RAB WITH THE LONG TIME PAL HE CALLS WARKY TO THIS DAY

Rab Hamilton wasn’t a kid picked out as a future goalkeeper of considerable  repute…anything but as you’ll discover from  reading about the path his career took …but didn’t he make a great fist of accepting what was to be his lot and moving on ?

It was hard for one to conclude otherwise after being left gobsmacked by his array of reminisces and the many anecdotes arising from them which the recently retired 65 year old (his birthday was last Thursday) readily brought to mind when we spoke at length earlier this week.

For instance, nothing beats back in the day when during one of his spells as  Beith’s No 1  he got more than he asked for when he turned to the Auchinleck Talbot supporters gathering behind his goal as he warmed up at Beechwood Park to query why they had taken to berating him with shouts of Trout! Trout! Trout!

“It had happened several times beforehand when we’d played Talbot away from home so I asked one big lad what was the reason but it’s no exaggeration to say he just doubled up laughing ,tears streaming from his eyes and  literally couldn’t speak to me.” said Rab.

“His mates had also joined in this laughing bout but maybe not quite as  uncontrollably so I asked one of them `What am I missing pal ?` and his response was to say “It’s because you’re never out of our nets whenever you play here.”

”I had to chuckle at that one myself” scoffed Hurlford born and bred Rab who as a young boy attended Hurlford Primary in the East Ayrshire village where the headmaster didn’t exactly use any great footballing awareness when it came to selecting who played where in the school football team?

Rab laughed in recalling,“ I was the biggest boy in my class so the Headie said I would be his centre half  but I headed the ball in my first game and it hurt like hell so at half time it was agreed I should go into goal and I was never ever to get out again !”

Not surprisingly his Primary team amounted to being nothing more than also-rans in the grand scheme of  things however Rab used his experiences to hone his `between the sticks` craft so much so that a burgeoning reputation preceded him and he found himself immediately ensconced as the keeper of choice upon the outset of his Secondary Education getting underway at nearby Galston based Loudoun Academy.

By far and away the undoubted silverware highlight was winning the Dunlop Trophy (on penalty kicks no less) in a Rugby Park staged Under 14’s or 15’s finale against the much bigger and more highly fancied Kilmarnock Academy and Rab’s starring role in that early years trophy success was to gain him Ayrshire Schools Select recognition  because he was duly chosen to play in a side comprising of such as Jock McNeil (later his Beith team mate) ,one time Kilmarnock winger  Davie Hynds and more famously the future Celtic and Scotland defender Roy Aitken ,back then representing St Andrews Academy near his Ardrossan home.

Further prestigious acclaim was to come in 1974 when Rab and Aitken joined forces with Davie Dodds , Jim Melrose and Marshall Burke, later  of Burnley, Leeds and Blackburn Rovers renown, in the Scotland Schoolboys Under 15’s team that lifted the Victory Shield on the back of a  4-1 Fir Park victory over their English counterparts whose ranks comprised of Senior starlets Martin Patching (Wolves) ,  Kevin Mabbutt (Crystal Palace and brother of Gary) and most notably full back Kenny Samson (Arsenal) who was to famously go on and be  capped 86 times at full international level.

Around that time, the headmaster running the Ayrshire Select (Rab cannot recall his name) was also doubling as a scout for Ayr United and he set the wheels in motion for the young Rab and  Roy along with another emerging Ayrshire youth  talent Robert Reilly to join Ayr Boswell Boys Club (later to become Ayr United Boys Club) but only the latter named was  to fall victim to Ally McLeod’s persuasive tongue and sign on the dotted line at  Somerset Park.

Aitken headed up to Glasgow and Celtic where he was to be installed as a first team regular as a teenager while the agility, bravery and shot stopping prowess shown by the young No 1 prospect culminated in a  much further afield trip for him …to Portman Road home of Ipswich Town… at the behest of their Ayrshire based Scottish scout George Findlay(father of legendary Auchinleck Talbot brothers Ross and Hughie) who managed to convince then Ipswich team boss Bobby Robson there was indeed such a thing as a goalkeeping find from Scotland?

THE YOUNG AND FULLER HAIRED RAB REPRESENTING SCOTLAND

And his judgement was to be anything but flawed as Rab made enough of an impression to duly spend the next three seasons with the Suffolk based outfit , the first couple as an apprentice before agreeing terms on a one year full time professional contract.

Some might say he had a sheltered life of it turning out for a more than decent Ipswich Reserves  side …well he did have the youthful centreback pairing of Terry Butcher and Russell Osman playing  in front of him for a time …but we’ll let Rab take up the story.

