WHAT A JOURNEY ALAN’S BEEN ON

THE MORE DAPPER McTURK OF TODAY’S VINTAGE

Never again will I turn to the definition “Much Travelled” in relation to  footballers who have been known to move around during their playing days , be it between  the Seniors and Juniors ranks or just among Ayrshire and Central clubs.

Not after hearing this week how the legendary Kilwinning Rangers midfielder Alan McTurk played across no fewer than three continents during his undeniably chequered career???

His travels…some homebirds might say travails… got underway a few years on from his birth in the Queen Mother’s Hospital in Glasgow when Alan’s parents,  up until then residing in Drumchapel,,  firstly relocated to Cumbernauld prior to moving down to Ayrshire climes, Kilwinning to be precise, when he was aged 10.

He attended Kilwinning Academy where recognition of his emerging  footballing talents came from being picked for not one but two fairly average school teams on account of the rules pertaining to his date of birth qualifying him to play at both Under 13 and Under 14 level ?

Davie Burns, later of Ardeer Recreation and Saltcoats Vics (Alan thinks) was one of his more notable team mates and they both also teamed up together with Ardeer Rec Boys Club ,managed by the enthusiastic duo of Alex McGuire and Gerry Boyle, whose pairing Alan in a striking partnership  alongside the 6 foot plus Ian McManus helped to  derive local trophy success for a side he recalls as also containing  Jim West, Stevie Grimley, Martin Greenlees and goalkeeper Barry McGuire( son of Alex).

The nowadays 52 year old  reflected ,”Senior football can be cruel to youngsters as I found to my cost from taking three rapid kicks to the teeth starting when I was aged  12, and invited up to Rangers .

“Jock Wallace was first team manager at a time when you couldn’t be registered on an  S form until you were 13 but nevertheless I  took part in games involving the likes of Gary McSwegan and John Spencer though without ever receiving a signing offer and a change of manager didn‘t improve my situation one iota so I eventually drifted away and resorted to training at Rugby Park alongside Kilmarnock’s youth  prospects..

“Killie’s  interest then waned after an Ayrshire paper carried a  false story that I had agreed to join  St Mirren and I was so sickened at my rejection by all three Senior clubs that I quit the game altogether  until Jimmy Lyndsay , a friend of my Dad’s , talked me into signing for the Dirrans Thistle team he managed  in the Ayrshire amateurs “ 

The then 18 year old excelled with Dirrans and at the same time also caught the eye in forming a forward line trio with Gordon Smith and Jamie Weir in a  New Penny pub team , run by Donald McIver (known to one and all as Old Pip) who was forever turning down signing approaches from Ayrshire Junior clubs for  his teenage protégé , in the belief Alan was someone destined for greater things…as he was.

One time Ipswich Town and Scotland internationalist George Burley snapped him up for Ayr United in 1990 and Alan entered a Somerset Park dressing room inhabited by worthies Cammy Duncan, Ally Graham, Tommy Bryce,Ian McAllister, Paul McLean and Duncan George among others .

He recalled “ Looking back now, my signing as a part-timer was a mistake because George and his No 2 Dale Roberts were always stressing the importance of  fitness at our level even though I still  managed to make my first team debut in a 7-0 victory over Meadowbank Thistle (before you ask I never scored).

“ I got plenty of game time thereafter  and George would habitually pick me out for a `well done` comment when giving his post -match team talks ,something that didn’t escape the notice of the other players as I found out when some wag scored out my name and ink-marked WELL DONE against  my squad number on the dressing room board.

“Things were looking even more promising when I went full time at the start of my second season at George’s behest but unfortunately I was never fully fit after picking up an early season shin splints injury which necessitated me walking in the sea at Ayr Beach for 20 minutes after each and every training session just to keep the swelling under control.

“My first team outings were severely restricted as a result and it was a massive disappointment to then not even make it into our squad at Fir Park when Ayr lost 1-0 against Hamilton Accies in the B & Q Cup Final .”

His third and final season as an Ayr United player was marked by a fall out with Burley during a game against St Mirren which caused obvious ructions between them however Alan was still not prepared for the damning matter of factness manner in which the team boss informed  him that his contract would not be renewed while at the same time pointing out both Stirling Albion and Stenhousemuir had expressed signing interest.

