985.
Football.
Craig Conway.
Ayrshireman, Conway, was born in Irvine on this day.
He started his footballing career at Ayr United F.C. and worked his way to become a Scotland Internationalist.
Along the way, he helped Dundee United to win the Scottish Cup by scoring 2 goals and winning the 'Man of The
Match' award.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Conway_(footballer)
http://www.soccerbase.com/players/playe ... r_id=34947
TIP: click on first link then click on; Did you mean Craig Conway (Footballer), for appropriate info.

[Richard]

3rd May 1952.
Athletics.
Allan Wells.
Wells, born on this day, started his athletics career as a 'Long Jumper', before concentrating on sprint events.
He hated using 'starting blocks' but a rule change forced him to do so.
He broke countless records and is the holder of many Bronze, Silver & Gold medals,
beating many of the worlds best sprinters along the way.
He was the last white man to win an Olympic 100m Gold and the last white man to reach a 100m final.
Arguably, Scotland's best ever track athlete.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Wells

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpLaeh5RTMY

[oilers]

Richard...how about Eric Liddel?

[Richard]

Thank's oilers,
I've got him scheduled for January, (16th).

[Richard]

6th May 1956.
Motorbikes.
Fergus Anderson.
Anderson started out racing 250cc bikes for Moto Guzzi but died, on this day, whilst racing
500cc bikes for BMW.
In between, he persuaded Moto Guzzi to build a 350cc bike.
He also became a European and a World Champion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fergus_Anderson
http://theracingline.net/racingcircuits ... fe/jk.html
http://www.routeyou.com/location/view/4 ... nderson.en
http://racingmemo.free.fr/M%20COURSES%2 ... OREFFE.htm

[Richard]

8th May 1962.
Rugby.
David Sole.
Sole, born on this day, was a Scotland Rugby player and captain.
There is a school of thought that says, every sports person has a defining moment in their career.
That one special moment that you will, forever, be remembered.
Well, for most Scottish Rugby fans, that moment, for David Sole, came in 1990 when he WALKED the
Scotland team out onto the field of play,(teams normally ran onto the pitch, from the tunnel).
With heads held high, chests out, backs straight and a focused stare, straight ahead.
This spooked England, who were red-hot favourites to win the Grand Slam match, and gave Scotland
the psychological edge from the start. And the rest, as they say, is history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sole
http://www.espnscrum.com/timeline/rugby ... /9996.html
http://www.elainehowiepr.co.uk/projects/david_sole.html

8th May 1854.
Racewalking.
Robert Barclay Allardice.
Captain Barclay, who died on this day, was a 19th Century Scottish Walker.
He is considered to be the father of the 19th Century sport of Pedestrianism, a precursor to Racewalking.
This man has far too many detailed achievements under his belt, to mention them all here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Barclay_Allardice
http://gillonj.tripod.com/thecelebratedpedestrian/
http://www.walkingstories.com/original/ ... _story.htm