A long association
The Cartha / Trades association started in season 1946/47, although
the game that year was cancelled due to bad weather. The first game,
therefore, was on 8th February 1948 at Cartha with Trades winning by
10 points to nil, both tries being scored by H Spreng and converted
by J Lumsden.The annual
fixture has now continued into its 49th year with Cartha recording
its first win on 28th March 1953 at Hawick, by 12 points to 6. These
games were always looked forward to with relish, as the standard of
Trades play was high, and good clean rugby was played. Cartha's
standard varied according to whether the game was home or away. The
team for away games was picked by first finding four car owners and
then eleven others who would stay overnight in Hawick. There was
never any question of returning home the same day even though
breathalysers had not been thought of.
Changing in the swimming baths,
drinking in the Waverley Bar after the game, followed by the
sing-song evening accompanied by Willie Lightheart, the blind
pianist. Great nights and lousy mornings! Though maybe not our
best playing sides, definitely our best social sides.
Cartha in those days was a fine
mixture of Scots, Irish, Welsh and English, being the only “open”
club the south side of Glasgow. Seldom had we anything approaching
15 matching jerseys. Trades, in their immaculate blue and white
strips, I felt, always started with a psychological advantage worth
some points. They were always a hard team to beat.
In 1950, Cartha inaugurated its
annual seven-a-side tournament and Trades became the first winners
and retained the trophy, a rugby ball, the following year. The next
eight years, however, saw no tournament wins for Trades, but in 1960
they started winning again and a remarkable run saw them winning 22
times in 34 years. Winning or not, they were always THE
team to beat.
In these early days the finalists
were taken out for a meal, the club having no bar or cooking
facilitiesm and for that matter, no money either as rugby was only a
section of the club which included football, hockey (male and
female), tennis and cricket. We did however manage a beer bar in a
back room for the sevens with Andy Cullen of the Titwood Bar
supplying us with barrels of beer and the members supplying jam
jars. A 1lb jar cost 1/- (5p) and a 2lb jar cost 2/- (10p).
A dance was always held in the
clubhouse in the evening after the “sevens” and the Trades lads were
ever present, staying overnight at a hotel and returning home the
following day in their bus, along with their stalwart supporters and
mentors Tom Reid and Jock Imrie. |
