The Vale Of Avon 1965 69

A Memory of Linlithgow Bridge.

Since I can remember, the Brig always had a football team and I just loved to watch them as a boy, harbouring dreams that some day I might be good enough to play with them. Davie and Rab Hall ran the side and come hail or shine, plus the lot in between, both of them were always at the matches. On the days I skipped school Rab and I would go across to Chalmers Mill for a couple of bags of sawdust to line the park. Come Saturday morning out we'd go with a wheelbarrow and a string line that seemed as if could stretch from the burn at one end to the brs. In the early days the players I can remember were as follows, Sanny Easton, big Pate McGuiness, Harry Wilson, Pat Harvey, John Muldoon, and Chic Houston, if a laddie couldn't have a local hero out of that lot, then I don't know where they could find one. In later years I managed to get a game with the Vale, and, while I cannot remember us winning too often, I do remember the many lads in the side I played with. John Kidd, Kiddie, if you ever read this please get in touch, big John Kidd was the quietest man ever until he pulled on a jersey, then behold. Tam Housto was the afore-mentioned Chic's brother, his nickname was Tasker, but it should have been Cucumber since he was so cool. Arthur Mallan was a cracker of a player, and, while Arth was a few years younger than the rest of us, it didn't mean he was a mamby pamby job. Wee anecdotes about the rest of the lads could be added, but I will leave that to others. Archie Wood, Big Rab McMeechan, Billy Ritchie, Alex Byrne, what a cracker Alex was, if only he could have given up the racing. Beavis Morton could play goals or outside left, but either way was 100%. Harry Milne was a good player and when teamed up with Tony Oliver were quite a handful. Jan Komorowski was an excellent player who went on to better things. One way or another I will never regret or forget having played with the Vale, guaranteed, it was a scream, and, during the time I was there I met the best people any man could ever ask to meet anywhere. Old Davie and Rab Hall have passed on now to a better place, but I don't know that it's a better place than the Brig when they ran the Vale. Sanny.

---

---