“ Scottish accents were always to be heard at Ipswich because George Burley was already a first team regular when I came on board which was coincidentally on the very same day as John Wark and we’ve  remained close friends ever since.

“A teenage Alan Brazil arrived not long afterwards to further strengthen our Reserves  before breaking into the first team, and we won the FA Youth Cup  with a 5-1 two-legged defeat of a very strong West Ham team that had big powerful centreback Alvin Martin, Alan Devonshire and Paul Brush among others playing for them.

“As you might have guessed ,the standard of players  in the South East Counties League was unbelievably high so it could be tough going most weeks and more so if like me you are a goalkeeper trying to set up a  defensive wall when someone as incredibly gifted as a young  Glen Hoddle is lining up a free kick against us.”

1978 when a 1-0 Wembley triumph over Arsenal had Ipswich Town supporters  celebrating the first and only FA Cup victory in their club’s history was paradoxically a heart-rending time for Rab ,spelling out as it did the end of his three years on the Ipswich books and  the then 19 year old remembers being called in for face-to-face talks over his future with  Bobby Robson .

RAB(4th from left standing ) IN IPSWICH TEAM PIC THAT INCLUDES JOHN WARK AND RUSSELL OSMAN “It was a great time to be at the club and I went in to meet the gaffer hoping to get another year’s extension on my contract but Bobby  was never one for sugar-coating things and cut straight to the point to reveal he was in the throes of signing another goalkeeper.” recalled Rab.

“It was not something I wanted to hear however he did try his best to offset what was clearly a hammer blow by going on to say our near neighbours Colchester United had expressed an interest in signing me.

“Their manager at the time was another Scot, the former midfielder Bobby Roberts who during his playing days had turned out for both Motherwell and Leicester City so I agreed to meet up with him and his assistant Ray Hartford to hear what they had in mind for me..

He went on  ,”Colchester’s dressing room did boast some really talented types in Trevor Lee who had previously played for Millwall as well as a forward by the name of Ian Allison ,later to sign for Arsenal and Luton Town , but going from a club of Ipswich ‘s stature in the game to Colchester down in  the English Third Division would be comparable to obtaining a transfer from Rangers to Raith Rovers so I initially hesitated over whether to go there or not..

”Realizing I didn’t have many other choices forced my hand and I made the move not thinking for a moment that Layer Road was going to be my home ground for the next four years.”

One of the many changes resulting from his switch of clubs was having to adapt to Colchester playing most of their home games on Friday nights so as not to clash with 15 miles up the road Ipswich on Saturday afternoons.

And it was on one of those horrid Friday occasions with the rain bucketing down when Rab was to pick up a goalkeeper’s worst possible  injury (a detached retina) after a woefully short passback from one of his defenders sparked a leg race that concluded with an almighty collision between goalkeeper ,defender and opposition striker which saw Rab’s face take the brunt  of the impact.

He winced in remembering, “ It was a sore one and serious enough to keep me sidelined for a number of months however  my vision was never to feel as good again even after getting the all-clear to make y comeback so my confidence took a bit of a dip and I ended up going out to play non-league with Chelmsford City for close on  six months in trying to get back to my best.

Whether he might have managed to scale the same relative heights again will forever remain an unanswered question after the start of the 1984/85 season saw Rab decide on a whim to leave Colchester, the football club and the town..

He explained ,”Colchester has long been  an Army town containing barracks for soldiers and one Sunday I was watching a parade coming through the streets  headed up by a Scottish regiment.

“Now I can never say whether it was the sight of the kilts or the sound of the pipes that caused  a huge wave of homesickness to come over me but  I do remember thinking to myself  `What am I doing here?` immediately before I phoned my Mother back in Hurlford and said ` Get my room ready I’m coming home.`

As a born and bred local  , Rab did what was expected of him in joining a struggling Hurlford United where Ward White had assumed the managerial reins and was in the process of building a team around former Hyster Amateurs players and stalwarts such as Jimmy Strawhorn.

He reminisced ,“Initially I was still having issues with my vision particularly when it came to dealing with longer range shots and my problems had been well documented in the local Ayrshire rags however  sympathy was certainly in short supply from one well known manager (we’ll keep him nameless) who before a game against Hurlford was heard telling his players to` Have a pop whenever you’re over the halfway line because this goalkeeper has tunnel vision and can see F— All `

“ A bit of an exaggeration however I did eventually undergo eye surgery to adjust my sight  and once sorted, I went on to play out  my first year back in Scotland  under Ward before agreeing to move away when Beith’s gaffer Jock Minford made a signing approach at the start of the following 1985/86 season“..