He duly played a couple of games for the  Terry Christie and Tom Hendrie managed Stenny  and they were decidedly keen on  bringing  him to Ochilview  but at the eleventh hour Kilwinning Rangers gaffer Jim McSherry made Alan a lucrative signing offer he felt was too good to turn down so he threw in his lot with a Buffs squad made up by the seasoned likes of Ian Jardine, Colin Meldrum, Danny Sloan , Alan McLuckie, Kenny Wilson , John Philips, Jim Cockburn, Bobby Dickson and Gerry Peline.

ALAN IN HIS KILWINNING RANGERS GARB

Alan takes up the story, “ Ours was a cracking side that went all the way to the Scottish Junior Cup semi-finals where we were drawn to face  Largs Thistle  at my old Somerset Park stomping ground and I was raring to go until  McSherry sprung a surprise by leaving  me out of his team …I wasn’t even named on the bench… and we lost 2-1 to the eventual trophy winners.

“To say I was gobsmacked at hearing our team read out would be putting it mildly however I didn’t make any fuss but just got to my feet , wished the guys all the best and walked out of our dressing room.

“It’s not for me to say McSherry knew he got it wrong but I was restored to our starting line-up for our next game and for every other game until the end of that memorable 1993/94 season inclusive of our 2-0 West of Scotland Cup Final victory over Shettleston.”

His mixed bag of experiences in that inaugural ten months stint at Abbey Park ensured Alan was in  an openly receptive mood when he and wife Gillian made a pre-arranged close season visit to Australia with the aim of forging a footballing future for himself  on the other side of the world.

The end of his full time status at Ayr United had seen him revert to his former trade as a welder and one of his workmates , Pat Gribben had a number of   footballing contacts tin Western Australia which he used to arrange meetings for Alan with four of the state’s leading clubs …Perth Italia ,  Floreat Athena , Inglewood Kiev and Stirling Macedonia.

The playing ace reminisced, “ All four clubs possessed  wonderful set-ups but I chose to put pen to paper for Inglewood whose team manager Eddie Hodgkinson , President Ziggy Kramer and Secretary George ???( a Partick Thistle supporter) afforded us the warmest welcome.

“Myself and another emigrant Stuart Jewson who had signed at the same time  hit the ground running with Inglewood and did our bit to help the  club  go joint top of the table for a while , a  position they hadn’t reached since England’s World Cup winning captain Bobby Moore  played for them.

“Come the end of that first season I stuck by Inglewood despite a number of transfer offers  from rival clubs however I did put myself through the rigmarole of obtaining a Sports Visa in order to take up an offer to represent our state team Western Australia in the 1995 Marah Haslim Cup tournament being played in Indonesia.

“ We came up against teams from the J League in Japan where  playing standards were  very high as you might have expected seeing as they boasted players of the calibre of Stan Lazaridis (later of West Ham)and the famous Cameroon internationalist striker Roger Milla . “

Back playing with Inglewood, Alan continued to score freely (he once netted in 8 consecutive outings) making him a near ever-present in their line-ups which had the downside of him needing surgery to both his groins at the end of the season .

Returning to Scotland as part of his recuperation, he remembers being contacted by the former Everton centreback Mick Lyons, then coach of newly founded Aussie outfit Canberra Cosmos,  who was prepared to table a lucrative three year playing contract with the added bonus of a job for Gillian if Alan agreed on a move to Australia’s capital city..

It was a sorely tempting offer and Alan was similarly in demand at well-to-do Perth Glory whom a number of his Western Australia team mates had opted to join however his ongoing injury situation caused him to turn down both clubs in the end-up,

He recounted, “I was never fit enough to go back out to Australia that season  as borne out by the fact I only managed to play two games in the whole of 1996, one for  Dalry Thistle where my close friend Sammy McGivern was manager and another with Ayr United Reserves .

ALAN WAS ON EVERY MAGAZINE COVER IN JURONG

“My fitness did improve but I was at something of a career crossroads until taking a phone call from the former Aberdeen and Morton winger Jimmy Pearson who had latterly been my manager at Inglewood.

“Jimmy had taken over as team boss of Jurong Town in Singapore and asked if I and any other Scottish players would consider playing out there so I put an advert in the Daily Record and within a matter of weeks, myself and a couple of Junior players Scott Walker and Jamie Ainsley had signed contracts and were on a plane heading East.

”It was a truly fantastic experience and the former Wimbledon player Gary Blissett setting me up with a  personal sponsorship deal from Nike was by far and away the icing on the cake however I was only to stay with Jurong for the one season..”

