Burntisland Shipyard 1 Irvine Meadow XI 4
THE romance of the Scottish Cup can fade quickly in the couple of hours between a hardy youngster climbing a tree to rescue a ball – leading to an interlude in a first-round tie – and Irvine Meadow’s bus breaking down on the way home from a comfortable victory.
There is, of course, always enough history, drama and fascination to assuage the irritation caused by errant balls and malfunctioning engines. The launching of the match ball into the tree at Recreation Park, and the lengthy delay for its retrieval, gives one time to reflect on the mass of information gained on Burntisland Shipyard FC.
Recreation Park lies between the glowering Binn Hill and the Firth of Forth, between a rock and a wet place, as it were. The welcome is warm and sustained on a beautiful afternoon where the tilt of the park, the rudimentary stand, and the relentless energy of good people reminds one that this is lower-league football, where hopes are high but expectations of glittering success are best kept low.
Shipyard goalkeeper Ryan Couser comes out of his box and fouls an Irvine Meadow player
The players leave the changing rooms for the pitch before the start of the game
The old Burntisland Shipyard site is now used by Burntisland Fabrications Ltd
The history of the Shippy bristles with Scottish Cup encounters, though success is more difficult to find. Formed in 1919 by workers at the local shipyard, the cosy clubhouse and the supporters who inhabit it tell stories of Scottish Cups past. Photographs of famous games are hung on the wall and Drew Beveridge is informative on what made and now sustains the Shippy.
‘I’m secretary and my wife, Sandra, is treasurer,’ he says on a tour around the buildings behind one of the goals. Hospitality, dressing rooms, and a wee bar to entertain punters are the major structures, though a gazebo is being erected for Scottish Cup day. ‘We want to offer the visiting players and their committee something to eat and drink after the match,’ says Beveridge, 60, who devotes most of his time to the club after his recent retirement as an engineer.
‘I am a Burntisland man and so was my dad. I have vague memories of coming here in the 1970s and I suppose I have been on the committee for about 30 years. I joined after the 1994-1995 Scottish Cup run when we reached the third round, losing to Huntly away.’
The club made their first appearance in the Scottish Cup in 1930, drawing against Murrayfield Amateurs in Burntisland before losing the replay. More famously in the town, they hosted Celtic on January 21, 1939, in a first-round tie. ‘The facilities here were basic,’ says Beveridge, ‘and there are stories that the Celtic players changed in a pub down the road before heading up to the park.’ At one stage in the second half, it was 3-3. But Celtic scored at will late on to win 8-3. Looking around the tidy wee stadium, it is astonishing to think that 3,000 fans crammed into this spot under Binn Hill to watch the game. There is also time for another surprising wee fact.
‘I have been sent off six times for Shipyard and I have never kicked a ball for the team,’ says Beveridge. He solves this conundrum by pointing out that his, er, robust criticism of referees led to the red cards and subsequent fines. ‘Sometimes it was well worth it.’
He immediately switches from personal history to a brief look at the past of the town.
‘The shipyard was once a huge employer. At one point, 1,400 men worked down there,’ he says, casting his eyes towards the firth. ‘My dad worked there but it closed down in the sixties.’
Work for the oil industry still continues in the town but the shipyard days are long over.
The spirit of the Shippy lives on, however. Beveridge leads a small but dedicated team of volunteers on a big day for the club. ‘I was here about 10am this morning and it’s just been a whirl since then. Everywhere you turn there is something to be done or to be solved.’
He seems to revel in the activity. ‘I am here just about every day,’ he says. ‘I love it. What else would I do?’
Binn Hill looms over Recreation Park during Saturday’s Scottish Cup tie
Burntisland secretary Drew Beveridge poses before the Scottish Cup tie
This sentiment is echoed by Alan Watson, chairman, who has a short personal history with the Shippy but a long association with football in the town. His ascent to the chairmanship was swift. ‘I came here a few seasons ago to install the floodlights as I am an electrical engineer. I didn’t want anything for it so they gave me a season ticket. I started doing bits and bobs around the ground and helping the organisation and I was elected chairman a couple of years ago.’
His family link to the club spans almost a century, however. He points at a photograph in the committee room, saying: ‘That was taken in 1927 and that man there is my grandfather.’
Watson, however, came to the Shippy late in life. ‘I was born in 1952 and formed Burntisland United, an amateur club, 50 years ago. I wasn’t good enough to get a game for the Shippy so I thought it was important to have an amateur club in the town where me and the mates could play. It is still going,’ he says.
His switch to the Shippy has been a boon to him in retirement. ‘I am chief cook, bottle washer, drain digger, grass cutter. You are just here to help out.’
At that moment, the besieged women serving pies, hot dogs and burgers to the hundreds gathered outside, issue a Mayday. Watson jumps in to deliver food and drink to guests in hospitality and the committee room.
He returns to say: ‘This is good for me. I have a disabled wife at home who is confined largely to bed. This is a wee escape for a wee while and it is good for us both.’
Before being called to other duties, he points to another photograph on the wall. It carries the inscription of May 10, 1952, and features a Heart of Midlothian side who had come to the town to inaugurate a new pitch. ‘We lost 12-2,’ says Watson simply. I tell him that one of the Hearts players looks like the legendary Jimmy Wardhaugh. ‘It is,’ says Watson. ‘He scored eight.’
Shippy ship four on the day. But it is a decent performance by the East of Scotland second division side against their opponents from the West of Scotland first division.
Lee Richardson, the Shippy manager, has a long and distinguished playing and coaching career in the area and has a firm grasp of the realities of the club. ‘The committee here does not demand we win leagues and cups. They know the score,’ he says. ‘I have brought in a lot of young boys and we want to develop them.’
His difficulties can be summed up in the observation that his star striker misses the game because he is on holiday.
The entrance to the ground provides an encounter that sums up lower-league football. Alyssa Millar offers a warming greeting at the turnstile as well as a story of family and football. ‘My dad played here years ago. My husband’s dad played here years ago. And now my husband, Ian, plays for the team. And so does my brother, Mark James.’
Young Burntisland supporters keep an proceedings during Saturday’s match
A Burntisland and Hearts combined team photograph from a fixture in May 1952
Her father, also Mark James, stands behind one of the goals, quietly taking in the match. He is one of those local heroes who seems a bit embarrassed to be reminded of his status.
‘I played here in the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s,’ he says of an itinerant career with regular stops in his home town. ‘I scored for the club in every one of those decades. My last goal was when I was 47. I was absolutely rotten that day but it was a cracking goal.’
This is all said with a wry smile. He did taste Scottish Cup glory. ‘Aye I came on from the bench when Hill of Beath beat Lesmahagow in the 1990 Scottish Junior Cup final at Rugby Park. I can’t remember much about the celebration afterward, though.’
Moments later the match ball sails into a tree, just yards from him. It may provide a lasting memory for its boyish rescuer. And that, one supposes, is the romance of the cup.