He added, “ Beith were in the Ayrshire Second Division back then however I couldn’t help but be impressed with Minford’s teambuilding skills when  I walked  into the Bellfield dressing rooms for the very first time to find players of the calibre of my old Ayrshire Select team mate Jock McNeil , Tommy Yule, Gary Russell,ex-St Mirren sweeper Ian Aitken and not forgetting the legendary Iain Balmer.

“ That outstanding  team of ours went on to be crowned Second Division champions and we were also to finish in a very creditable third top spot upon our return to the big boys playground of the First Division behind  title winners Cumnock , Auchinleck and Irvine Meadow.

“We also lost out in a couple of local Ayrshire trophy finals to Talbot and the Medda but we went from being a team on the crest of great things to one that hit the skids after Minford left (to Auchinleck I think) and the management team of Paul and Jim Clarke took over .”

A stroke of ill fortune befell both Beith and Rab when he broke his leg in a 1990 game away to Craigmark but the 32 year old was then conveniently placed as club officials dispensed with the Clarke duo and handed him the reins with the Mighty facing a crunch 5 game run-in to prevent their relegation.

Safety was subsequently assured on the back of chalking up no less than four victories so it was no real surprise when Dennis Gray assumed the hotseat during the close season and appointed Rab as his assistant manager.

Hughie Findlay, Gary Graham, goalkeeper Derek Atkins, John McLaughlin, Barry McCorriston and the wonderful forward line pairing of Billy Borthwick and Craig Shanaghey were just some of the components brought together by the Gray/Hamilton combo and the resulting outcome was the Ayrshire Cup, District Cup and Jackie Scarlett Cup finding their way into the previously dust-gathering Bellfield Park trophy cabinet.

This run of success might have persuaded Rab to remain in-situ but for the lure of getting back between the posts proving even stronger.

Rab cast his mind back, “I was either 33 or 34 when I had a chance encounter in the street with the former Ayr United and St Mirren keeper Jim Gilmour (now sadly deceased)  who was managing Whitletts Vics at the time and he said I should think seriously about making a playing comeback seeing as I was at an age when goalkeepers were coming into their prime?

“ I took his advice on board and the upshot was I started playing under him in a more than decent Whitletts side containing Ted O’Rourke, Alex Bell , Graham Roos  and others of that ilk but unfortunately the club folded after my first season when they had to relinquish their Voluntary Park ground .

“To then be told by Jim that I was one of their only saleable assets and Whitletts were planning to bring in some much needed transfer monies through selling me to Ardrossan Winton Rovers sounded a bit far-fetched but I did take up the opportunity to sign for the Winton where the former Killie playing legend  Davie McIlroy was in charge of team affairs.”

One time Rangers stopper prospect Stuart Beattie, Hugh Armstrong ex-Aberdeen full back Derek Hamilton and the acclaimed ex-Cumnock centreback duo of Peter Monan and Bobby McCulloch were among Rab’s team mates as promotion was won during a 2 years playing stint at Winton Park which was cut short after a disagreement with McIlroy coincided with his former gaffer Gray asking him to join Beith for a third time … once again as a goalkeeper.

The veteran ( now in his late 30’s) played regularly and consistently well as the Mighty agonizingly finished runners-up to Auchinleck in the First Division title race but was nonetheless surprisingly overlooked when Beith resorted to Dick Brock to fill their hotseat vacancy after Gray was enticed away in 1995 by the prospect of managing  Talbot .

Brock ‘s reign was to be a short lived one before the pairing of former Beith players Frank Lovering and George Wall arrived back on the Bellfield scene and immediately announced  ex- Dumbarton goalkeeper John White  as one of their first signing targets in what was a “writing on the wall” moment for the vastly experienced Rab.

“ Frank was a straight-talking type and made it clear I wasn’t part of his future plans so I appreciated him then granting me a free transfer in order to secure a move to Largs Thistle where John Crawford assisted by Ossie Findlay were carrying out a  rebuild forced upon them by the break-up of their 1994 Scottish Junior Cup  winning side.

“Stevie Quigg, Pat McCurdy, Jimmy Murray, Alan Rodgers and Ted O’Rourke  were still able to be called upon and ours was a good mix of experience and youth which that I’ve always believed could and should have done better in terms of results .

“As it was I was having concerns of my own, not least of all the dawning realization I was no longer the same goalkeeper I once was, so I thought it only right to walk away from Largs and make plans to have a final season playing for nothing other than enjoyment with Ardeer Thistle.