His wife Gillian remaining in Scotland to give birth to their first child Elle was the factor that prompted Alan’s return to these shores where he entered into somewhat bizarre signing talks with a cash-strapped Brighton side , keen to give him the opportunity to impress with a month’s trial down on the South coast  …but only if he paid his own way ?

Needless to say Alan knocked back this `offer of sorts` however he was far more amenable to the terms resulting from signing talks held with former Kilwinning Rangers team mate Bobby Dickson who had taken up the Abbey Park managerial reins from erstwhile gaffer McSherry.

1997/98 Ayrshire Cup and North Ayrshire Cup triumphs in his first season on the Buffs books were nothing more than tasters for the mother lode of silverware trophies accumulated at the end of the following season by Alan and  team mates Jim Duffy, Tommy Sloan , Colin Harkness, Stevie Farrell, Gerry`Pele`Peline ,Tom Currie , Mark Cameron , Alan McLuckie, Norman Montgomery  and Paul Mullen to name but some,

“Winning six of the seven prizes on offer to us ,inclusive of the Scottish  and West of Scotland Cups along with the Ayrshire First Division title remains  a record to this day and it was always going to be downhill from there even though we did retain our league title the following season along with a couple of local Ayrshire trophies ” admitted Alan before adding “And due recognition of our achievements came from a number of our players , Tom Currie, Stevie Farrell and myself being selected for the Scotland Juniors squad that took part in the Quadrangular Tournament played in the Isle of Man.

KILWINNING CELEBRATE THEIR 1999 CUP WIN OVE KELTY HEARTS (Alan is 4th from left kneeling)

He went on, “Through time, various players came and went as did team managers but I stayed the course for all of seven years until Mark Shanks took up the top job and said he was putting me on the open to transfer list but unfortunately for him the club made a complete hash of their retention paperwork which resulted in the entire playing squad ,myself included receiving free transfers.”

The 35 year old was allegedly on the brink of joining the Bobby Crilly led Cumnock but instead signed on the dotted line for a Troon side comprising of ex-Kilwinning team mate Duffy and former Ayrshire adversaries such as Billy Mason, Adam Strain , Gareth Turner and  Jamie Haswell that tore up the form book in lifting the West of Scotland Cup with an epic  4-3 defeat of Arthurlie in a Newlandsfield staged finale .

Chris Strain, the manager whose persuasive tongue brought him to Portland Park, had departed prior to the showpiece occasion in order to take up the reins at Irvine Meadow and Alan was not long in following suit as part of a  major team rebuild bringing him and others of the ilk of Paul Kerr, Joe Gold, Craig Baxter, Richie Newall, Jimmy Noble and Charlie Adams to Meadow Park .

Alan thought back, “That squad was too strong and powerful for most of our rivals and we won a haul of four trophies however pride of place must surely go to our Superleague First Division title success which saw us finish undefeated from our entire league programme of 20 games(19 wins and one draw).

“That said ,our crowning glory could and should have been the Scottish Junior Cup but  for the double whammy of me pulling a hamstring during our warm-up ahead of our semi-final tilt with Bathgate Thistle and then Gareth Turner getting his marching orders to leave us soldiering on with ten men in a game we lost on  a 2-1 scoreline..

Alan continued by revealing, “After that calamity, Chris  made it clear he seen my role as a part of his coaching team going forward but I still felt capable of playing at a decent level therefore I jumped at the opportunity presented by Kilwinning Rangers Chairman Alan McLuckie asking me to go back as team manager in 2006.

“Appointing the very knowledgeable Ian Jardine as my No 2 was a masterstroke not least because we came to an agreement that I would speak with the players before every game but would stay stum and leave the half time talking to Ian whenever we’d picked myself as a starter.

“Our methods worked a treat  in bringing out the best in Derek McCulloch, Rod Lennox, John Traynor, Brian Johnstone, George Wallace ,Gavin Orr and the fantastic Keith Ross to name but a few, and  for the second successive season I found myself in the Junior Cup semi-finals but yet again luck deserted me as Kelty Hearts avenged their 1999 Final defeat by running out 3-0 winners .

A couple of  arguably greater hammer blows  occurred when  McLuckie stepping down from his post as Buffs Chairman coincided with Doctors informing Alan that the long-standing knee damage he had previously been told could be put right by cruciate ligament surgery was going to require a  full knee reconstruction .

