West of Scotland F.C.

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West of Scotland
Full name West of Scotland Football Club
Founded 1865
Location Milngavie, Scotland
Ground(s) Burnbrae (Capacity: 2,500)
President John Cameron
Coach(es) Scotland Andrew Douglas
Captain(s) Scotland Jamie McAulay
League(s) National League 3
Team kit
Official website
westofscotlandfc.co.uk
West of Scotland FC (in red and yellow) scrum

West of Scotland Football Club are a Scottish Rugby Union club from Milngavie, just outside Glasgow. They are one of the oldest clubs in the world and a founding member of the Scottish Rugby Union.

History

Formed in 1865, West of Scotland played a founding role in establishing international rugby in Scotland, and have provided a number of SRU presidents and players. The club originated at Hamilton Crescent in Partick, Glasgow as an offshoot of the Cricket Club. The bye laws of West of Scotland Football Club were agreed on 15 October 1865.

In 1867, they played their first game against another club, Edinburgh Academicals, in a fixture that is one of the earliest rugby football matches in the world. In 1872 the formation of the Scottish Rugby Union took place at a meeting at Glasgow Academy on Elmbank Street, and the first members were Edinburgh Academicals, West of Scotland, Royal High School FP, Glasgow Academicals, Merchistonians, Glasgow University, St Andrews University and Edinburgh University.

West have played in red and yellow coloured strips since 1871, which the then local football club Partick Thistle decided to copy in the 1930s when they also switched from dark blue strips.

In 1952 after some 15 years without a home they moved to Burnbrae in Milngavie. They were an open club and able to attract new players into the area as any others were closed to Former Pupils (FP's) until the 1990s. West of Scotland played in Premiership Division One having won promotion from Premiership Division Two in 2008, having only been promoted from Premiership Division Three the previous season. They will play in Premiership Division Two in season 2011–12 following relegation at the end of the 2010–11 season.

It was on Saturday 29 March 2008 that West secured their promotion from Premiership Division Two as champions. The 2nd XV and 3rd XV teams also won their leagues, making 2007–08 a historic season for the club. After restructuring, the club now play in Championship League A (West), the 3rd tier of Scotland club rugby.

In August 2014, work started on a new Waitrose supermarket, on land purchased from the club. West of Scotland received a new state of the art artificial all-weather pitch from this deal. [1] The supermarket was opened in June 2015, with the new pitch being completed and opened soon after.

Distinguished Past Players

AH Robertson, who played in the first ever international, 1871 was the first WSFC cap;[2] between 1871 and 1914, the club provided over 42 players to the national side.[2] Since then, many other player from the club have played at Scotland national rugby union team international and as Lions including:

One player Lionel Weston was capped for England.[4]

Bibliography

  • Bath, Richard (ed.) The Scotland Rugby Miscellany (Vision Sports Publishing Ltd, 2007 ISBN 1-905326-24-6)
  • Godwin, Terry Complete Who's Who of International Rugby (Cassell, 1987, ISBN 0-7137-1838-2)
  • Jones, J.R. Encyclopedia of Rugby Union Football (Robert Hale, London, 1976 ISBN 0-7091-5394-5)
  • Massie, Allan A Portrait of Scottish Rugby (Polygon, Edinburgh; ISBN 0-904919-84-6)

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Jones, p170
  3. ↑ Godwin, p363
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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