It was wartime. Senior rugby had subsided, apart from the annual New Year’s Day match between Hawick and Heriot’s.  The junior clubs too were denuded of their ranks by the call-up.  One of my vivid recollections of our semi-junior club, the Combined Trades, is that on training nights (usually held in the winter in the Buccleuch Memorial Hall) Trades players who had just finished their apprenticeship would arrive and announce “I’ve just got my papers” - that is to say they had been called up to the Forces.

A far-sighted decision
I do not know who the far-sighted men were who decided that they ought to keep the game going by providing post-school rugby for youngsters in that twilight zone between leaving school and being called up; but I am sure that the men who became the officials of the Combined Trades must have had a very strong part in ensuring that the semi-junior game did flourish.  I think of Jock Imrie, Jimmy Murray and Tom Borthwick; but there must have been others, like Kenneth Macdonald, the father figure of the ATC team.

Difficult times for rugby
Even schools rugby was affected by the general environment of rationing, blackouts and the shortage of male teachers.  I was captain of the Hawick High School team in 1943-44, and we had few games other than those against Gala Academy, Selkirk and Kelso, so the chance to play for the Trades was rather special.  We had a good fixture list, the core consisting of matches against the other semi-junior sides in Hawick – the ATC (Air Training Corps) Boys Brigade and Pringles.

The stars of the day
Each team had stars at the time, and many became household names

• Tommy Wright and Peter Deans for the Trades
• Wattie Scott, Donnie Clark, Jimmy Douglas and Jake Grant for the ATC
• Mick McCreadie and Barrie Laidlaw for the Boys Brigade
• And Bobby McGhee, Tough Robson and Paddy Valentine for Pringles

...and many more who made their mark.

For league fixtures among the four semi-junior clubs there was an upper age limit of 18, so we were spared having to play against Tough Robson too often.  Paddy was just about as menacing, strong, fast and skilful.  I saw Paddy play rugby league some years later and overall I rate him the very best.

Away matches
Some of the other Border towns had a semi-junior side, and we had fixtures too in Edinburgh, against Edinburgh Rover Scouts and Trinity Accies. There was no luxury travel in those days, and many a passenger in a service bus was regaled with the Hawick songs, with Chuck Whillans even then polishing his act for the Common Riding.  The sevens game was also kept alive and the Combined Trades won a tournamnet at Mansfield in 1944, beating an Edinbuirgh Combined Colleges team in the final 8-5, after extra time. Our seven that day was: T L Rae, T Wright, T Johnston, J Scott, J Arnot, C Whillans and J N Kennedy.Pim Arnot, Chuck and I are still here to support one another in saying how great we were!

Playing for the Trades
By the time the season 1944-45 came around, I was enlisted in the Royal Navy, but was able to play for the Trades fairly frequently, as I began my naval service with a six mionths course based at the University of Edinburgh’s Naval Division.  I had my first game for Hawick in the New Year’s Day match in 1945. That fixture survived all the vagaries of war and I remember one match, probably in 1943, when A L Crozier (Yiddie) and a Captain Reynolds (an English internationalist?) formed quite a superb partnership for Hawick.  The Hawick team for the 1945 kick-off was inevitably drawn from a very mixed bag - there were some Scots Guards based at Stobs, two Kelso stalwarts, Oliver Turnbull and Sandy Hogarth, and my scrum-half was Jimmy Pow, also home on leave, with whom I had never played before but knew by sight from his days with the semi-juniors.  It was an undistinguished game, which was hardly surprising with such a scratch side.  I think we lost 6-5.

There was an interesting sequel. As I understood it, the semi-junior clubs’ selectors were so incensed at the Hawick selectors’ choice for the New Year’s Day match that they sought permission to field a team against Heriots, in Edinburgh on the forenoon of the Services international between Scotland and England in March 1945. The proud wearers of the Greens jersey that day were almost entirely drawn from lads who had been playing in the semi-juniors in the later stages of the war. We lost 12-6 (three penalty goals and a try to two tries) but it was generally felt to have been a successful demonstration that there were some guid young players coming along in Hawick! For me the match had an interesting aside. I had to obtain leave in order to play, and when my commanding officer interviewed me to assess this curious request he spent most of the time enthusing about Hawick forwards, Jock Beattie in particular.  So I got my leave.

After the war
From 1945, my appearances for the Trades were intermittent, fitted in between naval duties, and then from 1947 to 1951, while I was a student at Edinburgh. The following season was completely lost, for I was in Sweden.  Between 1952 and 1954 I played for Edinburgh University, finishing my playing days in 1955-56 with the Greens.  Whenever I was available I was always made most welcome back to the Trades dressing room. Over all these years after the war one purple patch stands out.

In the period 1949-1951 Trades had a great run of successes at Sevens, including Walkerburn 1950, and on several occasions fielded two winning sevens on the same day at separate tournaments. That said a great deal for the strength in depth of the club’s membership. At the end of the war the club moved to Junior status, and changed its name ever so slghtly. It also gained many playing members from the semi-junior sides, such as the ATC, which were disbanded. Equally, it welcomed back the ex-service men. They brought a maturity and experience of life which were vitally important in bringing on the younger players. Many a referee had to deal with the verbal wiles as well as the rugby skills of Alec Henderson and Jimmy Lumsden! That period gave the Trades a stability and a tradition which it has never lost as a club. Equally, the officials of the club were strengthened by the return of characters like Tom Reid.   Taken together, all these elements contributed in a subtle way to the enormous success the Trades have had in providing players not only for Hawick but for the Scottish XV.

Team spirit
The Trades as a club has always had a tremendous team spirit and an attitude to the game which I remember with affection, and which has stood me in good stead throughout life.  Play an adventurous game, build on your natural talents and, in the immortal words of Tom Reid. “go out there and enjoy yourselves!”.   I count it a privilege to have been associated with the club for over half a century.