“ But neither was I wanting to let their terrific character of a manager John Evans down so I put what I felt was my heart and soul into it until one Saturday towards the end of the 1996/97 season when we suffered a 4-0 beating and I hadn’t exactly covered myself in glory.

” My Dad Joe was watching (as he always did whenever  I was playing) and as I walked of the pitch at the final whistle I threw my goalie gloves in his direction and said `Put them in the bin ?`and you could have knocked me down with a feather when  he responded with ` Aye It’s Time Big Yin`.

“Never have truer words been spoken and that was my playing career  finished s right there and then. “

The door to this long time love affair had hardly shut when another opened after a fellow Hurlford resident with a decent footballing background, Colin `Rusty` Harkness chapped his door one night and proceeded to convince Rab to assist him in reviving  the fortunes of the local Hurlford Thistle amateur outfit where he was installed as team manager.

RAB AS HE IS TODAY

The former goalkeeper took up the challenge and he derived great enjoyment from his role over  the next couple of seasons even though by his own words Thistle were nothing more than a “run of the mill” side devoid of any silverware honours.

But change was afoot in the shape of lucrative sponsorship proffered by local well-to-do Hurlford businessman Willie Hamilton whose appointment of co-managers Hughie Houston and David `Pele` Walker ably assisted by Rab worked wonders to entice top playing talents Joe Gold, Billy Mason, Keir Knapp, Paul Caddis and Michael Mullen into joining the Ayrshire Jags and the Scottish Amateur Cup was won in both 2012 and 2014(on both occasions with  Colville Park in opposition )and a further endorsement of their latter triumph came from Hurlford Thistle doing a Cup double by also getting their hands on the West of Scotland Cup.

Said a candid Rab, “ The onset of Covid brought an end to those winning ways and brought a lot of the guys to drift away and play elsewhere which in turn led to Hurlford Thistle folding and sorry to say  I don’t see the club rising from the ashes anytime soon.

“My own footballing involvement nowadays is to accompany Hughie Houston in taking in games every Saturday to scout out potential signings for Darvel whose manager Tony McInally was a team mate of Hughie’s back when they played with Heathside Amateurs.

“There’s a lot less pressure in watching from the terracings rather than the dugout or indeed from between the sticks so doing our bit this way suits us just fine if truth be told.”

FIXTURES FOR SATURDAY 18^th NOVEMBER (Kick Offs 1.30 PM unless stated): Southern Challenge Cup.Fourth Round .Beith v Rob Roy, St Cadocs v East Kilbride FC, Musselburgh Athletic v Johnstone Burgh(2.30 PM). Lugar Boswell v Tranent, Threave Rovers v Leith Athletic, Heriot Watt University v Rutherglen Glencairn (3PM), Caledonian Braves v Cumbernauld Utd (3 PM)., Shotts Bon Accord v Glenafton, Cowdenbeath v Lanark Utd (3PM), Pollok v Linlithgow Rose,Kilwinning Rangers v Albion Rovers, Largs Thistle v Ashfield,Troon v Thornton Hibs,Broxburn Athletic v Auchinleck Talbot (2.30 PM). P.D.M HUWS GRAY Premier Division.  Hurlford Utd v Cumnock,  Gartcairn v Clydebank, Arthurlie v  Darvel, Irvine Meadow v  Benburb .P.D.M HUWS GRAYFirst Division. Blantyre Vics v Maybole,Whitletts Vics v Renfrew,St Rochs  v  Kilbirnie Ladeside, Cambuslang Ranger v Drumchapel Utd, Petershill v Neilston.PDM HUWS GRAY Second Division. Glasgow Perthshire v Forth Wanderers, Yoker Athletic v Glasgow University,Vale of Clyde v Kilsyth Rangers, Ardrossan Winton Rovers v Maryhill, St Anthonys v Wishaw, ,Larkhall Thistle v Caledonian Locomotives , Muirkirk v Bonnyton Thistle. PDM HUWS GRAYThird Division. Girvan v Vale of Leven, Kilsyth Athletic v Kello Rovers, Greenock v Irvine Vics , Port Glasgow v West Park Utd, , Lesmahagow v Finnart, Bellshill Athletic v Glasgow Utd.PDM HUWS GRAYFourth Division.Knightswood v Royal Albert,  Giffnock SC v Rossvale,  Carluke Rovers v East Kilbride Thistle, St Peters v Campbeltown Pupils, BSC Glasgow v Thorn Athletic.

Regards

JIM O’DONNELL