He reflected,   The realization that I would never play again brought me to turn my back on Kilwinning for a third and final time in 2008.

“ Alan McLuckie had moved on to Cumnock where his son Brian was team manager and I took to being his assistant for a year and a bit however I just couldn’t commit myself for the long term so I called it a day in fairness to him and his Dad. “

Alan , Gillian and family, boosted by the 2006 addition of  son Alfie, went out to Australia on holiday where he met up with many former teammates  who were  then competing in the Seniors World Cup taking place in Thailand which they delighted in pointing out was totally devoid of any Scottish involvement.

They scoffed at Alan insisting he could put together a Scotland team capable of winning a competition particularly as Germany had come up short despite fielding no fewer than  three former World Cup winners in their side but word of his claims soon reached the organizers’ ears and they duly invited Alan and close friend Paul Donnelly, formerly of Partick Thistle,  to come back out as their guests when the following season’s tournament was being staged.

The duo were blown away by the Seniors footballing phenomenon as well as  from discovering proceeds from the competition were destined for the Thailand Tsunami Fund so upon returning to these shores, they  began the process of accumulating a  squad of interested players , initially from the amateur, Junior and Ex-Pats ranks so their first venture in 2011 was anything but a resounding success.

But ever since , Alan and Paul have worked tirelessly to strength the Scottish  line-up  and the likes of Colin Cameron (ex-Hearts), Barry Wilson (Inverness Caley) Gary Holt (Kilmarnock ,John Carnforth (Stranraer), Graeme Robertson (Ayr United ) and Marvin Andrews (nobody has been willing to come forward to dispute his claim of having a Scottish granny) are among those to have worn the dark blue jersey with no little distinction.

ALAN DRUMMING UP SUPPORT FOR THE SENIORS WORLD CUP

Such has been the overall improvement in playing standards that the McTurk managed Scotland made it all the way to the Cup Final in 2013 only to lose out on penalty kicks (after a 3-3 draw) to an England team composed of no less than six players boasting Premier League experience.

Sadly, both Alan and Gillian have been dogged with ill-health in recent times which has diluted his hands-on involvement however he remains ever hopeful of helping to form a Committee to take a Scotland team out this season’s Over 50’s Masters Competition .

And so say all of us Alan though we’d much prefer if you could carry on your own good work.?

FIXTURES FOR SATURDAY 30^th SEPTEMBER (Kick Offs 2 PM unless stated):P.D.M HUWS GRAY Premier Division.  Largs Thistle v Glenafton, Hurlford Utd v Rob Roy, Gartcairn v Darvel, St Cadocs v Beith, Cumnock v Benburb, Pollok v  Troon, Arthurlie v Clydebank, Auchinleck Talbot v  Irvine Meadow.P.D.M HUWS GRAYFirst Division. Ashfield v Johnstone Burgh,  Petershill v  Drumchapel Utd (Friday 7.45PM), St Rochs v Neilston, Thorniewood Utd v Kilwinning Rangers, Blantyre Vics v Cambuslang Rangers  Shotts Bon Accord v Maybole, Kilbirnie Ladeside v Rutherglen Glencairn. PDM HUWS GRAY Second Division. Glasgow Perthshire v Muirkirk, Craigmark v Maryhill, Yoker Athletic v Bonnyton Thistle, Glasgow University v Larkhall Thistle(Friday 8PM) , Forth Wanderers v Caledonian Locomotive,  Cumbernauld Utd v Vale of Clyde, St Anthonys v Kilsyth Rangers, Bonnyton Thistle, Wishaw v  Ardrossan Winton Rovers. PDM HUWS GRAYThird Division. Ardeer Thistle v Girvan, Dalry Thistle v Bellshill Athletic, Kello Rovers v Vale of Leven, West Park Utd v Greenock, Threave Rovers v  Irvine Vics, Dalry Thistle v  Kilsyth Athletic v Glasgow Utd, Port Glasgow v Lesmahagow, Lanark Utd v Finnart. PDM HUWS GRAYFourth Division. Royal Albert v BSC Glasgow, Campbeltown Pupils  v Lugar Boswell, Carluke Rovers v Glenvale, East Kilbride Thistle v Giffnock, St Peters v Rossvale, Eglinton v Saltcoats Vics, Knightswood v Thorn Athletic, Newmains Utd v Easterhouse,

Regards   Jim O’Donnell

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